Taking DOWN calcium reactor : USELESS

[hyeclass]

In any event.. moving forward now that you have stopped the CO2 and stopped dosing kalk. As you say we all make mistakes and learn from them. You have already received good advice to just let things sit and do some water changes over the next few days and monitor your alk level until it drops down to somewhere between 8 and 9. At that point we can figure out how to keep it in that range. There are lots of ways to do that. So it's just a matter of picking one that's not too complicated and sticking with it as you monitor the tank for changes.

As far as the pH goes.. that will require some investigating. First on my list would be to make sure the pH probe is calibrated and reading correctly. Any time I get a reading on a test or one of my probes that is odd or way off from where it should be. First thing I do is confirm the reading is correct.

yes, CaRx pH 6.63. i am going to rinse the coral bone media with rodi water and put away my reactor till i see i need it

 

[hyeclass]

Was that last photo from today? CaRx pH 6.63?

yes today, just now

 

[Shirak]

yes, CaRx pH 6.63. i am going to rinse the coral bone media with rodi water and put away my reactor till i see i need it

Well that's up to you but if it is still hooked up you could just continue to run the water through it and just unplug the carbondoser and shut the CO2 tank off. Then when you are ready we can help get it running properly for your system.

I will admit that I am a little confused by it being 6.63 as I thought you said you stopped CO2 a couple days ago. Which leads me to believe you stopped feeding water through the reactor and back to your sump?

 

[Smite]

I don't use Kalk but my understanding is calcium hydroxide will not raise your alkalinity since it has no carbonate in it. Most likely your alk is high because of the CaRx which will dump tons of carbonate into your tank if it's not tuned for your system.

99% sure it adds to both alkalinity and calcium, but i don't use it myself.

not enough nitrogen in the room. on my skimmer i am running a air. i am not sure how to improve my pH,

Easy co2 test for water.

Take about a gallon of water from your tank and put it in a bucket. Keep the bucket close to your tank. Place an airstone in the bucket and run it for 1 hour. Place your ph probe in the bucket and determine if the bucket's ph has increased significantly. If it did your problem could just be not enough surface agitation. If it did not change at all or not much, your problem could be a high co2 concentration in the room.

If you suspect co2 from the first test, then move bucket outdoors or near an open window and run the airstone for another hour. If the ph increases then you know it's a co2 to problem in the house.

Vivid would be great source of information and a LFS I would trust 100%. You can also read Andre Mueller's Moonshiner Handbook for troubleshooting ph and a lot of other tips.

 

[hyeclass]

I’m not going to offer any advice or critiques... but I will say I commend you for asking questions and trying to learn! When I first started I did something similar and “dosed” kalk without testing anything. Needless to say that was a complete disaster but I learned from it. You’ll get there! Sometimes this hobby is challenging but that’s also what makes it fun.

talking to people in reef2reef, they said get the kal for my ph which i did, i dos it wrong, VERY clean my sump is clean you can kiss it it so clean, no algae, that's should tell you a lot

 

[hyeclass]

99% sure it adds to both alkalinity and calcium, but i don't use it myself.

Easy co2 test for water.

Take about a gallon of water from your tank and put it in a bucket. Keep the bucket close to your tank. Place an airstone in the bucket and run it for 1 hour. Place your ph probe in the bucket and determine if the bucket's ph has increased significantly. If it did your problem could just be not enough surface agitation. If it did not change at all or not much, your problem could be a high co2 concentration in the room.

If you suspect co2 from the first test, then move bucket outdoors or near an open window and run the airstone for another hour. If the ph increases then you know it's a co2 to problem in the house.

Vivid would be great source of information and a LFS I would trust 100%. You can also read Andre Mueller's Moonshiner Handbook for troubleshooting ph and a lot of other tips.

perfect, i'll post once i get the results, thank you

 

[Smite]

Well that's up to you but if it is still hooked up you could just continue to run the water through it and just unplug the carbondoser and shut the CO2 tank off. Then when you are ready we can help get it running properly for your system.

100% agree.

6.63 in my geo 618 on my 180g resulted it 4ml a minute from my effluent and I had a good amount of sps in there.

 

[Shirak]

100% agree.

6.63 in my geo 618 on my 180g resulted it 4ml a minute from my effluent and I had a good amount of sps in there.

Yes. Probably was informed it should be 6.5 in the chamber and who knows how many ml of effluent was coming out.
I have 14 sps frags and a couple Goni's. My CaRx runs around 6.82 when the CO2 is on at 27ml/min on my 60g DT. I have a buttload of coralline though lol. I run a throttling program through the Apex and monitor with the Trident. I shoot for 8.8-9dkh

 

[Shirak]

Hang in there Hyeclass. You have learned a lot and are on the path to a more successful reef tank. Keep in mind the more information you can provide the better the answers you will get. Best advice I can give now is just to slow down and take it slow from here on out.

 

[Potatohead]

I don't use Kalk but my understanding is calcium hydroxide will not raise your alkalinity since it has no carbonate in it. Most likely your alk is high because of the CaRx which will dump tons of carbonate into your tank if it's not tuned for your system.

It absolutely raises your alkalinity, as well as calcium.

 

[Shirak]

It absolutely raises your alkalinity, as well as calcium.

Care to explain that? I am perplexed as I could have sworn Randy says otherwise?

Edit.. I dunno I am probably wrong which is why I don't do chemistry lol

 

[Doctorgori]

OP ... just a slight derail while I got your attention.
everyone can Keep the reaction points...

Being polite has its place but IMHO some VERY experienced reefers chose politeness over honesty. Trying to help with the subject at hand is cool but you got a very obvious issue....

all jokes aside, man that stocking list is looking like its going to be a re-homing issue in a year or so.
Based on even 1/2 the adult sizes for your fish Its not going to be sustainable long term

 

[Water Dog]

Care to explain that? I am perplexed as I could have sworn Randy says otherwise?

Kalkwasser is primarily used to add calcium and alkalinity in balance. A side effect of using Kalk is a boost in pH. Again, it’s primary purpose is to add Alk and Ca.

 

[hyeclass]

It absolutely raises your alkalinity, as well as calcium.

everything started when i sow my pH was down and i try to get HELP talking to people in a different post they told me to get the kal so i did then i dos the tank wow in 2 days my dkh went to 15 after 25 gal water change on sunday it went down then i dos it yesterday also, after that i am like you know what i am going to discount this calcium reactor everything is up and it's not draining my calcium, when i do need dosing my calcium i'll hookup the reactor mean while i don't have NO use for it, last test i did on my alk was 13

 

[Shirak]

Kalkwasser is primarily used to add calcium and alkalinity in balance. A side effect of using Kalk is a boost in pH. Again, it’s primary purpose is to add Alk and Ca.

hmm interesting.. I thought it would primarily only maintain your current level.

SOrry getting off topic OP

 

[Potatohead]

Care to explain that? I am perplexed as I could have sworn Randy says otherwise?

Edit.. I dunno I am probably wrong which is why I don't do chemistry lol

The hydroxide interacts with the co2 in the tank water to create alkalinity. Because it removes co2 is why it raises ph.

 

[hyeclass]

taking day by day, test by test within a month or two i can see what do.

within a month hopefully everything will be stabilized

 

[hyeclass]

hmm interesting.. I thought it would primarily only maintain your current level.

SOrry getting off topic OP

back in days, before kal came out, they use to use this mrs wages

 

[Water Dog]

I’ve said it a bunch of times in this thread already so forgive me for sounding like a broken record, over the next few days, please take your Alk readings at the same time everyday and post them here. Knowing what your daily Alk consumption is paramount to getting your tank going in the right direction. In order to get your consumption rate we will need several days of Alk readings.

With the CaRx off, I do believe you will see the pH rise on its own over the next few days.

 

[hyeclass]

over the weekend i am going to take it off, CaRx it's offline, gotta do quick before CaRx doesn't end up having eggs in there, everyday i'll post the test results, i'll do a water change tomorrow 30gal or 40 i am using FritzPRO dkh is 8.5