High Alk, Med pH, High Mag, No Ca

[shanepike]

I am new to the SPS-keeping game. I've had a calcium reactor for almost 3 months now, and I'm struggling to figure out how to get everything dialed in so that the levels stay right.

Right now, here are my levels:
Mag - 1340
Alk - 5.0
Ca - < 290 (below the scale on my Red Sea measuring kit)
pH - 8.2
Temp - 78.5

In the time that I've been running the reactor, Ca has consistent been at the bottom of, or even completely off, the chart. It has never been decent. Mag has always been super high (as it is now). Alk has always been decent and only within the last few days has it gotten this high (as evidenced by my GSP being so under expanded).

The pH in the tank varies by about 0.1 in a given 24-hour period. Once it drops below 8.2, I shut off the CO2 so that it doesn't drop the pH any lower. The effluent continues to drip, however, and the pH will bottom out at about 8.15. (My Korallin c1502 does not have a pH probe in the reactor itself.)

The light in my fuge runs from 10pm to 7am. My blues run 10am to 9pm. My whites run 10:30am to 8:30pm.

I've been reading, and I still have much more reading to do, but I wanted to ask as well in case there was something simple I could do that I haven't figured out yet that would significantly raise the Ca while gently easing the other two down a hair.

Off to reread Acroholic's great thread again

 

[shanepike]

In once again re-reading my manual, I see now that I haven't yet achieved CO2 saturation. I'm going to focus on that and see what effect that has.

I also suspect I may need to dose Ca just to get up to levels that can be maintained rather than relying on the reactor to bring levels up to snuff.

 

[eric b]

Shane,
Do you have any sps or any corals in your system now? If so you might need to dose to get it back to proper levels. I just set one of these up (Same brand larger model) for a friend and the directions in the manual always left me with excess co2 build up in the lid every few days no matter how slow I had it bubble into reactor, but I was lucky to have a probe in the lid also but you can also run the effluent out line into a "T" that you can screw in a probe and put a needle valve on the exit of that and it will get you close unless you drill the lid and install one there.

I managed to fix his so it is working correctly and there is no more co2 build up in the reactor and the ph in the reactor stays around 6.5 all the time. If you will be at the frag swap tomorrow look me up and if you can't find me ask Seth or Gary and they can direct you and I will explain how I fixed his to make it work correctly. Not too difficult to get working correctly and if you have a controller you can just set it up so that it controls the solenoid based on the ph probe readings. Hope that will help or if not going tomorrow shoot me a pm and I will send you my number.

 

[chris s]

ShanePike;863771 wrote:
I also suspect I may need to dose Ca just to get up to levels that can be maintained rather than relying on the reactor to bring levels up to snuff.

You always want to dose up to the level you want and then use the reactor to maintain that level. The reactor adds a balanced Ca/Alk mixture. Trying to bring one up will spike the other.

You are on the right track. Once it's dialed in it's easy to maintain.

 

[1mbrews8]

^ this.. dose first..

 

[shanepike]

Guys, thanks SO much for all the advice. Based on what I've learned so far, this all (finally) is starting to click. I finally achieved saturation tonight, so I backed it down and will slowly get it dialed in.

But yes...
I will try to find you tomorrow Eric.
I will dose to get Ca up.
I will try to get the pH probe working.

Thanks so much!

 

[chris s]

If you want to add a probe to the reactor you can modify a 1/2" John guest fitting. They have them at HD and lowes. Remove the release ring and o-ring and carefully run a 1/2" drill through the fitting. You are removing the lip that stops the tubing from going too far. With it removed you have a quick water tight fitting for a ph probe. I have NPT taps up to 1/2" if you need to borrow one.