Night drop in alk

[davsreef]

So tank is a reefer 525 lots of sps frags and some lps dosing reef zelements (I’m in the uk) every hour 24hrs a day not sure if you have it in the USA also dosing kalk via a stirrer with apex and dos set to dose when ph hits 8.35 my question is I keep having my trident read a dip in alk every night then it nearly bumps back up to where it should be any ideas why this is happening as I would have thought the 2part dosing 24/7 then the kalk basically starts 3hours after lights outs would have raised the alk! Any help with this would be great

 

[blaxsun]

Slight variations within a 24-hour period are fairly typical.

 

[davsreef]

So something not to be concerned about could it be down to the ph dropping from the lights going out

 

[hexcolor reef]

A lot of complaints on the web about tridents and dosing behavior. Majority reefers who have one also has a back up dosing set up. Like Blaxsun mentioned though it’s typical

 

[davsreef]

The trident isn’t dosing my 2 part that’s on a red sea doser the dos is only adding r/o to the kalk stirrer just using the trident as a reference point

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Can you clarify where exactly the dip startss and peaks in time in relation to the kalk dosing and the lighting?

 

[davsreef]

Ph maxes out 8:30pm lights ramp down 7:55pm kalk probably starts around 1am

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ph maxes out 8:30pm lights ramp down 7:55pm kalk probably starts around 1am

Is the dip before 1 AM, when you are dosing less alk?

 

[davsreef]

Is the dip before 1 AM, when you are dosing less alk?

 

[davsreef]

May make the trident test a bit more to see

 

[Troylee]

I have noticed this trend also on my tank… my trident always reads close to .5dkh lower at midnight… my alk raises during the photo period and drops at night, every night. The tank is dosed equal parts over 24 hours no matter what any test says.. weird..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have noticed this trend also on my tank… my trident always reads close to .5dkh lower at midnight… my alk raises during the photo period and drops at night, every night. The tank is dosed equal parts over 24 hours no matter what any test says.. weird..

That's curious. How long have the lights been off by midnight?

Most people find the most alk consumption during the day when pH is highest. Does your pH track normally, being highest late in the lit part of the light cycle?

 

[Troylee]

That's curious. How long have the lights been off by midnight?

Most people find the most alk consumption during the day when pH is highest. Does your pH track normally, being highest late in the lit part of the light cycle?

Halides have been off for 8 hours at that point. I have a few blue xho bars that would be off for 6 hours at that point. My ph is lowest of course before the lights come on.. I am using all for reef as my main source of dosing so I don’t know if the bacteria get excited at night or what haha!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That's an interesting twist that I do not know how lighting and pH and AFR conversion to detectable alk may interrelate.

@Hans-Werner

Hans-Werner, any thoughts on whether lighting or pH impacts the rate of formate conversion to titratable alkalinity?

 

[Troylee]

That's an interesting twist that I do not know how lighting and pH and AFR conversion to detectable alk may interrelate.

@Hans-Werner

Hans-Werner, any thoughts on whether lighting or pH impacts the rate of formate conversion to titratable alkalinity?

I gotta say what ever is going on is working fantastic! I have never experienced such fast growth on any tank I’ve ever owned! It’s sps dominated and loving life! I also feed the tank 3 times a week with gut loaded bacteria, taking snippets from sunny x and adding a few more things to the diy coral snow. Zeobak, mb7, coral amino, and reef roids along with zeozym.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I also feed the tank 3 times a week with gut loaded bacteria,

What is a gut loaded bacteria?

 

[Troylee]

What is a gut loaded bacteria?

Idk if that’s what it really is but Ive followed some of the top sps keepers and they’re using calcium carbonate or zeozym with bacteria and coral foods..we~I~ they, call it that lol.. mixing up a cocktail of aminos and bacteria and letting it marinate for x amount of time then feeding the tank! The feeding response and pe you get during the day when you feed the sps is insane!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Idk if that’s what it really is but Ive followed some of the top sps keepers and they’re using calcium carbonate or zeozym with bacteria and coral foods..we~I~ they, call it that lol.. mixing up a cocktail of aminos and bacteria and letting it marinate for x amount of time then feeding the tank! The feeding response and pe you get during the day when you feed the sps is insane!

OK, thanks.

 

[DanyL]

Idk if that’s what it really is but Ive followed some of the top sps keepers and they’re using calcium carbonate or zeozym with bacteria and coral foods..we~I~ they, call it that lol.. mixing up a cocktail of aminos and bacteria and letting it marinate for x amount of time then feeding the tank! The feeding response and pe you get during the day when you feed the sps is insane!

Ok I’m wondering if there’s any benefit in mixing bacteria/food with a flocculent like calcium carbonate, especially with SPS.

Wouldn’t that make the organic particles bigger, thus making it larger than what SPS can chew?

I guess I need to get some Calcium Carbonate and play with it myself haha

 

[Hans-Werner]

That's an interesting twist that I do not know how lighting and pH and AFR conversion to detectable alk may interrelate.

@Hans-Werner

Hans-Werner, any thoughts on whether lighting or pH impacts the rate of formate conversion to titratable alkalinity?

Thanks for asking.

I wonder a bit about the curves. I see it is two days from 28th to 30th of January but there are four swings of alkalinity and only two of pH. So alkalinity swings are not day - night related but there are depressions at midday and midnight. How often is alkalinity measued?

Ok, if we say the midday low is due to highest calcification, the midnight low still needs to be explained. Both swings reach the same low level. Is the midnight low also due to some calcification process oder is it a low in conversion of formate to bicarbonate, maybe due to lower oxygen?

Or does low pH influence the alkalinity titration? Or the conversion of formate to bicarbonate?

I will think about it and try to find it out. At the moment I do not have a good explanation at hand.