mchippo July 19, 2009 July 19, 2009 I run my water top-off system as follows... -RODI water through an Aqua Medic Dosing Pump through Deltec Kalk Reactor into sump -System runs from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. and replaces 3 to 4 gallons of water I lose every day through evaporation After reviewing my AC III data logs, I have noticed my pH drops from the mid 8 range down to about 6 during the period I run the top-off system. pH starts to drop @ 1 a.m., bottoms out about 4 a.m. and climbs back to mid 8 range by 7 a.m. Last nights cycle was as follows: 1 a.m. - 8.5 2 a.m. - 6.1 6 a.m. - 6.2 7 a.m. - 8.5 My question for the group...Is this pH swing causing stress or harm to my tank inhabitants...or is this nothing to worry about? If a concern, how could I stabilize the pH swing? Thanks for you ideas....Dave
mchippo July 19, 2009 Author July 19, 2009 How close to the effluent is the probe? The prob is at the opposite end of the sump...6 feet.
Boret July 19, 2009 July 19, 2009 I would be very concerned. That is too much of a swing. You should see already its effects in the tank. If you don't then there is something wrong with the probe. When was the last time you calibrated it. It should be the other way around though. If you are dosing Kalk saturated water you should see an increase in pH. At night, the pH lowers, that is one of the reason to dose at night time, to increase pH and thus balance it. Calcium reactor effluent would be around that number of 6.5 pH, but kalk saturated water should be around 11-12 pH. Can you measure your kalk saturated top off water and find out the pH? My pH goes from 8.09 at night to 8.22 during the day. I have an air stone in the sump to bring oxygen and keep the pH more stable.
mchippo July 19, 2009 Author July 19, 2009 I would be very concerned. That is too much of a swing. You should see already its effects in the tank. If you don't then there is something wrong with the probe. When was the last time you calibrated it. It should be the other way around though. If you are dosing Kalk saturated water you should see an increase in pH. At night, the pH lowers, that is one of the reason to dose at night time, to increase pH and thus balance it. Calcium reactor effluent would be around that number of 6.5 pH, but kalk saturated water should be around 11-12 pH. Can you measure your kalk saturated top off water and find out the pH? My pH goes from 8.09 at night to 8.22 during the day. I have an air stone in the sump to bring oxygen and keep the pH more stable. Thanks Boret...Ya know, I was thinking the same thing...the swing should be the other way. Hmmmm. I have not calibrated the Probe in a while. I will try that. Testing with Salifert shows my pH to be stable @ 8.5'ish no matter when I test. Defective Probe is a possibility....
dandy7200 July 20, 2009 July 20, 2009 Do you have any equipment that turns on during that time of day? Refugium lights etc? Sounds like electrical interference to me. I think I would stay up one night (actually thats early evening for me) and watch the ph. When the probe says it's in the 6's I would do a manual ph water test to verify. Actually I would be pretty confident in saying there is no possible way your ph is going to hit in the low 6's every night for 4 hours and not wake up to the smell of death. Computer error for sure, just need to figure out what is causing it.
lanman July 20, 2009 July 20, 2009 Agree.. unless you have fish and corals from Mars that like a little acid dip every night. Okay - it's not THAT bad. Pure vinegar is about 2.4. bob
Almon July 20, 2009 July 20, 2009 Clearly an erroneous value. If you tank pH was 6.2, your fish would be floating. A normal pH swing would be .2 or .4, but not 2.
DJBoy98 July 20, 2009 July 20, 2009 Yes. Recalibrate your PH Probes every 6 months. I just did my after 10 months and the difference was .2!
Origami July 20, 2009 July 20, 2009 Something's amiss here. Adding saturated kalkwasser to your tank should not lower, but should raise your pH. The pH of saturated kalkwasser should be over 12. Try measuring it in your system. How often do you replace the kalkwasser powder in your kalk stirrer? Also, a pH in the 6's is unreasonable. Things would die and melt if this were sustained.
Boret July 20, 2009 July 20, 2009 BRS has generic pH probes that work well. I always have an extra one just in case the one I am using decides to go nuts. You shouldn't see that huge swing, as everyone stated, that level of acidity will kill your livestock. I finally have a fairly stable temp and pH. This is a chart of the last 14 days: I use a Kalk reactor through my Auto Top Off and a Calcium reactor. When my pH starts getting low (~8.05) I know I need to add kalk to the reactor. Lately I have to add kalk more often. With close to 200 gal I have more evaporation and I use up the kalk faster. I might have to look into a bigger unit (I am using the small GSA one) As you can see from the chart I added Kalk to the reactor on the 7th, then I had to add more a week later, on the 14th and I just added half a cup today.
flowerseller July 20, 2009 July 20, 2009 IMO, you should have to add fresh kalk weekly anyway since it's safer and you keep it fresh. It only goes back into solution so many times before it's not a potent. Not a problem, also MO, if you use a smaller kalk reactor. You just have to add kalk more often, which again is nothing to be concerned about and actually best.
Boret July 22, 2009 July 22, 2009 My only concern with that Chip is the fact that I need the tank to be almost fully automatic (self sustained), sometimes for 2-3 weeks at a time. I travel for work often and I don't want to add replenishing the kalk reactor to the list of tank maintenance tasks I already leave my wife every time I travel. I guess I will have to have a WAMAS member babysit the tank if I go on vacation for 2 or 3 weeks. If one of the tasks includes adding kalk i think it is not something anyone can do reliably.
mchippo July 22, 2009 Author July 22, 2009 Do you have any equipment that turns on during that time of day? Refugium lights etc? Sounds like electrical interference to me. I think I would stay up one night (actually thats early evening for me) and watch the ph. When the probe says it's in the 6's I would do a manual ph water test to verify. Actually I would be pretty confident in saying there is no possible way your ph is going to hit in the low 6's every night for 4 hours and not wake up to the smell of death. Computer error for sure, just need to figure out what is causing it. The equipment that turns on is the dosing pump.
mchippo July 22, 2009 Author July 22, 2009 Yes. Recalibrate your PH Probes every 6 months. I just did my after 10 months and the difference was .2! I just re-calibrated. I will see what the reading says...after a bit. The prob was off by .28 in the 7 solution and .5 in the 10 solution.
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