GFO & PH

[jimsflies]

It occurred to me that I should take a look at everything you have going on before answering this thread...but when I clicked on your little fish bowl, there was no Members Reef thread?

[pinhigh1886]

I have been meaning to start one. I will get it going!

[Manoj's Reef]

My suggestion would be not to chase ph much. Focus on alk and calcium and keep it in check. A simple change in the amount of oxygen at home can cause ph changes.

Calcium above 500 is no harm at all, many reefes keep calcium above 500 the only side effect being that you will have to clean the pumps more often due to deposition of calcium.

I would not recommend every day water changes, since you have stopped calcium dosing the number will come down gradually.

[jimsflies]

Continue adding alk (Part B) with help keep the pH up. I'm guessing since you only mentioned calcium more of that was added to the system. The concern with overdosing calcium is that it reacts with alkalinity and magnesium and throws those out of balance. What is the max reading on your Ca test kit?

I agree with Manoj...don't chase pH. Strive to maintain calcium and alkalinity levels.

[pinhigh1886]

My Alk and Cal stay dead on and have been that way since I got my BRS dosers. I hooked them up to APEX and inadvertenly turned on the Cal doser for 14.5 hrs. Test is showing about 600 for Cal. Not too worried about it but it would have been a lot worse if it was Alk I left on for 14.5 hrs. Jim that is why I was asking about an APEX alarm code to prevent OD again. I m not chasing PH if you read the whole thread I am trying to understand the relationship between GFO and PH. I had a PH drop as you can see from the Graph above the day I changed out my GFO Reactor. Wasn't too bad a drop but wondered if it was indeed the GFO change or something else.

[jimsflies]

Nearly everything impacts pH. The beauty of the Apex graph is you can quantify those changes as long as you only change one thing at a time.

Also you should verify the calibration of your probe if you are using that as part of your dosing program (which I would also recommend).

[pinhigh1886]

Yeah the GFO change was the only thing I changed that day so I assumed that was the cause for the dip. I wanted to understand the chemistry behind it.

I have a PH statement at the end of my Alk Dose program but like you said too many things effect PH for me to use PH as my only dose trigger. I know PH is a little more critical when using a Calcium reactor.

If PH < 7.9 Then OFF