ph drop from rx
 

now that dowflake is out i am going to need a way to supplement cal daily so it seems a cal rx will be necessary. the problem is that my ph reads at 7.85 daily. i want to know how much generally a reactor can drop a tanks ph. i know it depends on how much coral you have. i have a 180 filled with stony corals so demand will continue to increase. do you guys think i could run a reactor without killing my tank with low ph especially at night? fuge is on reverse photoperiod already

Besure your testing in the morning around the same time for more accurate consistant readings. Leaving the refug. light off during the day and turning on after main tank light go out would help to maintain a more consistant reading.

I'd suggest looking into limewater. :)

i dose limewater through a nielsen reactor now. should i add more at a time to keep ph higher so i can run the ca rx. it isnt enough alone to keep up with my levels. right now i dose 1 and 1/4 cup of both of recipe 1 to keep up right now. what do you think?

More solids in the reactor does not usually lead to more dissolving.

i dose limewater through a nielsen reactor now. should i add more at a time to keep ph higher so i can run the ca rx. it isnt enough alone to keep up with my levels. right now i dose 1 and 1/4 cup of both of recipe 1 to keep up right now. what do you think?

double post

so what could i do to make sure ph doesnt kill my animals when i use a ca rx.

Have you measured the potency of the limewater exiting the reactor? Conductivity is best, but alkalinity or calcium or pH can also be used.

well i tried to measure ph with my probe but it wouldnt measure beyond 10.5. i assumed that meant it was pretty high. i am using the lime from twopartsolution so i dont know if that makes a difference. my alk is pretty steady and stays around 10 but my calcium goes between 400 and below 350 in less than a week. it is calcium that is the problem. if twopart's version wasnt so expensive i would use that. it was much cheaper to get dow but... so if i could just find a way to do calcium cost effectively i wouldnt need a reactor.

Yes, but almost any potency of limewater will be above 11.5, so that's not much gauge. The brand doesn't really matter.

[B]my alk is pretty steady and stays around 10 but my calcium goes between 400 and below 350 in less than a week. [/B]

Sounds like measurement error. Calcium won't vary without adding a lot of buffers, or by doing big water changes with salt mixes with calcium very different than the tank.

well i was doing weekly water changes with IO salt which was real low. i recently switched to RC salt so i am hoping that will help. how much calcium should be gone every seven days? should it stay above 400 if it starts above 400ppm?

If you are adding enough alkalinity via limewater to keep it stable, then calcium will also be unchanged.

Have you measured the calcium in the Reef Crystals? Some batches have recently come in especially low. So it may be the water changes that are dropping it.