Help with crashing system

[Adam]

@saltwaterwannabe Have you checked the venturi to be sure there's no debris or partial blockage near the air hole. If there's a restriction in there you'll still get bubbles but it will pull more water than it should and run high. When I had the 5000 the air hole would crust up over time and it would run high on me.

With the reduced bioload you could also just shut down the skimmer when the lights come on. That might help the system hold more co2 to keep the pH from getting so high.

 

[ichthyoid]

Rinse the skimmer riser in vinegar and pour all vinegar off/out. Then re-install in the sump. That should help beak-in.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Thanks, I will try both. It has been at least a few months since cleaning the skimmer thoutlroughly. The skimmer is set to shutofff when the pH reaches 8.4 or when the ato runs for more than 30 mins until it is topped off again.

Side note: The refill takes a few hours, so the skimmer is running about 10 minutes every few hours. I also add salt water via the 2nd side of my Dos when the ato runs more than 30 mins. While not 100% precise, my salinity only fluxuates by 0.01 on the worst of days.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Skimmer started operating close to normal a couple of days ago, now I have to start fine tuning it.

The pH seems to have stabilized after disconnecting the external air supply to my skimmer. The C02 in the house appears to be enough to stabilize the pH.

Everything is looking healthy!

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Everything still looking good but the pH is still rising a bit much. Not entirely sure I like my temporary solution. Yep, that is a dosing line in vinegar. I am pretty sure this is not the best idea long term. There is more info below. Anyone see any immediate dangers?




Here is my ph chart for the past few days. The vertical drops are when I dose vinegar by hand, which happens to be in the same sump chamber as the probe. The slow drops are generally when the lights shut off, which is forced when the pH reaches 8.4.



The code below would dose 300 ml a day if ithe pH was always over 8.39, which is less than I am dosing by handn which I can increase as needed after seeing how it does.

Fallback OFF
tdata 00:00:00,1,21,0,23,2,148,130,0,33,2,28,11,0
If pH1 < 8.39 Then OFF
If Output BigPmp_2_4 = OFF Then OFF

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Well, that was not enough vinegar to push the ph spike down. I added a vinegarspike outlet...

Set OFF
If Output HighPh_Flag = ON Then ON
OSC 000:00/000:15/000:45 Then ON
If Output HighPh_Flag = OFF Then OFF
if ph < 8.3 then of

 

[zoajohn]

Did the Dino’s end up clearing as well?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Yep, tank is absolutely pristine clean.

 

[ZapataInc]

Man I'm glad things are turning around for you!

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Thanks! I will go back to my build thread once my pH has levelled out. I still do mot understand why mu Ph is so much higher than it used to be.