Ya I know its normal, just really impressed by how quickly things changed. Like overnight since being out of the house. Its a 1700 sq foot house and just my wife, 3 y.o. daughter, and me. Surprised we generate that much CO2! Also surprised the metabolism of the corals can accelerate so quickly to impact alk to that extent overnight.
Yea man, kids are the worse- just running around breathing and talking without a care in the world or any consideration of how it effects the reef tank. Next time you're arguing with your wife, gently let her know she's lowering your ph and you're not ignoring her- you're just trying to not make it worse.
You sure the alk dosing pump is working/calibrated properly? Lol.I can’t believe how much my pH increased just from the family being away on vacation this week! Overnight my tank has shifted 0.2-0.3 pH units and my alk consumption has more than doubled. I actually had to ask my tank sitter to take a water sample to the LFS because I was concerned something was awry with my trident, but the alk decrease was confirmed! Fortunately I could adjust dosing remotely through the apex.
Yes. I have been able to raise the alk by increasing dosing and the math works out as far as volume added and observed increase. I was concerned the trident test was not working right, but I had my dad stop at my house and take a water sample to the LFS. Test result from the LFS matched what I observed on apex, so I think its all real.
BrilliantYea man, kids are the worse- just running around breathing and talking without a care in the world or any consideration of how it effects the reef tank. Next time you're arguing with your wife, gently let her know she's lowering your ph and you're not ignoring her- you're just trying to not make it worse.
Lmk how that goes.
Why you raising so high?Ya I know its normal, just really impressed by how quickly things changed. Like overnight since being out of the house. Its a 1700 sq foot house and just my wife, 3 y.o. daughter, and me. Surprised we generate that much CO2! Also surprised the metabolism of the corals can accelerate so quickly to impact alk to that extent overnight.
The system is about 9 years old. Mixed reef. I just rebooted it in January after a period of serious neglect, so the corals are still somewhat young, other than the survivors of my criminal neglect, but growing fast.
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 7.9-8.2 (this week is closer to 8.1-8.4)
Temp: 78-79 F
Alk: 9.5 dKH (dropped to 8.5 this week before correction to doser. Sitting around 9.1 now, raising slowly.)
Ca: 440 ppm
Mg: 1380 ppm
NO3: 10 ppm
PO4: 0.1 ppm
Just checkin'.
I run at 9.5 dKH. Have for many years. For me it strikes a good balance between reasonable dosing volumes and growth rates in my SPS. It also helps keep my pH up since I have so much CO2 to contend with. My tank is old, so I don’t have to worry about precipitation. When it was a new tank, I ran closer to 8 dKH.
Fair question! I thought the same at first, but confirmed the best I could while being a few hundred miles awayJust checkin'.
Ya, I think I may have to find a way to keep the pH up this high when I get back. Based on the doubled Alk consumption at higher pH, I assume that means double the growth rate… Not something I want to be missing out on!
I think there is plenty of surface agitation since the pH reacted so fast to us being out of the house and lowering the CO2. I have a big skimmer and a basement sump with separate 20g refugium so lots of air/surface interface.
Haha, there are days I wish…
