There are lots of discussions on daily alk swings but cant find anything on long(er) term swings. My highest daily swing is .2 but sometimes it'll drift up and down around .5 - 1 over a period of a week or weeks. Is this normal when running a calcium reactor?
CalRX Users: Does your alk drift up and down? (long term)
- Thread starter lshin037
- Start date
Yes, it can fluctuate, hence why I test weekly. 1 is pretty big different swing tho in my experience. Only time that happened was when my PH probe failed on me and I didn't realize it.
Your demand can change as your tank grows. Secondly, effluent flow might not be consistent either. I'm sure there are other variables that I'm not thinking of...
How long ago did you set up your reactor? Is your tank mature or still growing?
Your demand can change as your tank grows. Secondly, effluent flow might not be consistent either. I'm sure there are other variables that I'm not thinking of...
How long ago did you set up your reactor? Is your tank mature or still growing?
The reactor has been setup for about a year now. Tank is about 1.5 years and have no problems with growth. The biggest daily fluctuation is 0.2...usually around 0.1. Once in awhile, i'll drift up over several days and then come back down over several days. This drift happens over a course of weeks too. When your Ph probe failed, im guessing the swing was in a day, right?
I'll be perfectly honest, I don't test often enough to answer your question. I have found that when my media gets low the alk is low as well. I do agree that growth rate can increase consumption and lower overall alk level of not adjusted.
Well... I tested weekly. So by the time I caught it, it dropped from 8.2 to 4.4. Caused a mess.
Secondly, how are you running your reactor? Pull with a peristaltic pump or push off a main pump? Back when I T'ed off my return and pushed, my fluctuation was a mess cause my effluent flow was hardly consistent. Pain in the butt.
4.4??? wow. I thought calcification halted when it gets to 6.
I have it configured in pull method with a masterflex pump at 80ml/min. I thought the slow drift may be from PH. I've seen this when dosing 2-part with sodium hydroxide. When the PH would rise, alk would go down due to increased consumption (or maybe precipitation). My PH has been drifting lately especially when my wife and son are not at home for extended periods of time.
I have it configured in pull method with a masterflex pump at 80ml/min. I thought the slow drift may be from PH. I've seen this when dosing 2-part with sodium hydroxide. When the PH would rise, alk would go down due to increased consumption (or maybe precipitation). My PH has been drifting lately especially when my wife and son are not at home for extended periods of time.
Yes, my tank took a turn for the worst and lost my entire pink lemonade colony and all others had severe burned tips. Took several months to recover.
Well, that could be the issue right there if you're seeing PH increases correlate with Alk consumption. Didn't know two people would impact it that much to be honest in co2 levels in the home, but every home is different. Is this the only time it occurs, the drifting?
Also, how are you determining how to adjust your calcium reactor? I highly recommend this method if you never used it before: http://reef.diesyst.com/reactor/reactor.html
I have a kalk reactor dosing 5000ml a day and a co2 scrubber. When they're not around for a few days, the Ph goes up to 8.15-8.2. When they're home, the highest it goes to is 8.1. The alk drifting doesnt always correlate to the PH. Like I said, its not consistent. Happens maybe once every 2-3 months. Ive read posts about people saying they dont worry about or adjust their reactor if it stays between 7-10dkh. I was wondering if their alk level do the same and thats why they mention it. I think I used that page in my tuning stages.
every 2-3 months? could it be your effluent rate changing? wear on the pump itself or the hose that causes fluctuation? there could be so many factors. How often do you calibrate your pump? I use to be better and do it ever 2-3 months, but now I just wait for an fluctuation before doing so. Complacency is the worst and I'm terrible about it. I should probably go home and calibrate my pump now that you bring it up. lol.
I wasn't testing frequently enough to see daily swings. I did calibrate my pump every time I calibrated the pH probe though. So every 12-14 weeks.
I set a reminder to change the tubing every 6 months and thats when I check the calibration. I do a manual check (timer) in between. My masterflex never needed adjusting the year I've had it.
There are people with daily swings of 1 dkh. There are several old polls on R2R. That's why I havent worried about it but I wanted to see if this was a normal thing. I guess not.
yeah, i never test daily. if anything, test every 2-3 days when i was calibrating cause daily consumption can vary so much. that site i linked even suggest 2 days when adjusting your calc reactor.
