Will parameters naturally stabilize over time? Or is dosing required.

[jayteerq]

Hi guys. New to reefing. This is my first ever reef tank. My tank is only a few months and I’m really striving for stabile parameters as I’ve learned that is the key to success. My question to you is, will water parameters stabilize on their own over time? Or is dosing required to get them in the range we desire and manual input is then required to keep them stabile? Currently I am only dosing kalkwasser to try and find a stabile PH above 8.0. Other than that I don’t dose anything and I’ve noticed my parameters jump up and down. Not sure why but they do. I’m sure the kalkwasser makes alk and cal rise. But not sure why they lower as my dosing is the same everyday.

 

[Troylee]

No reason to dose anything till you add corals.. water changes alone will keep them stable until your coral load starts building up then you’ll need to dose all for reef or a 3 part bailing etc… for now back off the kalkwasser and don’t sweat your ph.

 

[jayteerq]

No reason to dose anything till you add corals.. water changes alone will keep them stable until your coral load starts building up then you’ll need to dose all for reef or a 3 part bailing etc… for now back off the kalkwasser and don’t sweat your ph.

Really? My ph will drop to like 7.6-7.7 it seems like my corals don’t open when it’s that low

 

[Formulator]

Really? My ph will drop to like 7.6-7.7 it seems like my corals don’t open when it’s that low

Are you running a skimmer and do you have flow breaking the surface of your tank water (rippling)? High CO2 will cause your pH to be low. You are right that you really need to keep your pH above 7.7 for corals, but you shouldn’t need to dose anything to achieve that. Something else is going on - I suspect not enough gas exchange with the water.

 

[Troylee]

Really? My ph will drop to like 7.6-7.7 it seems like my corals don’t open when it’s that low

Pics of your tank would help… your alk and calcium are getting borderline to high honestly.. it seems your corals aren’t uptaking it or you don’t have enough corals. Co2 is gonna be your problem with ph if the apex is truly reading correctly.. mine is always off after a couple weeks.

 

[Rappa]

I would calibrate the PH probe again, if you haven't already.

 

[jayteerq]

Are you running a skimmer and do you have flow breaking the surface of your tank water (rippling)? High CO2 will cause your pH to be low. You are right that you really need to keep your pH above 7.7 for corals, but you shouldn’t need to dose anything to achieve that. Something else is going on - I suspect not enough gas exchange with the water.

Hi yes. Thank you for your help. I have 4 return nozzles breaking the surface of the water along with a gyre pushing water horizontally. I have a co2 scrubber connected to my skimmer but that doesn’t seem to do much. I have an AIO system 65g so my skimmer isn’t that big pulling much air.

 

[jayteerq]

Pics of your tank would help… your alk and calcium are getting borderline to high honestly.. it seems your corals aren’t uptaking it or you don’t have enough corals. Co2 is gonna be your problem with ph if the apex is truly reading correctly.. mine is always off after a couple weeks.

Oh wow good to know. I haven’t calibrated in a couple weeks. Do you use the apex calibration fluid? Here’s a pic of my tank taken this weekend.

 

[Troylee]

Oh wow good to know. I haven’t calibrated in a couple weeks. Do you use the apex calibration fluid? Here’s a pic of my tank taken this weekend.

Tank looks good… if you’re using a c02 scrubber and dosing all that kalk your ph should be up there! If at all possible I would open a door and a window to get a draft through the house and bring down the co2 levels. It should only take a couple minutes to exchange the o2 levels in your home.. see where your ph goes from there and if it’s still low I’d look into calibrating your ph probe again.. yes the Neptune one is fine or Hannah etc.

 

[Rappa]

Beautiful tank. I love your rockscape design. Nice job!

 

[jayteerq]

Beautiful tank. I love your rockscape design. Nice job!

Thank you so much! I love your tank too in your profile pic!

 

[jayteerq]

Tank looks good… if you’re using a c02 scrubber and dosing all that kalk your ph should be up there! If at all possible I would open a door and a window to get a draft through the house and bring down the co2 levels. It should only take a couple minutes to exchange the o2 levels in your home.. see where your ph goes from there and if it’s still low I’d look into calibrating your ph probe again.. yes the Neptune one is fine or Hannah etc.

Thank you so much! But I don’t get why I struggle so much with low PH. I’ve literally tried every method. It might be worth mentioning… the tank is in the basement and filled with a lot of living people breathing on my tank 6 adults 1 toddler and 1 dog. Idk maybe that’s why my natural PH levels are low? I’m truthfully hoping my apex PH probe is just junk. I’ll double check it today with my Red Sea test kit even though that’s not as accurate since you have to color match.

 

[Troylee]

Thank you so much! But I don’t get why I struggle so much with low PH. I’ve literally tried every method. It might be worth mentioning… the tank is in the basement and filled with a lot of living people breathing on my tank 6 adults 1 toddler and 1 dog. Idk maybe that’s why my natural PH levels are low? I’m truthfully hoping my apex PH probe is just junk. I’ll double check it today with my Red Sea test kit even though that’s not as accurate since you have to color match.

Do you have a heater or furnace down there? Water heater etc? They will put off a lot of c02 and cause it to stay low. A couple more lights on your tank wouldn’t hurt either! The higher you can get it during the day the less it will drop at night.

 

[jayteerq]

Do you have a heater or furnace down there? Water heater etc? They will put off a lot of c02 and cause it to stay low. A couple more lights on your tank wouldn’t hurt either! The higher you can get it during the day the less it will drop at night.

Yeah im looking to upgrade to XR15's and maybe some AI Blades to light up the shadows. I do have a water heater in the closet probably 10-15' away from the tank :O
I have floor heaters but they're not currently on.

 

[Formulator]

With a CO2 scrubber and good flow at 11+ dkh there is no conceivable way your pH would be so low. The CO2 concentration in the room air needed to do that would be making you sick… Your meter must be wrong. I would recalibrate before anything else. You need to use pH 7 and pH 10 calibration standards. Brand does not matter.

 

[jayteerq]

With a CO2 scrubber and good flow at 11+ dkh there is no conceivable way your pH would be so low. The CO2 concentration in the room air needed to do that would be making you sick… Your meter must be wrong. I would recalibrate before anything else. You need to use pH 7 and pH 10 calibration standards. Brand does not matter.

Sounds good. Thank you for the clarity. Would you say the Hanna calibration fluids will work fine?

 

[Troylee]

Sounds good. Thank you for the clarity. Would you say the Hanna calibration fluids will work fine?

That’s what I use.

 

[Formulator]

Sounds good. Thank you for the clarity. Would you say the Hanna calibration fluids will work fine?

Yep. Also, going back to your first post, with Alk and calcium being so high, it is likely precipitating out of the water which is why you see it go down after dosing. But hopefully you will get the pH sorted out and can stop or significantly decrease dosing kalk. Somewhere in the 8.5-9.5 dkh range is where most folks run their tanks, except for very heavily stocked mature SPS tanks which may run higher to maintain growth rates. Calcium should be 450 max, with most folks running around 400, give or take 20-30 ppm.