Still have PH problems

[volcom69]

I understand the fact that im going to have a low ph and im not going to get rid of that. What bothers me is that my ph during the day is now going down instead of up. During the winter i never had that problem always the problem of going down during the night, but not the day. I dont get what has changed does humidity have something to do with it. My tank is in the living room right out in the open so right now im about lost and i really dont care about the low ph at night, but it bothers me now that it wants to fall during the day and i have to add kalk, and right now driping kalk is killing me with high alk, and it even droped my salinity. Any ideas why it would drop now during the day, but during winter when windows were closed it would still go up.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I understand the fact that im going to have a low ph and im not going to get rid of that.

Why? What have you tried?

Do you have a lot of people home during the day?

Do you add the limewater at night?

Both of those will drop the pH during the day relative to the night.

[volcom69]

I have a brand new house so my house has higher co2 levels in it and i have had low ph for a year now. Its only my wife and I here plus our dog. I have not had a problem with the ph droping during the day since about 1week and half ago or so. Cant open up the windows its about 94 here now i need the a/c on to help cool the tank, plus the tank is in the living room not near many windows. I do add kalk at night and now during the day cause if i dont my tank wont reach 8.0 at all during the day. Im just lost in how much kalk to add, i found that i added to much last week and made my salinity drop, so then i cut it back and now when i wake up my ph is at 7.79. With the amount of kalk im adding to the tank my alk has raised to high levels. Right now im adding the kalk every 3 hrs for about a half hour, but its not working really well. It just makes me frustrated and i cant figure out why the ph drops during the day. Its an mostly sps and clam tank mostly frags, but in the past 2 weeks its been really stressful on them and i hate to see that. Would adding 2-part instead of kalk be better. Im not sure im running out of ideas.

[volcom69]

Just checked my water parm. and its been the same since i started adding kalk:
Mag=1290 as much as i try to raise this it never raises
Calcium=450 which i like it in that range
Alk=11.8 but i use seachem so i usually subtract so thats about 10.8
Its been this way everytime i check which is several times a week here just to be on the safe side, but this ph is still the one that gets me. I guess im not sure if im adding the kalk right or not, and is there a reason why the mag wont go up either.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How are you mixing and adding the limewater?

[volcom69]

I have a PM Kalkreactor i make a kalk slurry and put it in the reactor and 4-6 times a day i run the pump to mix the kalk for 15min. I just add the kalk to the tank using a pump to pump it over every 3hrs at night for half hour. Im using a timer to pump it into my tank. I was thinking about just using a top-off but i dont know if that will be enough to keep my ph stable or not.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The reactor may not be maintaining saturation of the limewater. They often do not. Try mixing for 2 minutes every 30 min (if possible). You'll probably get some solids that way, which will also help raise pH, although may add a bit of added impurities as well.

[volcom69]

My timer wont do that i would have to find another timer that would. Would a fan under my cabniet with the sump would that help anything at all or more flow in my sump would that help anything.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

A fan could increase evaporation, but won't help with CO2 levels directly.


4 h after the last stirring, you might measure the potency of the reactor output to know how far from saturation it is. Conductivity is the best way, but you can take some effluent 10 min after stirring and compare it to the pH of fluid collected 4-6 h later. A difference of 0.3 pH units is a 50% reduction in potency.