PH issues, sorta!

[flyingarmy]

I am perplexed!

I recently added a Nielson Kalk Reactor and have it controlled by my Octopus 3000. I have the PH set point at 8.4 and the range +/- .20. In the afternoons the PH gets up to 8.7ish and then drops to around 8.1 at night. I am running a reverse cycle fuge that I would have hoped to keep the PH stable at night. I can't seem to get my Nielson Reactor and PH controller to work right to keep the PH constant. Does anyone use CO2 dosing to lower PH? I would have thought my Calcium Reactor effluent would keep the PH down but something is just not right. Anyone have any suggestions/ideas to help keep the PH stable? Thanks in advance!

[Barbara]

You people with high PH kill me!!!!!! I can't keep mine up to 8.0, much less higher. I wish I had your problem.

[glxtrix]

I'd rather have lower pH...those high fluxations aren't good at all for the corals. Mark you have a second chamber on your ca reactor right? Test your ALK from your ca reactor. That will mess up pH if it's too high or low. Mine was bouncing all over till I got the reactor dialed in. Now my pH is roughly 8.2-8.4

[flyingarmy]

What would be causing the ALK to be too high or too low? The CO2 is controller by a PH controller and stays between 6.3-6.7 in the reactor.

[purpleGORILLA]

How are you using the Nielson to dose into the tank? Are you using it as top off? What kind of pump are you using it with?

[flyingarmy]

My top off is seperate. The Nielson is controlled by my Octpus 3000 controller and it's fed by a Aqualifter. It doses for 2 minutes and cycles every 15 minutes if needed. The flow is barley a quick drip.

[glxtrix]

IMO 6.3 in your reactor with the small media is too low. Be careful that stuff doesn't melt to mush on you. Mine stay between 6.6-6.7 and seems to be doing great.

[purpleGORILLA]

I dunno. I would put the tube from the reactor into a 5 gallon and test to see the volume after 1-2 hour to confirm that it is not over dosing. But yeah, with a pH that high, that can only come from the Kalkwasser.

On the other hand, might want to recalibrate your pH or at least get a second pH meter.

[flyingarmy]

Originally Posted by purpleGORILLA

I dunno. I would put the tube from the reactor into a 5 gallon and test to see the volume after 1-2 hour to confirm that it is not over dosing. But yeah, with a pH that high, that can only come from the Kalkwasser.

On the other hand, might want to recalibrate your pH or at least get a second pH meter.

I might need to check the effluent again and check the PH coming out of the Nielson. Thanks!

[glxtrix]

where is your probe in relation to where the effluent of the kalk is coming out? The effluent will be anywhere from 10-13 and if the probe is too close to that area, it can give an off reading. try throwing your probe up in your disp for a few seconds to get a reading from there to see if it's different.

[flyingarmy]

Originally Posted by glxtrix

where is your probe in relation to where the effluent of the kalk is coming out? The effluent will be anywhere from 10-13 and if the probe is too close to that area, it can give an off reading. try throwing your probe up in your disp for a few seconds to get a reading from there to see if it's different.

That's a great idea Lee. I might even try it in the frag tank since it's sorta last on the system.

[glxtrix]

That would be a great place to check. Hopefully it's reading different and things are on point.

[George]

Originally Posted by glxtrix

where is your probe in relation to where the effluent of the kalk is coming out? The effluent will be anywhere from 10-13 and if the probe is too close to that area, it can give an off reading. try throwing your probe up in your disp for a few seconds to get a reading from there to see if it's different.

+1. When I was doing Kalk dosing, my pH would spike up nicely on my probe that was in the sump with the reactor. If you're giving the water in the pump good dwell time with the skimmer, the trade-off is that reactor effluents linger around to affect the pH more.

[kwl1763]

Also keepoing your alk a liitle higher then normal like 10-12 dk will help. Also have your controller only dose kalk at night. More specifically a few hours after lights on to lights on. If that still doesn't help consider running your calcium reactor during lights on only.

Honestly it's probably more a probe issue as pointed out above. That's a massive swing!