I am learning on the fly - but being very vigilant about testing - to the point I just ordered two additional sets of hanna testing solutions/kits for alk/calc and a magnesium testing kit (which I'm not testing for right now). I am keeping a log for all parameters in my tank.
I am testing alk multiple times a day - still within parameters. All of my posts prior to this have been from the phone, so the details were sparse. I will expand on my current setup:
First, the demand for calc/alk in my tank is going to be minimal - I have some fresh coral frags in there now, but they're all very small.
I purchased the following:
SRO CR3000D 7" Calcium Reactor - Reef Octopus
FX-STP WiFi Peristaltic Continuous Duty Dosing Pump - Kamoer
CarbonDoser Electronic CO2 Regulator with John Guest Fitting - AquariumPlants
Milwaukee MC122 pH Controller
CaRx Calcium Media (22lbs) - Triton
The media is the problem with my low ph - It clearly states on the details portion that recommended ph to burn the media is 6 - 6.2 with a review stating that they had to go down to 6. It's not ideal and I'll replace it with some Two Fishies Reborn when I go through this bag (maybe even before).
Again - I'm learning on the fly, but the setup I was trying to go for was to use the CarbonDoser to get it to the correct ph and basically shut down - to keep it at that ph... which is what I did. It got to 6 and appeared to be working. I think the problem is that I was so nervous about destroying my tank that is put the drip to 1.5 ml per minute ... VERY slow. I've been testing the parameters of the effluent constantly (hence the need for more testing solutions) and it's always been at around 450 calc and 14 dKH which is slightly more than what I need, but I was expecting the effluent to be closer to 40 dKH - not 14. So I turned up my drip to ~5 ml per minute and the dKH started to rise in the effluent - which leads me to think that it's not just ph that controls the burn, but the constant introduction of CO2 along with the ph - it's closer to to 19 dKH right now. I've slowed the drip down a bit and decreased the pressure of my CO2 so that they're more inline with one another - so it takes a bit longer to hit my desired ph. I'll work on the balance over the next week to ensure that I'm not spiking my tank - no matter what I do incorrectly with the reactor.
Thoughts?