I have a reef tank with a calcium reactor run by a carbondoser. My ATO is gravity fed from an adjacent room. I'm adding a BRS doser to dose KALK when my pH drops below 8.0. What code would I use? Can I just do this at night?
I have a reef tank with a calcium reactor run by a carbondoser. My ATO is gravity fed from an adjacent room. I'm adding a BRS doser to dose KALK when my pH drops below 8.0. What code would I use? Can I just do this at night?
What is your ATO code? Probably better to alternate between Kalk for ATO and depending on pH rather than using Kalk to raise pH if you even do so.
Personally I think you are adding a bandaid rather than solving the root cause of the low pH (which is too much CO2 in the tank). Much better solutions IMO are to run your shimmer airline to pull air from outside or increasing surface agitation in your display and/or sump.
Another option which I feel would be better if the above 2 options aren't possible or don't help enough is to dose a specific amount of Kalk only during the 8 hour period that pH is the lowest and back off on your reactor to compensate. I would keep this independent of pH so that you can keep your parameters stable easier.
Also, If you aren't running your refugium lights the reverse of your display lights already, I would do so.
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Hello. Thanks for the input. I don't have ATO code because I gravity feed RODI from an adjacent room using a float valve. I currently use a CO2 scrubber on my skimmer intake, but still have lower pH. Originally, I used kalk in my ATO, but it was making a mess of my sump. Also, I wanted to run the ATO line much further from my garage and was worried about clogging. So, I removed kalk and added a calcium reactor. However, the reactor can't keep up with Alk and PH. So, I added a BRS doser to add Kalk at night. Just not sure what code to use on the controller.
Have you had a chance to get a rough estimate of how much volume you need each day to help keep your alk where it needs to be?
Also is it the 50ml/min or the 1.1ml/min unit?
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Not sure how much. I'm hoping to run it if the pH is below 8.0. It is a 1.1ml/min unit. When I tested the unt it is actually putting out 1.9ml
Do you have test records with dates for your alk? If you have those and can estimate your water volume (tank volume - rocks) I can calculate it for you.
The 1.1ml/min pump might not be big enough for Kalk dosing without a Kalk reactor though FYI. Most people use the 50ml/min for that unless they have a really small tank.
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My SPS tank is about 92 gallons including rock. Since adding the calcium reactor I'm adding about 1oz of Part II daily to keep ALK in check. However, pH has been dropping to around 7.8 and I want to keep it higher.
Unfortunately I don't think that is going to be a big enough pump. I am getting a required volume of 1.5 liters per day to make up for the 2 part additions and that would require that dosing pump to run for 23 hours a day.
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Should I dose Part 2 instead?
Is your calcium staying in line without additions? Just the alk is low?
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Calcium is fine, just the Alk and pH is a problem.
Then yeah, Just use this to dose part 2. The following code will work (I am assuming your low pH 8 hour period is 6pm to 2am, adjust accordingly)
Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/001:43/028:17 Then ON
If Time 02:00 to 17:59 Then OFF
If pH > 8.35 Then OFF
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Thanks so much. I was trying to use Kalk and Part II interchangeably. I'll give the code a try with Part II.
Me again. I set the doser to your code. When I set to Auto, the doser isn't turning on. My pH is below 8.35 and it's after 17:59. Any ideas?
That code was not to dose simply to control pH. That code was to dose the 30ml you were adding every day during during the period your pH is lowest. You should see it turn on for 1 min 43 seconds at the top of every hour and at 30 min past.
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You won't see a huge impact on pH but it should get you to 7.85 or 7.9
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Ok. Got it. I just was worried it wasn't working at all. I'll turn on the log and give it a try.
And if you find yourself needing to add more or less than 30ml a day, this is the code generator I used.
https://www.reeftronics.net/adpg/dosingcalc.php
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Thanks Zombie
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