Water issues

Since hooking my ca reactor I have been trying to get my parameters to normal values. Here are the results of my tests

January 5
Ca: 375 ppm
Alk: 13 dKH
Mg: 1300 ppm
Ph: 8.0

Since the test I added some calcium supplement to hopefully higher my Ca and lower my Alk. The supplement raised my Ca to 410, but the Alk stayed at 13.

Should I worry that my alk is kind of hight? Also would too much aeration be causing my ph to be a bit low?


Thanks (Im still a rookie with water parameters )

 

How fast if your effluent running and how many bubbles per minute do you have???

 

The reactor has not been running (c02 tank emptied because of missing washer). So the water that I tested was not influenced by the reactor.

Today I started the reactor back up and the effluent is about 1 drop per second and 1 bubble every 2 seconds. The effluent is at 525 ca and very high alk (+20).

 

I measured the ca and alk of tank today and got

Ca: 425 ppm
Alk: 16 dKH
Mg: Still have to test.
______________________
Ca Reactor ALk: 25dkh

I think I have to lower the effluent of the reactor even more since I dont have that much corals yet. Is it ok for my alk to be 16dkh?

Thanks

 

i would take a water sample to your LFS to verify the numbers, that is pretty high... how do your corals look?

 

I might take a sample later to test at the LFS. Corals seem fine, all my polyps are open and seem normal.

Thanks for suggestion.

 

What kind of reactor are you running? Your effluent seems a bit slow to me.

 

What kind of media are you using in your reactor? What is the effluent PH of the reactor? At this point with cal and alk both higher than you like, I would Stop the co2 and let your cal and alk fall to whatever level you want. Then turn back the co2 again to "maintain" that level.

Cannot see how two much aeration would cause your pH to be low unless you have a lot of co2 build up in your house. BTW 8.0 is not bad at all if this is the lowest point your pH gets in a given day (early morning right before lights on) If this is the measurement right before lights off, and your ph swings down to 7.8 late night, I may be concerned a little (very little).

 

I have a Knop C reactor and the media I am using is A.R.M. I have the effluent like that since thats what I had read before, plus I dont have much corals in there now.

The effluent ph is steady around 6.5-6.7 (controlled by controller). I wanted the Ca around 420, but wanted to lower the alk to about 11-12.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

Hey IBM, you are running the same reactor and media I am. To give you a little insight on how mine runs my bubble rate is roughly 60 bubbles per minute and my effluent is a very light steady stream. Almost as slow as you could make the stream without it breaking and being a fast drip.

Hope this helps you out and let me know what you figure out.