Randy Holmes-Farley
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My Tank Thread
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This was a great rabbit hole to go down. Lots of great information. I'd love to find the solution as to why the Kalk reactor doesn't hold saturation like a reservoir. You all have great hypotheses, though.
Lack of saturation would simply be that the reactor is not dissolving it as fast as new water is entering. It's not really a hypothesis, more like a truism.
I'm under the impression that alk levels are dependent on pH and vice versa; higher pH allows more soluble alk to be available in the water column. When you're dosing Kalk and having pH fluctuations, how big are the swings between the 2 and what is truly acceptable? We're reaching a point where our scientific understanding is great, so would chasing a fairly stable pH be the best way to nail stable alkalinity?
That first sentence is not true. Higher pH does not allow more alk to be available.
Kalkwasser and other hydroxide additives are simply a high pH alk additive.
As to whether it is better to have more stable alk or more stable pH, or both, you might read through this thread:
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...
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