OP
OP
ralquist
Active Member
Got a wild hair and got 25ft of 3/8 tubing and ran a line through my living room out a window for a test to see 1) if it would still skim with that long of a run 2) will it increase my pH. Decided to do this on a 94 degree day, my ac hates me. Skimmer seemed to work but bubbles diminished. Let this run for about 5 hrs (dunno if this is enough time to tell) Started with a pH of 8.2, within an 30 min this had dropped to 8.1 and back down to 7.9 (like this tank normally does) when I disconnected it. I didn't get the results I was hopping for but was pretty impractical to begin with and now I know.
Next step was my alk trying to keep in the 8.5-9 range, decided to try dosing Kalk in addition to AFR (not mixed together) in the evening when pH starts to drop. Tank has been using more alk and up to 28ml of AFR daily. About 1/2 max dose for AFR but reason for kalk was the pH boost. If I can do this without sending my alk/cal through the roof its a win, if not I will just continue to increase my AFR dose and live with the pH.
I'm still learning all this but also seems the pH may possibly diminished by the carbon dosing also, I was at a pretty high dose to start 5-6ml. Now down to 2ml daily so maybe that will improve in the next week.
Happy Friday!!
Next step was my alk trying to keep in the 8.5-9 range, decided to try dosing Kalk in addition to AFR (not mixed together) in the evening when pH starts to drop. Tank has been using more alk and up to 28ml of AFR daily. About 1/2 max dose for AFR but reason for kalk was the pH boost. If I can do this without sending my alk/cal through the roof its a win, if not I will just continue to increase my AFR dose and live with the pH.
I'm still learning all this but also seems the pH may possibly diminished by the carbon dosing also, I was at a pretty high dose to start 5-6ml. Now down to 2ml daily so maybe that will improve in the next week.
Happy Friday!!
