Water chemistry help!!

[j0hnnyb0y13ave]

to start off my water parameters are: salinity 1.026 ph 8.06 ammonia nitrite nitrate phosphate all at 0 calcium 410 mag 1500 and kh 7.7.. Now my alk is 7.7 due to me adding brs soda ash yesterday at 2 oz.. When tested yesterday it was 6.7 on Red pro test kit.. I read and watch thousands of things about when ph drops your all is out of wack and Id like to keep everything as stable as possible.. I tryed doseimg kalk with my tunze ato which spiked my ph the first time the ato added water so got a bit scard and backed off the kalk and just keep adding the brs soda ash as need.. Question is can anyone school me on the kalk as that would be easyier for me or should I just get dosing pump to dose the soda ash for me and if so can u school me on that.. Any info would be much appeariciated...

 

[jvu61]

I have a 300 gal mixed reef and dose the soda ask. keeps my tank very stable. I dose at 25 ml per day and adjust per month is need be

 

[j0hnnyb0y13ave]

Now how do u get get that 25 ml per day? And how do u dose? I have an apex that's prob not set up half the way it's supose to be lol just figured out how to configure my feed mode and how to make skimmer stay of a bit longer so don't over flow as sump levels r raised lol

 

[jvu61]

I use a bubble Magnus doser I got to the 25 ml b y doing test to find the right amount. I started at 10ml per day and tested the water each week to see what change it made. during this time I made no other changes to anything else. in that way I can be sure the change was caused by that one thing and not a combination of several factors. This is what works well for me. I am sure you will get at least 10 other people telling you something different. I like doing it this way because it is easy. it also keeps changes small and under control and will not cause huge water changes over a short time. IMHO kalk can be risky if not done right and it can cause problems. many people use it with great success. I just prefer to dose.

 

[fredro]

Make sure you have good air circulation in the hood and good oxygen exchange. Poor air flow and lack of surface agitation can cause low ph and keep it from being easily raised and maintained.

 

[j0hnnyb0y13ave]

That's what I'm trying to figure out.. Kalk seems easyier but much much more risk of destroying something.. There both very cheap and easy to get just trying to find the best way to do it.. So Prob going to go same way as u since the kalk is a bit more none forgiving.. Now math wise did u test to see what it used in a day or a week?

 

[jvu61]

make sure you have good air circulation in the hood and good oxygen exchange. Poor air flow and lack of surface agitation can cause low ph and keep it from being easily raised and maintained.

+1

 

[jvu61]

math wise I would say to take your time. small changes over time always work best. like I mentioned ... I started with 10 ml per day. tested after a week. I could have started with 5 ml per day or even 1 for that matter but because of the size of my tank I felt I be ok starting at 10 ml. I then went to 15 then up to 20 until i hit 25, which for my tank works well. the most important thing n reef keeping is always to take your time go slow and make small controlled changes that you can test for

 

[j0hnnyb0y13ave]

Well considering the placement of my tank in May attic practically agains the roof lol there's little to no air movement there but my down pipe draws in plenty of air into sump plus my gyre is mounted at the top of tank so there's plenty water agitation.. Like I said my all was 6.7 yesterday and ph was 8.1 when I got home and test and main light was on.. When my main light goes off and my fuge light goes on the ph usually stays at a constant level or drops very little but whe. It drops more then 1. I know it has to do with all cause I then text everything and my all is a 6.7 lol so I added soda ash yesterday to raise 1 dkh as that's the max u should add in a day then tested again this morning and came up with 7.7.. So I'm almost 100% sure is my alk messing with my ph.. So what I'm going to do is leave it as it is now then test in 3-4 days see what is uses in that time period subtract it off the 7.7 and get that magical number then split it into the day then split that into even doses in a 24 hour day. Sound right?