A Water Change A Day...

[FlyinBryan]

Dosing Kalk with a Tunze ATO was the best move ive ever made for my mixed reef 150!

 

[3Twinklets]

Very interesting thread.

 

[TimSc2013]

My ATO does include kalk and I guess I was referring to adding additional Ca, buffer and mag supplements to maintain recommended levels. I was not very consistent with testing/supplementing in the past and find it easier to do the daily water changes. I will try to get into the habit of testing on weekend. My test levels last weekend were at the following:
Ca=450
Mg=1275
dKH=9.5
NO3=0.25
PO4=0.4
K=320
I will test again this weekend to see how they change. I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt so would like to see my mag and potassium levels increase.

 

[eliramos]

Do you just pour a certain amount of suppliments into your ato reservoir?

 

[mcarroll]

Check out the link I posted about vinegar in post #126 as an alternative to adding another type of dosing.

It's a great way to boost your kalk dispenser performance.

Also, your numbers aren't bad at all. Mg really isn't low enough to worry about - certainly not low enough to warrant "regime change." At most I'd pick up some Mg supplement for a one-time adjustment to 1325-1350. Is this about where your salt mix tests?

I'm not familiar with any recommended levels of K. I know lots of people with amazing displays who don't worry about it, if that's any consolation. ;)

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

I dunno how I just spent the last 30 min editing a post, adding links, etc, only to accidentally navigate off-page to subsequently find out that the R2R auto-save somehow never engaged in that whole time.....I'm so happy about it I could squeal.

:smash:

So now just-the-numbers:

pH: 7.7 (as always)
alk: 2.68
Ca: 410 ppm
Mg: 1305

It looks like consumption is exceeding what the ~1 gallon/day of limewater can produce....think I'd need between 1.4 and 1.8 gallons per day.

Will have to consider my options.

-Matt

 

[glb]

This is a great post!

 

[mcarroll]

Water change #24!

BTW, regarding the low-as-heck pH issue: I found a crevice to the outside I could get an airline to for the skimmer. About an hour ago I hooked up a spare AquaLifter to assure adequate delivery, and connected it's output to the ozone nipple of my Tunze 9410. I'll run a few more tests through the day to see if it was a fluke or related to the little water change I did, but I just registered a pH of 8.0 for the first time in memory. An hour seems too soon to register an effect from fresh air (not that I know) and a 5% water change too small, but the color change in the test is clear. Stay tuned!

Also BTW, I got the 5074 kalk dispenser recharged with the last of my lime. Still in budget mode, so I finally found that I have a local source for Mrs. Wages: $4.99/lb @ Ace Hardware in Centreville. A metro area of millions and apparently one place that sells pickling lime... Have used ESV and Tunze the two times I've purchased lime, but will be interesting to see how DIY lime works out. If it doesn't work out, I'll make pickles! :)

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

Back down to pH of 7.7 so I'm calling the earlier reading a fluke. This was a hack - I'm sure I need to find/make a better source for outside air to get this to work.

-Matt

 

[TimSc2013]

Another set of test results after another week of daily water changes. Numbers in parenthesis are results of freshly mixed saltwater using RSCP:
pH=8.2
Ca=430 (470)
alk=9.4 (13)
Mg=1350 (1370)
K=375 (390)
It's great to see my alk stabilized as I use to see alot of fluctuations when I manually dosed. Don't have a dosing pump yet.

 

[spspirate]

I dunno how I just spent the last 30 min editing a post, adding links, etc, only to accidentally navigate off-page to subsequently find out that the R2R auto-save somehow never engaged in that whole time.....I'm so happy about it I could squeal.

:smash:

So now just-the-numbers:

pH: 7.7 (as always)
alk: 2.68
Ca: 410 ppm
Mg: 1305

It looks like consumption is exceeding what the ~1 gallon/day of limewater can produce....think I'd need between 1.4 and 1.8 gallons per day.

Will have to consider my options.

-Matt

This is a great thread, taggin a long. What is the dkh of 2.68? Think I found it 7.5?

 

[mcarroll]

If you are going to dose manually, you really, really have to dose daily. It can definitely work - I did it for years - and you'll get some good experience, but I'm not sure I'd ever take it as far as I did and try to keep a tank packed to the roof with SPS again.

Consumption rates are so high it takes little more than missed dose for the alkalinity to crash into the danger zone. At the same time, you're dosing larger and larger volumes of two part creating the potential for a bigger and bigger problem if any mistake is made with your reagents. We're talking hundreds or thousands of manual doses over the course of a "typical" home reef's life which you really have to be very consistent with at all levels.

It really is a good application for automation....but dosing pumps are not fool-proof either. ;)

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

Water change #25!

Figured I'd make today a two-fer...happened to drain the RO reservoir perfectly again. ;) Still a little hard to believe how quick I'm killing these barrels.

I'm glad to see so many folks following or joining in! :)

-Matt

 

[trido]

I've been following this thread since the beginning since I started a 12 gallon every four day WC at about the same time. After browsing the last few posts I figured I should say something. In 8 years of successful SPS reefkeeping I cannot remember ever having a Ph reading over 8. Since my 210 has been running again since February I have never had a Ph reading over 7.9 and it usually reads 7.7. I quit worrying about it years ago since my acro's are colorful and keep on growing.
You can see my tank thread here if you need to see a bit of credibility to the Ph issues. I dont consider it to be an issue anymore.

 

[mcarroll]

Excellent point! :)

I'm trying to systematically experiment in year 6 of this reef more so than worry. :) It's had a really hard time in the last year and I'm working on a turnaround...and trying to learn something about carbon, pH and alkalinity at the same time.

-Matt

 

[watdachuck]

Back down to pH of 7.7 so I'm calling the earlier reading a fluke. This was a hack - I'm sure I need to find/make a better source for outside air to get this to work.

-Matt

My PH has never been that low, more in the 8.05 to 8.20 range. As the weather has started to cool I like to drink my morning coffee on my balcony. I noticed leaving the door open for just 5 minutes each morning seems to refresh my place enough that I have been running 8.15 to 8.34 the last 3 weeks. This is constantly monitored via my American Marine Pinpoint PH probe. Now I just open the door for 5 minutes each morning before I start my day! FWIW

 

[mcarroll]

I must be getting stupider...lost another (too-long) post due to no auto-save. I've seen the little auto-save icon pop up 3+ times now as I re-edit this, but no option to restore an old auto-save. Pre-deletion seems to take the fun out of making good posts. Hm.

:smash:

So just the numbers again:

Water change #26!

alk 2.62
Ca 400

not bad, will keep an eye

 

[mcarroll]

Water change #27!

3/4" hose is really nice for speed, as expected: ~30 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket. I figure that saves 10+% of the total time I was spending. :D 1/2" still rules for detritus cleanup...or even airline sometimes.

Also, I did drip another dose of Ca (260 mL, Recipe 2) in the tank last night to try and balance alk/Ca a little better. Hopefully will be able to test later and see how close I am now.

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

Readings from tonight:

Alk 2.5
Ca 410

Hit the balance pretty well as planned - now I can dose equal amounts of two-part again.

Gonna dose Ca and alk with 200 mL each to get back to 420/3.0 for a few days' safety margin.

-Matt

 

[bluzepher]

My ATO does include kalk and I guess I was referring to adding additional Ca, buffer and mag supplements to maintain recommended levels. I was not very consistent with testing/supplementing in the past and find it easier to do the daily water changes. I will try to get into the habit of testing on weekend. My test levels last weekend were at the following:
Ca=450
Mg=1275
dKH=9.5
NO3=0.25
PO4=0.4
K=320
I will test again this weekend to see how they change. I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt so would like to see my mag and potassium levels increase.

What test kits do you use for mag and phos?