Two Parts dosing at night

[horseplay]

My tank PH ranges from 7.9 just before the light turns on to 8.2 when the lights are turned off. The tank consumes about 1dkh per day. At the moment I mostly dose during the day but I am thinking whether I should dose mostly at night to keep the ph up. I know people do this with Kalkwasser to keep the ph up at night. I have no idea when corals consume two parts to build skeletons. Does this mostly happen during the day or night or at the same rate all day? I heard kids grow taller when sleeping LOL.

 

[Gtinnel]

Yes most of your alk is consumed when the lights are on. I dose around 150ml of alk supplement daily and only 7ml of that is dosed overnight to keep my alk stable.

 

[TokenReefer]

I think it makes sense for the ph boost at night. I was doing it that way at least.. Recently ran the skimmer line outside though and my ph overnight is steady 8.2 (RS kit). So now I don't know when to dose

 

[Gtinnel]

In my opinion your alk stability is more important than your pH. Especially since the OP’s pH is still not that low at night.
I increased my night time pH with a refugium and it helped considerably.

 

[TokenReefer]

What's the recommended alk swing in a day? For some reason I have .5 in my head. So if 1 dkh was being dosed for, then I would spread it out over the course of the day; not all at once. And then in that case night/day isn't really as relevant I suppose

Edit: not swing, I don't think that's the right word, fluctuation perhaps is better

 

[horseplay]

I think I should just measure the ALK every hour for 24 hours once just to check. Some of your Trident users might have done this already. Maybe dose the same amount every hour also.

 

[nereefpat]

Is your Alk part carbonate or bicarbonate?

 

[TokenReefer]

In my opinion your alk stability is more important than your pH. Especially since the OP’s pH is still not that low at night.
I increased my night time pH with a refugium and it helped considerably.

I think you're right. I've only focused on raising ph for the past week or so trying to get rid of some dinos on the sandbed. Seems to be having an affect...

 

[horseplay]

It's BRS soda ash.

 

[horseplay]

I started to realize I don't know much as I found this thread and it's hard to follow.

Alkalinity stability? pH stability? Are they even different?

It is currently the dogma of the reef aquarium hobby to say that alkalinity stability is very important for SPS corals, and that pH is not. Often, the very idea of someone trying to optimize pH is called “chasing numbers” as if that statement by itself shows it to be foolish. Since I have...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[nereefpat]

It's BRS soda ash.

Okay, that's sodium carbonate which would slightly raise pH temporarily when added.

I started to realize I don't know much as I found this thread and it's hard to follow.

Alkalinity stability? pH stability? Are they even different?

It is currently the dogma of the reef aquarium hobby to say that alkalinity stability is very important for SPS corals, and that pH is not. Often, the very idea of someone trying to optimize pH is called “chasing numbers” as if that statement by itself shows it to be foolish. Since I have...

www.reef2reef.com

Most of us don't know much chemistry compared to Randy

 

[horseplay]

If it's only going to raise PH temporarily then I might as well trying to dose during the day to keep the ALK stable.

 

[Gtinnel]

I think you're right. I've only focused on raising ph for the past week or so trying to get rid of some dinos on the sandbed. Seems to be having an affect...

I have been there chasing pH also. For me an outside airline, a co2 scrubber, running a refugium at night, and mixing my sodium carbonate solution with a sodium hydroxide solution was my fix. I went from a range of 7.9-8.2 and now I’m at 8.2-8.6, but I was able to do it while keeping all of my alk readings for a day within about .1dKh.
Like mine used to be the OPs ph range isn’t an issue. The acceptable alk swing in a day I’ve heard is .5 and I’ve heard 1. I’m not sure which but like most things in the hobby the more stable the better, and I would prioritize it over slightly higher pH range.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If it's only going to raise PH temporarily then I might as well trying to dose during the day to keep the ALK stable.

I'm not sure how that necessarily follows, since the temporary effect will be at night when pH is lowest, but some folks do opt to daytime dosing to match when demand for alk is highest, even with lower pH at night.

 

[horseplay]

I'm not sure how that necessarily follows, since the temporary effect will be at night when pH is lowest, but some folks do opt to daytime dosing to match when demand for alk is highest, even with lower pH at night.

I do dose at daytime. What I see this morning is when I dose 20ml the ph went up from 7.93 to 7.99 then drops back to 7.96 and stayed there in about 10 mins. (I dose from the other end of the sump so the water has to go through the tank before reaching the ph probe).

 

[Gtinnel]

I do dose at daytime. What I see this morning is when I dose 20ml the ph went up from 7.93 to 7.99 then drops back to 7.96 and stayed there in about 10 mins. (I dose from the other end of the sump so the water has to go through the tank before reaching the ph probe).

If you are wanting to get a bigger pH boost with your alk supplement Randy has a recipe for making a supplement from sodium hydroxide (lye) that per dKh added gives the same boost as kalk. I mix it and my sodium carbonate solution to dose my tank. But as you already know it’s only going to boost it while dosing and if mostly dosing during the day may increase the amount of your pH swing.

 

[horseplay]

If you are wanting to get a bigger pH boost with your alk supplement Randy has a recipe for making a supplement from sodium hydroxide (lye) that per dKh added gives the same boost as kalk. I mix it and my sodium carbonate solution to dose my tank. But as you already know it’s only going to boost it while dosing and if mostly dosing during the day may increase the amount of your pH swing.

Thanks I will look into that.

 

[Gtinnel]

Thanks I will look into that.

Here is a thread he started about it. I only mix it with my other supplement because alone the pH is really high and would probably raise my pH too much. If you decide to use it just be careful since you are dealing with a strong base.

Second New DIY Two Part Recipe with Higher pH Boost

In a previous thread, I posted a true two part DIY recipe: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-diy-two-part-recipes-with-higher-ph-boost.344500/ But some folks may want to just swap the new ingredient into my 2/3 part recipe (as used by BRS, for example). Here's the original recipe link...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[horseplay]

Thanks! Manually dosing at first.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do dose at daytime. What I see this morning is when I dose 20ml the ph went up from 7.93 to 7.99 then drops back to 7.96 and stayed there in about 10 mins. (I dose from the other end of the sump so the water has to go through the tank before reaching the ph probe).

Adding 1.4 dKH of alk via carbonate will instantly boost the pH by about 0.35 pH units. Using hydroxide, the boost is about double that value, or 0.7 pH units.

How fast, and if, it drops back depends on the CO2 in the air and the extent of aeration.