How many mls of core 7 does your tank use each day ?

[CMO]

So I'm nearly positive now my high core 7 dose is due to running higher PH > 8.20. My CO2 media just became exhausted which dropped my PH about 15 points overall to about 8.0-8.2 (instead of 8.15-8.35) and my alk is spiking at current dosing levels set for high PH. Can anyone else confirm they've seen similar results with high PH?

 

[justingraham]

Yea of course higher ph better growth

Just curious what was ur alk was after a day of the media being exhausted? How much did u go over and how much are you dosing again

 

[CMO]

Yea of course higher ph better growth

Just curious what was ur alk was after a day of the media being exhausted? How much did u go over and how much are you dosing again

Here's what my alk spike looked like following the PH drop without changing dosing. The sharp drop was due to me shutting alk dosing off after catching this today.

Actually, I did sell a good size torch colony yesterday too so maybe that is also a factor? lol

 

[justingraham]

Are you hand testing or have an alk monitor?

Doubt the torch had anything to do with it

 

[CMO]

Are you hand testing or have an alk monitor?

Doubt the torch had anything to do with it

I'm using a Hannah checker and did the test twice to confirm the spike.

 

[justingraham]

Hard to see but looks like it went up .5 dkh?
How much were you dosing were you the one with 70ml?

 

[CMO]

Hard to see but looks like it went up .5 dkh?
How much were you dosing were you the one with 70ml?

Yes, I was dosing about 75 mls per day prior to the PH decline. I'll wait a while to recharge my CO2 scrubber and see where we equalize with lower PH levels.

 

[justingraham]

Yes, I was dosing about 75 mls per day prior to the PH decline. I'll wait a while to recharge my CO2 scrubber and see where we equalize with lower PH levels.

I would guess it dosing the right amount then that’s about what happens to me when my co2 is done with

 

[CMO]

Core 7 dose has settled at 58 ml to maintain 8 dkh while running PH 8.0-8.20 vs. 75 ml per day when running PH 8.15-8.35. Pretty big difference and it begs the question how much of the "consumption" while running higher PH was due to precipitation from high PH vs. faster growth.

 

[pluikens]

Core 7 dose has settled at 58 ml to maintain 8 dkh while running PH 8.0-8.20 vs. 75 ml per day when running PH 8.15-8.35. Pretty big difference and it begs the question how much of the "consumption" while running higher PH was due to precipitation from high PH vs. faster growth.

I think that comes out to a little over a 0.5 dKH/day change in demand. I wouldn't be surprised if most of that is actually consumption. In non Triton specific systems, it seems like some reefers have a daily demand of less than 1 dKH, some have over 3 dKH. While this is partly based on stocking level per gallon, I believe pH plays a big part in it. I've seen this myself when my system was running higher pH levels with about a .4 dKH change with a similar pH change.

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Core 7 dose has settled at 58 ml to maintain 8 dkh while running PH 8.0-8.20 vs. 75 ml per day when running PH 8.15-8.35. Pretty big difference and it begs the question how much of the "consumption" while running higher PH was due to precipitation from high PH vs. faster growth.

I'd bet you had a ton of precip. Probably still have a bit even at 58mL tbh. It's really hard to avoid with core7's concentration. And looking at the pic of your tank it's a gorgeous reef, but to my eye it's pulling nowhere near 70+mL of core7 before precip is taken into account. Probably in the 30 - 40mL range realistically based on my experience

 

[CMO]

I'd bet you had a ton of precip. Probably still have a bit even at 58mL tbh. It's really hard to avoid with core7's concentration. And looking at the pic of your tank it's a gorgeous reef, but to my eye it's pulling nowhere near 70+mL of core7 before precip is taken into account. Probably in the 30 - 40mL range realistically based on my experience

Any ideas where precipitation might be coming from and how to correct it? I'd like to get my dose down as much as possible. The only other thing I'd add, is that if I shut down my NO3 and PO4 dosing the consumption would drop quite a bit more so that is also elevating it relative to Triton tanks without dosing (which I'm assuming would be running zero NO3/PO4 otherwise). Here's one of my alk intervals for reference. I'm dosing only 1.5 ml every 13 minutes into my filter sock area (not running socks) which then goes into my algea fuge that has a gyre so very high flow around dosing location. Thanks!

 

[justingraham]

How do you have it set up so that component 1 or two isn’t being dosed at the same time as 3+4?

 

[CMO]

How do you have it set up so that component 1 or two isn’t being dosed at the same time as 3+4?

I have a 10 minute gap between each solution. Apex does some weird scaling with multiple selections but Core 7 1, 3 & 4 are at 29 ml per interval and part 2 is a little lower at 25 ml per interval since my CA was running a little high. I have my alk dosing intervals spaced out longer to reduce swings but my parts 1 and 2 are compressed a bit more as shown (about 3.5 ml dosed on parts 1 and 2 every 10 minutes in those intervals).

 

[justingraham]

Ugh u manually put it in for blocks and have to adjust that stinks

 

[CMO]

Ugh u manually put it in for blocks and have to adjust that stinks

Yeah. Only way to do it otherwise is with very complicated code that I'm not comfortable using. But really it takes about 1 minute to change 8 intervals so not a big deal.

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Any ideas where precipitation might be coming from and how to correct it? I'd like to get my dose down as much as possible. The only other thing I'd add, is that if I shut down my NO3 and PO4 dosing the consumption would drop quite a bit more so that is also elevating it relative to Triton tanks without dosing (which I'm assuming would be running zero NO3/PO4 otherwise). Here's one of my alk intervals for reference. I'm dosing only 1.5 ml every 13 minutes into my filter sock area (not running socks) which then goes into my algea fuge that has a gyre so very high flow around dosing location. Thanks!

Turbulence at exact point of dosing. And no your drains dumping into the filter sock chamber likely is not sufficient. I'm only guessing as I haven't seen it but I highly doubt it's enough mixing at the point of input to sufficiently prevent parts 3a and 3b from having some precipitation occur. Higher pH will of course increase precipitation a bit, but not as much as it would seem your tank exhibited. Also, if you are having any non equal dosing amounts then that is a sure sign you are having a fair bit of precip. My clients running Core7 lose volume in their supp reservoirs at nearly exactly equal rates across all 4 parts. Dosing as near exact equal parts as possible yields about 1400mg, 8.0 alk, 420 Ca in my customer tanks once I dial them in. Initially, I had a couple that tended to run way high on Mg and Ca. And that's how I quickly figured out the lower relative alk readings for the same dosing input across all 4 were due to precipitation.

Your algae fuge likely has huge precipitation potential due to the oxygen production and CO2 consumption in that zone so I would strongly recommend dosing downstream of the fuge after the water has had a chance to run through a bubble trap or skimmer and equilibrate better. Your freshly dosed alk component heading straight into the algae fuge may be a recipe for precipitation before it ever has a chance to fully dissolute into your water.

Most critically, lower your dose to 30 mL or less when you add some sort of turbulent flow to point of input cause you may accidentally spike your alk if there was a lot of precip that starts to no longer occur after that change. Test daily and if needed start bringing all the parts up equally til you find your zone. Once dialed in it should be stable in terms of amount needed. Like you may only see your required uptake go up by 1 or 2mL every frew weeks to a month after your dial in.

 

[Seminoles76]

Yes, I dose slightly less part 1 due to minor mag elevation and significantly less part 2 due to very high calcium levels (600+) with equal dosing.

CMO, that would be great if you could link that PH article. Been wondering if I am precipitating due to high PH. Thanks.

 

[ChaseBurke]

90 gal. total system volume. Tank is 4 months old, and dosing 14 ml a day at 8.0 to 8.1 ph

 

[CMO]

Turbulence at exact point of dosing. And no your drains dumping into the filter sock chamber likely is not sufficient. I'm only guessing as I haven't seen it but I highly doubt it's enough mixing at the point of input to sufficiently prevent parts 3a and 3b from having some precipitation occur. Higher pH will of course increase precipitation a bit, but not as much as it would seem your tank exhibited. Also, if you are having any non equal dosing amounts then that is a sure sign you are having a fair bit of precip. My clients running Core7 lose volume in their supp reservoirs at nearly exactly equal rates across all 4 parts. Dosing as near exact equal parts as possible yields about 1400mg, 8.0 alk, 420 Ca in my customer tanks once I dial them in. Initially, I had a couple that tended to run way high on Mg and Ca. And that's how I quickly figured out the lower relative alk readings for the same dosing input across all 4 were due to precipitation.

Your algae fuge likely has huge precipitation potential due to the oxygen production and CO2 consumption in that zone so I would strongly recommend dosing downstream of the fuge after the water has had a chance to run through a bubble trap or skimmer and equilibrate better. Your freshly dosed alk component heading straight into the algae fuge may be a recipe for precipitation before it ever has a chance to fully dissolute into your water.

Most critically, lower your dose to 30 mL or less when you add some sort of turbulent flow to point of input cause you may accidentally spike your alk if there was a lot of precip that starts to no longer occur after that change. Test daily and if needed start bringing all the parts up equally til you find your zone. Once dialed in it should be stable in terms of amount needed. Like you may only see your required uptake go up by 1 or 2mL every frew weeks to a month after your dial in.

Thanks for the info and ideas. I'm dosing into the algae fuge per Triton's recommendation. I've been dosing all parts equally until the past few months so it was tracking fine for over a year at equal dosing so not sure why things changed. Here's my dosing location with about 650 gph flowing through a pretty small area. It then flow directly into my fuge that has a gyre which provides even more flow immediately following the dose. The water is pretty turbulent in both the fuge and filter sock area. I have the dosing nozzles up high as a fail safe against potential siphoning if one of the DOS heads were to fail.

CMO, that would be great if you could link that PH article. Been wondering if I am precipitating due to high PH. Thanks.

It's an older article from reefkeeping and here's the snippet where it mentions precipitation above PH 8.20.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/