Baking the Baking Soda

[Rcpilot]

I've been adding 20ml per day of my baking soda solution. Alkalinity has climbed from my original starting point of 8dkh to 10dkh. pH is climbing as well. Started out about 7.8 and it's up to 8.0 - maybe 8.1 and stable for now.

I thought about increasing the dosage to 30ml per day, but decided not to rush it. It IS climbing up slowly, so I'll take it slow and steady until the desired parameters are reached.

I just have a weaker solution than the original recipe in Randys articles. It's fine with me though. Just making slow changes. Corals are looking better. Brown algae bloom started this week.

It's weird to me. You cycle a tank with established live rock and live sand. Let it go completely through the entire cycle. Test the water. Perfect. Let it sit a week and test again. Change a bit of water. Let it sit. Test it again in a few days. Looks perfect.

Drop corals in - pH goes to sh*t and the diatoms come out. :lol:

 

[tankedchemist]

Hey RC, I think you're on the right track. Keep going slowly because changes in pH are on a logarithmic scale, so a 1.00 increase in pH is actually 10x more basic than your starting stuff.

Corals definitely do cause pH to change... they're removing CO2 from the water, and adding back O2, but more importantly they're also consuming your alk... which makes you more susceptible to pH changes. I have no idea why the diatoms also happen, but I have seen the same thing this week, in a tank that had nothing in it for 2 months except rock and sand. it's definitely weird.

 

[Rcpilot]

Checked it this morning at 8am before the tank lights were on. Refugium light is on 24/7. pH today at 8am with tank dark and refugium on was 8.0.

I shot it with 20ml of solution and left about 9am. Just got home and checked it at 3pm. 8.2.

I'm going to keep testing it and not add anymore solution. I want to see when it drops off and how fast. It took about 4 days to take my pH from 7.8+/- up to 8.2 adding 20ml per day.

EDIT:
Just checked.
dKH at 10

 

[yote]

Sounds like you may have it going your way Rc.

 

[dcantucson]

I think I'm learning something here.

 

[Rcpilot]

No more testing last night. Tested at 8am this morning.

pH 8.2
dKH 10

Tested again at 5pm this afternoon.
pH 8.2
dKH 10

Nothing has been dosed in 32hrs. As soon as it drops dKH below 9 or pH under 8.0 I'm going to hit it with 10ml of the solution. I'll give it an hour and then test it. Then wait several hours - as much as 12 hrs - and begin testing again regularly to see how it is doing.

My goal here is to see how much of this I need to dose on a daily basis to keep the pH and dKH up where I want them. It could takes weeks or even months to nail this down to a regular schedule. Water changes will effect this, so I'll need to figure out how much it effects the tank when I do a water change. Maybe a 5ml shot of solution to get it back on track?

Tag along if you want. I'll post daily readings and dosing regimen if people want to see it. I'm still recording it for myself but not sure if others want a tank chronicle of my water testing and dosing procedures.

 

[yote]

Your on the right track Rc.So yeah,post what your getting so the rest of us can keep up.

 

[daugherty]

glad to sww that you are getting it figured out

 

[Rcpilot]

Tested this morning at 8am. Same results. pH 8.2 and dKH 10.

Just got home and tested at again at 3:30pm and exact same readings. Used an API drop test first. That's what I've been using for all these tests so far. Got cautious and used a salifert test with all the syringes and different chemicals. 2 drops of this and then fill the syringe of that and drop it in until it turns pink - read it. Same results.

Frankly, I'm stunned. Haven't dosed a thing. To be honest with you, it looks like sh*t. There's no snails in there and the algae is all over the glass in a paper thin sheet. There's cyano all over the bare bottom of the tank.

Crazy. :shock:

 

[tankedchemist]

Once you get things balanced, it takes a longer period of time to overcome the buffering, and so you won't see a drop as fast. In theory. Good science, RC, I like your approach :D

 

[Rcpilot]

Still testing every morning and every night. It hasn't budged.

I'm about to do a water change. I expect a 10% water change will have an effect on the system. Planning to change 5g of water and then wait an hour for it to mix up. Then I'll test the pH again.

 

[Jschoon]

Very interesting work RC. How is it looking now? A couple days ago you said it was looking pretty bad. Were you getting an algae breakout of some sort? Cloudy water? Just curious. Thanks for your diligent work on this. Good job!:Cheers:

 

[Rcpilot]

It still looks like crap. I have no clean-up crew at all in this tank. There's cyano all over the bottom of the tank and a thin film of algae on all the rest of the glass.

The water is clear. The small Aquatraders HOB refugium is working as my skimmer right now. It's a small skimmer and only powered with a MJ900. But it's pulling out lots of thick brown goo.

I know that if I run some carbon it will get rid of the cyano but my Magnum H.O.T. canister filter is broken. I usually fill that with about 1 quart of carbon and run it for a couple days per month to polish the water. I had to order some parts from BigAls to get the canister working again. Should be here this week sometime. Then I can get the carbon cranked up and get rid of the cyano.

I'm going to participate in a group order with some local reefers. I don't know what they are buying but I need a CUC for this frag tank and also need one for my 30g display. The 30g display is down to 3 astrea snails and a couple hermits. The frag tank has nothing at all for a CUC. I am going to order about 20 each - cerith snails, astrea snails, turbos, red leg hermits and blue leg hermits.