how to lower PH and keep dripping kalk?

[vulkum]

my ph is at 8.8 may be higher test kit only goes that high. my calcium is a 300 alk is a 2.8 nitrates 20ppm ammonia is at .25 nitrites are 0. every time i test my water the alk is low and the ph is off the scale. i know it's due to the fact that i drip about a gallon of kalk everyday but why does the alk drop and how do i get the ph down. any info would be appreciated
aaron

 

[Anonymous]

hey vulkum,

how long has your tank been running? not to be a jerk, but you know those ammonia, and nitrate levels are too high, right? they should be zero. is your tank still cycling?

what is in there that is using your calcium?

to lower pH i would suggest the following...
get a half-gallon of RO water and add 1 teaspoon of baking soda (arm & hammer type stuff). fill your kalk-doser with this stuff and drip that into the tank. that should knock your pH down a bit. don't use too much baking soda, nor add the liquid too fast. good luck.

 

[vulkum]

my tanks been set-up for about 5months and the ammonia and nitrate have been at that level since day 1. my ph only just started getting high after i started using ro/di water and dripping kalk. isn't baking soda the same thing as superbuffer dkh? as far as the calcium level it's all the frags? not sure why it's so low. why does the alk drop?

 

[Anonymous]

i'm not sure why, but it sounds like your tank never finished its cycle.
how much live rock?
how much sand bed (inches)?
any external filtration?
what fish?
what snails, hermits, other crustaceans?
what corals?
any other livestock?

baking soda will indeed lower the pH. you can do a search on tank chemistry on about.com for the chemical reasons. i can never explain them

kalkwasser is a strong base solution, so it is natural that it raises pH.
HTH.

 

[Anonymous]

vulkum, what test kit are you using? have you verified the test results with other kits or at the LFS? the first test kit i bought was from red sea and it routinely reported a higher pH than the seatest and fastest kits i use now. ammonia was a bit off with the red sea test as well.

 

[vulkum]

i would belive that! i went cheap on the main kit aquarium pharma. and use a red sea alk ph and calcium kit. as far as set-up ive got a 29gal tank 10gal sump/refugium. tank has 4 powerheads 3" aragonite sand and 40lbs. of live rock,and 15lbs on the way! 2 75watt actinics and a 250watt iwasaki on an icecap. misc. corals and frags. misc hermits and 10 astria snals. 2 tanks raised clowns(ocerullis). sump/refugium 4" sandbed about 1lb of live rock rubble suspended above the sand bed 1" and the rock chamber filled with feather culerpra and 6 red mangroves lit by a 65k LOA rio 1700 return pump and there a skimmer hanging on the sump but i turned it off a month ago to go skimmerless.

 

[Anonymous]

my best advice would be to verify the test results, especially the red sea tests; and turn the skimmer back on. those snails make a lot of waste (at least my astreas do) and i only have 4 in my 29.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah, it doesn't sound like your bioload is very high.
do you have any algae problems?
are the clowns eating?

 

[vulkum]

clowns are fine. i forgot to add that i have a condalactus annenome and a green brittle star in the sump(he's being punished for eating 3 of my pink xenia frags) those two eat the most. like i said the corals do great their polyps are out almost always and the levels have been constant since i started my system. i wonder if it's me over feeding and if i threw a pengium 330 power filter on the back(take out the biowheels) would that help. my culerpra grows like mad have to thin about once a month or it ends up looking like a solid ball of algae! i can get the ph to drop(just did a little) with a ph lower i had from my other tank(says fresh water and marine) but i bet if i start to drip kalk again it wil go back up. can't afford to buy a calcium reactor right now(wife would skin me) although thats the next buy. i heard great things about them. do either of you use one? i saw a post and saved the link of a guy that builds a dual chamber set-up for 125.00 but theres a waiting list. then a couple hundred for the co2 set-up. and on and on and on. my wife asks me when i get bored with the fish hobby is she can use my tank as a down payment for a new tahoe.LOL

 

[Anonymous]

those high ammonia (not too high at 0.25) and nitrate (very high at 20 ppm) levels may be due to over-feeding.
did anything die in the tank recently?

it just might be the end of the cycle, as
nitrate --> nitrogen gas is the last step in the cycle. maybe your tank is just finishing. the low nitrite levels seem to support this.

FWIW, there are a few posts out there about people using vinegar with their kalk to keep pH low, and boost Ca.
may wanna do a search.
Craig Bingman has an article out there about the process, I think.

 

[vulkum]

actually i did have something die it was a large turbo sanil bigger than a fifty cent peice. he would clean like the dickens and then about a week ago i'd see him on a rock for the whole day(not so turbo) figured he was sleeping or resting or whatever snails do. then the other day i picked him up and started trying to open his protective bottom.whew let me tell you they stink when they die. well figured maybe he died a natuarl death as none of the other snails were affected. the hermits moltting freaks me out every once and awhile i try to do a crab count. then realize what happened!i'll check on that but not to sure about putting vinegar in my tank i don't want to pickle anything

 

[Anonymous]

another thought to boost Ca;
use a 2 part combo solution like Beta Ionic.
shouldn't effect your pH.

 

[vulkum]

i seen alot of people say they use that on the boards. might give it a try.thanks for all the help!
aaron