Magical Kalk Adventures

[niftyjosh]

Had to start using Kalk seeing as my PH started dropping to ~7.7ish at night.

I'm looking to see if I have missed anything in the set up.

It's being dosed via my double float switch ATO from a air tight container.

Dumping directly into skimmer section of sump to collect precipitated phosphates.

Small pump in Kalk container mixes it 4x a day for 15 mins at a time.

Reefkeeper set to stop ATO if PH rises to 8.3.

I've already seen improvement as my PH was 7.98 at 4am.

 

[Jocko]

Hmm... careful not to adjust things too quickly.

 

[JohnK]

You don't need it to be mixed that often, once a day is more than enough.

What is your alk at? How are you measuring the PH?
If you have low PH it's because of low alk and or high Co2 levels. It's also quite common for a PH probe to wander out of calibration and give somewhat high or low readings. I'd suggest checking on these things before getting too into chasing the PH numbers with kalk dosing. Not that kalk dosing is bad, but you may not actually have a problem in the first place.

 

[niftyjosh]

Alk is 7.5 during the day and rises to 8 overnight.

PH is measured by a probe calibrated monthly. I found I had low PH during the last calibration and even purchased another set of fluids from a different maker to rule out a bad batch. The previous calibration read 8.1 daytime and 7.9 at night which was in my comfort zone but was obviously wrong.

Co2 from my Ca reactor is to blame.

After some reading, low PH would also explain the browning of a few more sensitive sps in the tank.

 

[JohnK]

Is your house closed up tight? Have you tried opening a bunch of windows?

 

[niftyjosh]

Tank is in the basement, but I had all 3 windows open for ~14 hours the last 4 days. Also ran an airline from my skimmer outside but still peaked shy of 8.1.

 

[JohnK]

Huh, Yea, I guess it's probably the Ca reactor. Good time for a kalk drip

 

[niftyjosh]

Got home from work and Ph was 8.03 and sump was low.

Figures I made the "airtight" container too airtight and it pulled a vacuum not letting the pump pull any water. Made a pinhead vacuum break hole and all was well. Only let the Kalk pump for a minute and topped the rest off with RO as not to raise Ph too quickly.

 

[JohnK]

I wouldn't worry too much about the container being air tight. It is true that there will be some interaction/precipitate due to the Co2 in the air, but it's minimal. It's not uncommon for people to mix up a garbage barrel full of kalk (mixed just once) and then using that to dose their tank(s) for weeks.

What are you using for the pump? Have you triple ckecked that it can't start to siphion when the power is off? Gotta be careful with that kalk....

The irony is that with the kalk drip you'll probably be able to dial the Ca reactor back a bit at which point you probably won't have the low PH issue in the first place

 

[niftyjosh]

Using an aqua lifter to dose. It's set above tank and container to avoid a syphon.

Already had to drop my bubbles a bit to compensate.

Its amazing the polyp extension I'm getting with a ph that's not in the danger zone....lol