Background:
I have a FOWLR tank that I'm getting ready to convert into a reef tank. It's established (for about 6 years now) and I started buying the extras (lights, pumps, trident for monitoring, DOS pumps for dosing) because I know me, and I know the more automated I can get it, the more likely things are to thrive Points of note:
Problem:
The alk is too low. When I first started the triton up, it was reading about 7.3 for alk, but after running it for a week, going through calibration dropped it down to between 6.95 and 7.1 with a downwards trend. I started dosing alk to bring it up (relatively slowly, it went up from 6.95 to 7.2 yesterday, I expect another rise of 0.3 or so today)
... but I've noticed it creeping up as I have upped the lighting (8.4 was a high for me, usually) and now especially with adding BRS two-part to dose alkalinity higher. I'm not surprised that adding "alkalinity" makes an acid/alkali measurement creep up farther on the alkali scale, what I want to know is how to add the alkalinity and prevent the pH from trending above 8.5 or so. I'm concerned that I've just raised my "floor" level from 8.25-ish to 8.38-ish and I'm about to burst through the 8.5 ceiling today...
Things I'm doing:
Things I'm considering:
I've read Randy's article about lowering pH. My tank is 350G (total water volume) give or take, so if I wanted to lower pH by 0.2, I see I could:
The first two I can do, but it would presumably mean an ongoing dose, and ... that's a lot to dose The tank is an in-wall one, backing into a (tiny) fish-room with 2' behind the tank, and the room is about 10' across. There's not much space. I was wondering if I was particularly susceptible to low CO2 since it's such a small, relatively-sealed space, and if running air-line tubing to the outside and bubbling air through an air-stone would have a reasonable effect. I have a Whisper 300 air pump sitting there which I think does ~9 liters/minute of air.
Also throwing this out there in case there's something I'm just not seeing - the many eyes of reef2reef might easily spot something I've missed
I have a FOWLR tank that I'm getting ready to convert into a reef tank. It's established (for about 6 years now) and I started buying the extras (lights, pumps, trident for monitoring, DOS pumps for dosing) because I know me, and I know the more automated I can get it, the more likely things are to thrive Points of note:
- The tank has always been pretty stable at pH 8.25->8.4, and I wasn't overly concerned about the alkalinity because it only had fish in it.
- The water is changed at 1 gallon every two hours, and the water source is a filtered supply of real sea-water that is used by all the fish-shops in the local area - I get through about 350G of it per month.
- There are currently a grand total of 4 small corals in the tank, so I very much doubt there's too much take-up going on that can't be replenished by the water changes.
Problem:
The alk is too low. When I first started the triton up, it was reading about 7.3 for alk, but after running it for a week, going through calibration dropped it down to between 6.95 and 7.1 with a downwards trend. I started dosing alk to bring it up (relatively slowly, it went up from 6.95 to 7.2 yesterday, I expect another rise of 0.3 or so today)
... but I've noticed it creeping up as I have upped the lighting (8.4 was a high for me, usually) and now especially with adding BRS two-part to dose alkalinity higher. I'm not surprised that adding "alkalinity" makes an acid/alkali measurement creep up farther on the alkali scale, what I want to know is how to add the alkalinity and prevent the pH from trending above 8.5 or so. I'm concerned that I've just raised my "floor" level from 8.25-ish to 8.38-ish and I'm about to burst through the 8.5 ceiling today...
Things I'm doing:
- I've ordered a Hannah Alkalinity meter - so I can check the BRS trident isn't reading me wrong
- I've just got a new pH probe, and I'm hoping to calibrate/install that tonight (same reason)
Things I'm considering:
I've read Randy's article about lowering pH. My tank is 350G (total water volume) give or take, so if I wanted to lower pH by 0.2, I see I could:
- Add 1.4 liters of seltzer water, or
- 230ml of vinegar, or
- Aerate to add more CO2
The first two I can do, but it would presumably mean an ongoing dose, and ... that's a lot to dose The tank is an in-wall one, backing into a (tiny) fish-room with 2' behind the tank, and the room is about 10' across. There's not much space. I was wondering if I was particularly susceptible to low CO2 since it's such a small, relatively-sealed space, and if running air-line tubing to the outside and bubbling air through an air-stone would have a reasonable effect. I have a Whisper 300 air pump sitting there which I think does ~9 liters/minute of air.
Also throwing this out there in case there's something I'm just not seeing - the many eyes of reef2reef might easily spot something I've missed