Question for the chemistry guyz...

[Henrye]

Tony, what kind of salt do you use to prepare your SW?

 

[Tonyscoots84]

i used to use IO now im using reef crystals but the salt has nothing to do with it.. since this has been an ongoing thing..... the question im looking at is why is am i dosing 280 ml of recipe 1 randys 2 part.... were is alk going :sigh:

 

[TimberTDI]

Tony,

This is just a shot in the dark but have you tried using someone else's Alk test kit? There could be that one in a mil chance your test kit went bad.

Just a thought.

Steven

 

[Tonyscoots84]

lmao timber i already bought 2 salifert alk kits and both are the same.... i wish it was the test kit but its not....

 

[spykes]

tony try asking your tank see if it can give you an answer

 

[Tonyscoots84]

next thing that came to mind which i have totally forgotten about is my phosar... i checked it and it looked pretty white. also alot of white residue throughout the reactor (thanks alvin)... so my guess would indicate that... just to note on what i have done so far is i changed out recipe 1 for 2 and shut off the phosban reactor... lets see what happens

 

[TimberTDI]

T,

You think the ESV has anything to do with the problem?

Steven

 

[Tonyscoots84]

not saying yes but it might... im in trial and error at the moment i will keep everyone updated ...

 

[Henrye]

Phosban is known to precipitate Ca carbonate, so if it's white and caked in your reactor, it may well have contributed to your drop in alkalinity. Randy Holmes Farley had a nice article on it: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.php
He also covers areas such as the effect of removing phosphate in enhancing Ca carbonate precipitation, as well effects on supersaturation of Ca and carbonates in solution.
I would expect most of this applies to fresh phosban, as once it's covered in precipitate, further declines would seem difficult to explain.
I just put in fresh phosban and saw my Alk go from 8 to 6.4 overnight. I've increased my alk part by 2X and I'm back up. I figure I'll be back to my original dosing once the "dust" settles (couldn't help that one).

Henry