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Any way, my NASA background leads me to fault detection, isolation and recovery scenarios for my reef aquarium.

Fault Detection... water measurement is outside of nominal range...
Isolation... what do I do to isolate the cause of the problem?
Recovery... what do I do to fix the situation??

Detection... SG too low...
Isolation is a no brainer... I think... not enough salt.
Recovery... what is the right procedure for raising the SG?

That thought process leads to some interesting discoveries.

For example,
Detection... Calcium is too low...
Isolation... I learned earlier today that if your Mg is too low, it can cause your Ca to drop. Thus, in order to isolate the cause of your Ca being low, you need to test your Mg. If Mg is normal, then add Ca. If not, recover Mg first, then address Ca.
Recovery... This gets into proper procedure to add and not cause undo swings in pH, etc. Two-part versus reactor, versus manual dosing would have difference procedures.

Am I making sense?? Maybe I am going "too NASA" but it helps me to walk through with that process to understand it all and the inter-relationships.

Just trying to learn and thought I might be able to produce something helpful to everyone.

Mark

 

MissionSix,

Those articles don't talk about the isolation, recovery aspects that I am looking for. I want to build that up here.

Mark

 

I think it's a great idea, especially your "isolation" and "recovery" stages, if you can work it out. There is a lot of information out there about this type of stuff. Just make sure you read all of Randy Holmes-Farley's articles on reefkeeping.com. I think you'll find probably 75% of your answers to most chemistry questions in those articles.
Reefkeeping Online Magazine - Randy Holmes-Farley

 

Let me work through it and see what you think. At the very least it is helping me learn and gain confidence in that knowledge. For example, right now my Parameters are as follows:

Temp 78.8
pH 8.06
SG 1.024
Mg 1350
Ca 420
dKH 9
PO4 0.0
Nitrate 0.0
Nitrite 0.1
Ammonia 0.125

So, if my Calcium, Magnesium and DKH are "in the zones", why is my pH low?? Should I care and if I did what would I do about it?

I am going to lower my temp based on this learning exercise, but I am trying to understand the dynamics and what inter-relates.

Thanks for baring with me. If it ends up a sticky or not doesn't matter so much. Getting it clear in my head helps me. Some of the other posts and PM's indicates it is a useful exercise for others as well.

Based on my SG post, I am raising to 1.025 +/- 0.001 as my target. I am lowering my temp to 77-78. I had thought that getting the other parameters right would result in a pH in the 8.1-8.4 range, but I am missing something there. Possibly, I calibratred my sensor low.

I couldn't have even formed those questions a few weeks ago, so you and the community are certainly helping me.

Thanks
M

 

Thanks. I am reading all the links everyone is sending me. I think I'll be able to add Chemistry and Biology degrees by the time I am done. It is starting to make some sense. pH fluctuations are interesting. I noticed mine was up to 8.16 later this evening.

Seriously, the 'system' of a reef tank is very similar in analogy to a spacecraft. Power System, Environmental Control System, Monitors, THermal Control, Structures. Put a propulsion system on a reef tank and you'd be close. There really are a lot of similarities.

Thanks for helping me learn.

M

 

Maybe with enough powerheads on the outside of the tank that will satisfy your propulsion requirement...

 

You know that we had fish on STS-107 Columbia... I think they were Japanese Carp... being used on one of the life science experiments.

M