Low Ph 7.59 using calcium reactor

Are you using calcium reactor or 2 parts?

 

If you use kalk with an ATO, best to use a slow pump to add it. The closer you are to a drip, the better. More or less, I just add water to a 5g bucket, add the desired amount of kalk. Stirr for a few seconds. Cover the container, then wait a few hours. Plug in the ATO and your good to go. Adding too much, or too much too fast will cause issues, which is why it's good to start slow and never add it too fast.

However, with you pH that low you must have serious CO2 problems. You may want to get a longer airline tube for you skimmer and run the airline out a window. Drawing in fresh air from outside can help quite a bit. I do this plus kalk, but i'd say of the two, running the airline outside helps more.


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I will try the air line and kalk.

I stopped the CO2 for about a month because my ELOS and new Hanna Calcium checker readings were at 500ppm. But my salifer is at 430ppm.

So I thought salifer was bad. But after one month I noticed some sps are turning white and hair algae are growing everywhere so I put my calcium reactor back online. I'm not too sure what the pH readings were before taking the calcium off line, but do you think this could have contributed to low pH?

 

CO2 reactors commonly do lower tank pH. The CO2 used to dissolve the media lowers the pH in the reactor considerably. So then this low-pH effluent goes into your tank, so it lowers your tanks pH as a result.

As to the corals turning white and hair algae. What was you ca, alk and mg? If they got too low the corals could definitely bleach as a result. I don't see any reason it would result in hair algae, unless the corals were dying and the hair algae was feeding off the decay?


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i use kalk in my ato thats all

 

i re read your post and seen you mentioned hair algae ph has nothing to do with this. check your phosphates and nitrates

 

I have 3 test kits and they are not consistent. Salifer says 430ppm, ELSO and Hanna checker says 500-550ppm. ALK is at 8.2 and my mg is low at 1220. I’m currently trying to bring it up to 1350.

PO is at 0.10ppm with hanna checker and Nitrate is 50ppm with salifer. Nitrate is a bit high and I don’t know how to fight it. I tried feeding less and have added bio pellets 7 months ago but no luck. This past Sunday I removed all my sand from the refugium. I think this might be the root cause for high Nitrate.


I called Brightwell tech support and told them that I’m using KALK +2 to raise my pH and they told me that product is not intended to raise pH, if anything it should lower it. Also, they told me that using kalk +2 with calcium reactor will add more calcium to the tank. So the question is, if I’m using calcium reactor and my pH is low should I use pH buffer instead of kalk +2?

 

If it were me...I would slow the water through the reactor and compensate with kalk. There may have been a miscommunication about Ph. Adding kalk will make the water more alkaline. That should be consistent for any brand of kalkwasser.

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If your pH is that low, what is the pH of the effluent as it comes out of the CaRX? If it's super low, are you going through a lot of media or is it melting on you? My biggest concern with having low pH while using a CaRx would be that your effluent out of the reactor is way too low. Obviously you have two ph probes connected to the Apex, one located at the top of the GEO 618 and another in the sump? The 618 is actually pretty large for your tank, unless it's filled with tons of coral colonies.

Let me ask you how your corals look? I'll say it once more, Neptune pH probes can be really bad, and it's quite possible that your pH is fine. If your corals are growing, and you have good color, then your pH might not be as low as you think. If it were that low, it would effect the calcification of the coral skeleton, and you would not see much growth.

Two things you should do after you find out for sure that your probes are not wacked out, is to add another reactor chamber, which could be as easy as making your own, or spending up to 100.00 to buy one from a manufacturer....Look at My Reef Creations for a second reactor...pushing the water through the second chamber will raise the pH of the effluent.

You can also drip your effluent down a PVC ramp, which will help oxygenate the water, thus raising the pH.

You can drip your effluent into a container, that you put an airstone and use an air pump too.

 

That’s not a bad idea.

The pH in the reactor is 6.82. I do see lots of growth but these past few days I just noticed some big colony are losing its colour.

I’m planning to get another pH probe. All of mine pH probes are PinPoint, should I stick with that or get a better one?

If the air in my house contains excess co2 then air stone will not work right?