Some help with Any Problems you may See.

[Wyatt]

Ok..here’s what I have and what’s been going on in the tank. It’s a 90 gallon glass tank, with a sump system below….which drips to Activated Carbon pouch then to the filter pad…down to the bio-spheres, from there pulled through a sponge…to the protein skimmer….then out the skimmer and back to the tank. Attached to the protein skimmer is a Ozone system…which is used moderately and only when the water quality needs a little boost.
100 to 150 pounds of live rock…..45lbs of live sand, various corals, the easy ones so to speak, Pulsing Xenia, Bubble Coral, Frog Spawn, Hammer, Toad Stool and a couple mushrooms, and some sun polyps. The regular snails, a couple starfish, a cleaner shrimp..some damsels (left over from the cycling process), a scooter Blemmy, Engineering Goby, A Yellow and Blue Tang, and that’s about it for the live stock.

I have two sets of power compacts, with each one having two Ultra-Daylight and two Ultra-Radiant Actinic Blue’s. Three fans keep the tank at between 77 and 79 degrees. The lights come on at different times…one set about 45 mins..before the others….then they shut off (on timers) at different times for short periods of time to help keep the tanks heat down. The lights come on at 6am….and off at 8pm… I do regular water changes or at least 10% weekly.

What I’m looking for from someone here is advice on the boundaries of what’s going on in my tank. I’ll give you the specifics below and maybe someone (I’m sure you can, this group here is great…..read it daily)…..The only real problem that I’m aware of is the constant rise in my PH….and that may not be a problem either….maybe its perfect, but I have a bad understanding of it……so hopefully you will get me straighten out. I think my biggest problem is I read so much about this hobby, and this person suggests this….and that person suggests that…..and then you try and apply this and it gets a little confusing.

This is what happens…..my PH will start out at somewhere around 8.2 and rarely if ever get below this. That I understand is fine…..but as the day goes on…..with the lights on and the life active….the PH will rise to 8.45 and I’ve seen it go as high as 8.59.
I have a Korallin Calcium Reactor which I just got about 2 weeks ago….and to honest…I have no idea what I’m doing with it….adjusting the CO2 bubble rate to 21 a minute and the effluent to 60 drips a minute….and what that all means….I have no clue. At any rate these are the reading from the tank

Alkalinity : 11.8 KH/dkh/ meq/L 4.23 Calcium 360 MG/L(ppm) Salinity : 1.024
Hardness/Magnesium (taken a few days before the above) 7.41 1551 MG 412 CaCo3
ORP: 310-450 fluctuates down to 310 at night and shots back to the mid 400’s after an hour or so when the lights come on. (confused about this as well).

Is there anything I need to change, fix, adjust, lower, raise or just plain leave alone? Do I have a problem with my PH going up during the day as it does? And in simple laymen terms….what is the deal with the Calcium Reactor? I thought it was to replace my regular supplement of Kalkwasser, but maybe I’m mistaken.

I apologize for the length note….but would really appreciate the help. If anyone is in the Central Florida Space Coast area and would care to help me via telephone or in person that would be great!

 

[jdeets]

The calcium reactor is designed to satisfy the biomineral requirements of your system without the need for kalkwasser use. If you're still using kalkwasser, that would explain your higher pH.

On the calcium reactor, test the pH of the effluent coming out of the drip line, and shoot for somewhere around 6.8. Run the reactor for a week, test your water and see what the numbers are. With a calcium reactor, you should shoot for a desired alkalinity level, and NOT for a desired calcium level. The reason that you don't adjust the reactor based on the Ca level is that the change in the calcium level is much less, relatively speaking, than the change in alkalinity when using a balanced supplementation method (which is what a calcium reactor is). Chemically speaking, for each change in alk of 1 meq/L, your Ca will only fluctuate by 20 ppm. So as you can see, to raise your Ca 100 ppm with a Ca reactor would mean you'd have to raise your alk 5 meq/L. That ain't gonna work to well.

So, run your reactor and check your alk and Ca. Adjust your reactor to maintain an alkalinity of 2.5-3.5 meq/L. You can adjust the effluent flow rate and the bubble rate to do this. Once you get a feel for it, it will be easy. It just takes some experience to learn what your system's needs are.

If you get your alk where you want it and you feel the need to raise your Ca level, then you can use CaCl2 to raise the Ca, but once the balance is where you want it, use ONLY the calcium reactor. The Ca rxr should be able to satisfy the biomineral needs of your system and keep everything balanced automatically.

If I were in your shoes, I'd (1) stop dripping kalk (if you are), (2) reduce the output of the Ca rxr to let the alk drift down to 3.5 meq/L or slightly lower (3) bump up the Ca with CaCl2 to where I wanted it and (4) adjust the Ca rxr (over the course of several weeks, by adjusting and testing weekly) to maintain your alk at 3.5 or so.

HTH

HTH

 

[Wyatt]

Jdeets, Thank you for the advice...I think I kinda understand...I need to lower the Alk and get my Calcium up some...all those "C's" and "A's" it does get confusing. But I think I understand....