Strange Water Test Results...hmmmm

[gnashty]

Well, I did a 20% WC yesterday and finally hooked up my BRS Dosers for 2 part.

After the WC I did a full water test and set my dosers to dose 1.1 ml alk and 2.2 ml calcium per hours, 24 hours a day.

Here are my test results from yesterday
SG - 1.025
Alk - 3 meq/l (seachem)
Calcium - 400 (elos)
Mag - 1150 (elos)

I manually dosed some 2 part (BRS recipe 1) and mag to bring it up to:

Alk - 3.5 meq/l (dosed 240 ml)
Calcium - 420 (dosed 500 ml)
Mag - 1250 (dosed 1000 ml)

Here are my test results from just a minute ago

SG - 1.026
Alk - 3 meq/l
Calcium - 400
Mag - 1000

I tested twice, Im puzzled by these results....

 

[ralph atl]

I would dose 4 times a day (and do) instead of hourly. There might not be enough liquid that is coming out of the tubes to siphon. At first, it might take a while for things to become stable, depending upon what type of ALK as some deplete faster than others. I remember back in the day it taking an awful lot of mag to get to where I wanted it, but once there and stable, it doesn't deplete very fast.

 

[gnashty]

mysterybox;573840 wrote: I would dose 4 times a day (and do) instead of hourly. There might not be enough liquid that is coming out of the tubes to siphon. At first, it might take a while for things to become stable, depending upon what type of ALK as some deplete faster than others. I remember back in the day it taking an awful lot of mag to get to where I wanted it, but once there and stable, it doesn't deplete very fast.

Thanks for the feedback Ralph

I used a program from the DA forums to set my dosers on the RKE, doing every hour keeps my PH from skyrocketing and my doser from turning off (I have it set to turn off if PH rises above 8.45.). Not sure what you mean about siphon - im using perilstatic pumps.

I watched it drip and it is pretty accurate each hour, 1.1 ml per minute - the drip lines are set above the sump 6" above water surface. I just have to keep playing with my times. Had it set to 1 minute but then saw my levels were not where I wanted them so I stepped it up to 4 minutes per hour - this was too much and PH was going too high and alk finally raised to 4 meq/l. Im back to 1 minute so when I test tonight I will adjust as needed.

Youre right - it does take a TON of mag solution to get me where I want to be. I was puzzled it went from 1150 to 1000 after dosing 1000 ml! I must have done something incorrect along the way.

 

[ralph atl]

FYI: I have found perilstatic pumps less accurate at smaller doses especially after time wears/stretches (it could just be mine) the tubes. It is not nessessary to pump hourly, albeit there is nothing wrong with it either. Fwiw.

 

[gnashty]

mysterybox;573973 wrote: FYI: I have found perilstatic pumps less accurate at smaller doses especially after time wears/stretches (it could just be mine) the tubes. It is not nessessary to pump hourly, albeit there is nothing wrong with it either. Fwiw.

Thanks for the heads up - this is my first time using these types of pumps. Im just doing hourly because it was really simple to program (Stole the programming code from someone else) and because I was told it would be a more stable way to dose, I was also afraid to run these pumps for more time and less intervals due to the nature of the pumps

 

[gnashty]

Well, I am in 3 days in on dosing - ive had to adjust my times a little to keep from overshooting my PH but all seems to be ok.

My alk is holding steady at 3.5 meq/l (does anyone recommend going higher?) and my calcium is right about 415 ppm.

I guess I am depleting the alk at a decent rate considering I am pumping about 52 ml of alk solution in per day and its holding

 

[acroholic]

Here is a handy dandy KH dKH/Meq/ppm conversion chart for anyone that needs one. From Glassbox Design.

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[gnashty]

I was totally just looking for one of these the other day!!! thanks Dave!

So would you say my 3.5 or roughly 10 dkh is a good place to be?

 

[acroholic]

I think 8-11 is a good range. some say 8-12.

Some chemistry Guru can correct me here, but I think the higher your kH is, the higher your balanced calcium reading will be. but you don't want to go too high regarding KH because you can cause precipitation of CaCO3 at too high a KH.

I am trying to adjust my KH to 10 and see how it is. I had to replace my old calcium reactor with a larger one, so I am tweaking it now.

This would be some good reading for you Gary:

 

[gnashty]

Acroholic;574619 wrote: I think 8-11 is a good range. some say 8-12.

Some chemistry Guru can correct me here, but I think the higher your kH is, the higher your balanced calcium reading will be. but you don't want to go too high regarding KH because you can cause precipitation of CaCO3 at too high a KH.

I am trying to adjust my KH to 10 and see how it is. I had to replace my old calcium reactor with a larger one, so I am tweaking it now.

This would be some good reading for you Gary:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.php">http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.php</a>[/QUOTE]

Then ill stay where im at on the alk

its funny Dave - ive read this and several others a few times already - I just dont retain informaiton like I used to...lol

Im gonna read it again

 

[gnashty]

WOW! I read it again and it now makes sense (well, kind of) now that I am dosing 2 part.

 

[acroholic]

gnashty;574641 wrote: WOW! I read it again and it now makes sense (well, kind of) now that I am dosing 2 part.

We have two options, 2 part dosing like you or calcium reactors. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other.

On thing with a calcium reactor is that the calcium and alk are released in a normal ratio, so you don't have to manually adjust it until you get it right, but you do have to dial the reactor in.

And I did a cost analysis of 2 Part vs a calcium reactor a while back, and I think that after about 1 1/2 years the higher up front costs of the reactor/gas cylinder/controller, etc equal out with the 2 part setup's lower initial cost.

 

[gnashty]

Acroholic;574719 wrote: We have two options, 2 part dosing like you or calcium reactors. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other.

On thing with a calcium reactor is that the calcium and alk are released in a normal ratio, so you don't have to manually adjust it until you get it right, but you do have to dial the reactor in.

And I did a cost analysis of 2 Part vs a calcium reactor a while back, and I think that after about 1 1/2 years the higher up front costs of the reactor/gas cylinder/controller, etc equal out with the 2 part setup's lower initial cost.

I just started so Im going to see how it goes for a while. I had to dial the alk down by 1.1 ml per hour when I got home because my PH was at 8.44. Im still trying to find the sweet spot without getting myself in trouble.