Dosing & levels?

[Awibrandy]

OK, now that I have the PH up to 8.02, the alk is crazy high. Alk is over 16dkh. Used up all of the chemical in the syringe, and it never changed colors!:bigeyes: Did the test twice with the same results.

Pars:
PH 8.02
Mag 1320
Alk over 16dkh
Cal 400
P04 0.09 reactors were off line for a few days due to leaking. Putting them back on now.
Going to wait 3 days then I will test again, and take it from there.

 

[prattreef]

Something is not right. You can't be adding that much kalk and buffer without the pH rising appreciably. And If the readings are accurate, I'd be more worried about the very high Alk than the low pH. I'd PM Boomer.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thanks for chiming in Randy!!

I only dosed 3/4 of a gallon of Mrs. Wages over night on Thursday, and the PH went up slightly from 7.57 to 7.6, but by that evening it was back down to 7.57. So yesterday evening I poured in the 120z of baking soda dissolved in tank water which did raise the PH from 7.57 to 8.02 over night.
I am concerned with the alk being so high!! I'm wondering if the baking soda made the alk rise that high.

 

[ecvernon]

Ph should be very high. What are you using to measure ph?

 

[Awibrandy]

Ph should be very high. What are you using to measure ph?

Hi Eric, to answer your question I used 3 individual methods 1) H & M Digital PH tester, 2) ACjr PH Probe, and the junk 3) API test kit.
All three gave the same readings.

Why do you feel the PH should be very high?

 

[ecvernon]

I don't have the answer to your particular problem. But in experiences with my tanks which are smaller than yours, Kalk solution is very potent stuff and really puts my ph through the roof at least for an extended period of time. you also have to be extremely careful with all those products because as you already know alk that high is not good. How are your corals handling these parameters?

 

[Awibrandy]

I don't have the answer to your particular problem. But in experiences with my tanks which are smaller than yours, Kalk solution is very potent stuff and really puts my ph through the roof at least for an extended period of time. you also have to be extremely careful with all those products because as you already know alk that high is not good. How are your corals handling these parameters?

As you must know , acans are not doing good at all, some chalices are po, some lps are not happy, but at least my aussie elegance is beginning to open more with the higher PH. SPS have had no change ~ they haven't be happy since the beginning of the trying to get the other pars in line, so no change there. Last time (3/23/2012) I had checked the levels the alk was a little high 10.4dkh, and the mag & cal were ok 1350ppm, 420ppm so I stopped dosing altogether.
But then I noticed the PH had gone down, so I turned to Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime. The lime water got dosed Thursday evening, with the baking soda being dosed Saturday.

I did send Boomer a pm as per Randy's suggestion.. Waiting on a reply from him.

 

[Awibrandy]

PH is going down again! It is now at 7.9. I don't have any kalk made at the moment, plus I'm afraid that the kalk is what caused the alk spike.

Can I just dose a little baking soda through out the day to keep the PH up? At least until the alk comes back down...

One of my sons just pointed out what has changed: I no longer have as many plants as I use.

 

[NYreefNoob]

personally how i use to figure the amount needed was to do large water change, and test following day after wc, then dont dose for a week, then check levels right before next wc, see how much each has went down and figure out my dosing from there, personally unless it is a heavy sps system id use kalkwasser, well i did this even with a heavy sps system but needed to dose a small amount of 2 part, what product are you using to dose with ? btw with kalk that will resolve your ph issue, also do you have any windows near the tank ? is it open if not, a closed up house will have a lower ph then one with fresh air

 

[Awibrandy]

Thanks for the help Rick!!
Unfortunately my tank is 16' away from the side windows, and 12' away from the front windows. Yes, I have been opening the side windows as soon as the weather permitted.
I use BRS mag, alk, and cal, for kalkwasser I am using Mrs. Wages pickling lime. No, I am not using the Kalk with the BRS products. A week had gone on before I switched to Kalk.

This morning the PH is still holding at 7.98. Not the best, but at least it did not drop further.

I will see what happens after Wed. w/c...
I'm also considering bringing in some plants, as my son suggested that the missing plants may be the issue with the CO2. I used to have quite a few plants, but got lazy with them, and of course lost almost all of them.

 

[James404]

So you are manually dosing? I saw your measurements are in ounces, you should be fine tuning in ML. It isn't impossible to keep parameters at a consistent point. My alk stays spot on 9.3dKh every day with my doser, if demand increases I increase dosage by 5ml until it is stable again.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you much James!! Much appreciate your input..

PH is holding between 7.99 & 8.0! I cleaned my "Shark" air purifier, and put it to work. So between the one dose of baking soda, and the purifier the PH has finally been corrected.

 

[Awibrandy]

PH has gone down again.:banghead: It is now at 7.68, and this after 2 cups of baking soda over 2 days.:tired:
Lost quite a few acans, mummy eye, bubble gum chalice, elegance not opening fully, a few sps STN'ing.:screama:

Windows are open, air purifier running 24/7...

No, I have not run any test lately. Too busy staining, painting decks & fences, plus dealing with my parents (step-dad was once again hospitalized) have all kept me from working on the tanks other then simple weekly water changes.

 

[piranhapat]

Check your Alk. ...... Do water test. and instead of adding baking soda. Do a water change.....Something out of wack.....causing your ph to go down. What are you adding besides baking soda. Are you using 2 parts...

 

[jgraz]

Brandy, it's been awhile since I checked in here. I also was having problems keeping my levels where I wanted them. I stopped dosing. And added a better bulb in the fuge. I was not getting any growth from my cheato until I did that. Now my growth has exploded and with the reverse schedule my PH has stabilized and with the 2-3 small WC each week instead of one big one. I have finally started to see improvement.

 

[Awibrandy]

piranhapat, I do weekly water changes!! I stopped dosing anything cause of the time constrains in dealing with work load, and the added pressure when my step-dad ended up in the hospital. The tanks will never take precedence over my parents..

jgraz, what bulb did you get for your sump? When the dust settles around here I'll start biweekly w/c as for now things are still a bit busy, and it is all I can do is weekly ones.

On a happier note the PH bounced back up to 8.1 this morning.

 

[jgraz]

Brandy, I found it at walmart. It is a he 15w floodlight. It's basically a spiril fluorescent with its own reflector. I found it as 5200k I believe it was. My cheato has completely taken off since adding it. I now go from a baseball size clump to a full fuge in about 3 weeks. Mind you my fuge is on the small size about 7x8x12". But the growth is incredible.

 

[mbg75]

Brandy, I found it at walmart. It is a he 15w floodlight. It's basically a spiril fluorescent with its own reflector. I found it as 5200k I believe it was. My cheato has completely taken off since adding it. I now go from a baseball size clump to a full fuge in about 3 weeks. Mind you my fuge is on the small size about 7x8x12". But the growth is incredible.

That spectrum is the key. I use a 23w 5k bulb.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you for all the great advice guys.:grouphug:

I finally did it ~ I crashed my reef!:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

I am not giving up!!! I've learned my lesson well ~ Not letting anything get in the way of my responsibility to my tanks from here on.

I've been working on getting my reef back in it's healthy condition: Doing water changes every two days, testing, and dosing calcium & magnesium, keeping the air purifier clean (the air purifier seems to have a direct correlation to the PH).

Pars before I began the above were:
5/14/12
Mag 1140 ppm
Alk > 16 dkh +/-5%
Cal 120 ppm
PH 7.9 - 8.0
After the maintenance routine:
5/15/12
Mag 1140 ppm
Alk > 17.17 dkh +/-5%
Cal 210 ppm
PH 7.9 - 8.0
5/21/12
Mag 1215 ppm
Alk 16 - 21 dkh +/-5%
Cal 170 ppm
PH 7.9 - 8.0
5/23/12
Mag 1185ppm
Alk 13 dkh +/-5%
Cal 230 ppm
PH 7.9 - 8.0
Of course I lost over 20 sps, a couple of lps.
Happy to report I still have a few lps hanging in, and actually looking a little better so I am optimistic that they will pull through.

One thing I do not understand is: If Alk is suppose to buffer PH why was my PH so low while the ALK was so high? At one point the PH swung down to below 7..

 

[rambler67]

That suck but good luck. i dont even have anything left to give you to help you out with.