wanareef Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Been having problems with trying to keep SPS in the tank. After a couple of days the polyps close up and starts to die on me. (This is after the vacation diaster back in Nov). Zoos close up, the green bta's tentacals are shorten the xenia are laying low and not plusing. I have a calicum reactor going and don't know how to fine tune it. DOH! The probe is in the reactor and reads 6.8 for PH and the effluent flow is 300L / minute. The sand is fine sugar size and toward the front of the tank it's starting to clump/harden up and turn brown. According to the recalibrated SM122 the ro/di is at 9.9PH, should I buffer this to lower it or?? Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwcoralfarm Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 It would be hard to say without knowing the size of your tank and it's current PH (maybe I missed that part) it is very possible that the low PH of your effluent would counteract with the high PH of your freshwater but this really depends on the size of your tank. The sand clumping up inside your tank has nothing to do with your PH (not directly anyway) I would look at a possible algae outbreak. Which all added up would leave me to believe you might have a nitrate/phosphate problem and should be looking in that direction. In most any decent setup your PH will buffer itself pretty well as long as you aren't dosing KH (which you are getting from you're reactor). If you are running a refugium try running your lights over that at night complete opposite cycle from your main tank, the effect will help balance your PH from co2 being released both day and night. If you are not running a refugium then I highly recommend it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefnjunkie Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 I have a calicum reactor going and don't know how to fine tune it. DOH! The probe is in the reactor and reads 6.8 for PH and the effluent flow is 300L / minute. What are your Ca and KH readings, in your display as well as for your effluent? Is the solenoid for your reactor running 24/7 or do you have the solenoid on a timer or ran off of another controller. I thought I saw you have a neptune coming, if so all this will soon be solved.(clap) Without some type of controller, I was always having to monitor absorbtion of KH/Ca and adjust my reactor-I did not run my solenoid 24/7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kshack Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 No, do not buffer your RO. PH testers can not get an accurate reading of RO/DI water, so you really do not have 9.9ph. You also should not have an output of 300L/min. If you do, and your reactor ph is 6.8, I would suspect your tank Kh is very high. Try an output of 60 drips per minute and keep the reactor Ph at 6.5-6.8 (30-45 bubbles per min?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new school Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 +1 kshack, im thinking the meter is bad or off. check your ph manually and kh. either that or your r.o. needs membranes replaced. should never be 9.9? more around a neutral 7. also being this high could mean you have very hard water so try to test the tds of it coming out after r.o purification. if high this will cause super find sand to bind together as well.......how much water flow do you have? co2 trapped in your sand bed will absolutely cause cementing of substrate. increase flow, usually that will help precipitate co2 out of the aquarium and aid in flow over you sand bed a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanareef Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 No, do not buffer your RO. PH testers can not get an accurate reading of RO/DI water, so you really do not have 9.9ph. You also should not have an output of 300L/min. If you do, and your reactor ph is 6.8, I would suspect your tank Kh is very high. Try an output of 60 drips per minute and keep the reactor Ph at 6.5-6.8 (30-45 bubbles per min?). Sorry it should have been 300ml, according to the SM122 that just got recalibrated, Ph in the reactor is about 6.8 and yes the KH is at 12-13dkh per new Salifert test kit (but could be my eyes when it changes color form blue to pink) Thanks, I'll make the adjustment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanareef Posted January 19, 2010 Author Share Posted January 19, 2010 Took some water down to Patrick's SWF and: Calc = 450 alk = 9 PH = 8.3 NO3 = 0 - 5 more 0 All done on Elos test kits So, now what. The SPS polyps are still closed up or dying. The softies, LPS, grn and red bta's are doing great DOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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