Cali Kid Corals

When to Dose Alk to Minimize PH swing?

wpeterson

wpeterson

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In our new tank I recently setup a Jebao DP-4 dosing pump. I'm currently only dosing alkalinity, via baking soda/RODI solution.

Our tank has a 90 gallon display with main lights on from 12pm-8pm and a sump with reverse lights from 1:30am-11:30am.

This had led to a more gradual cycle of PH swings, from a peak of 8.40 at the top of the lighting cycle around 6pm-7pm and a minimum around midnight or 1am during lights out.

I usually see a small drop in PH when I dose alk, but I'm now dosing less of it every day over 10 doses (12pm-10pm on the hour).

When is the best time to dose alk with a PH/lighting cycle like this to promote PH stability? I thought I would dose it as the lights ramp up so that the minor PH drops would blend into the natural PH rise.

When I start dosing Calcium, should I interleave dosing at similar times or offset it to another period during the day?

Your advice and experiences are much appreciated.
 
I have a question in regard to your dosing pump setup..... I think I saw a pic and it is one unit, but does it have individual power supplies that you have hooked up to your Neptune controller if so I can show you a program to make it run offsetting times and only if your tank pH is bellow a set value.
 
The Jebao is it's own dosing controller, single power supply, single controller - 4 peristaltic dosing heads you can program individually.

My goal is to measure the carbonate hardness used per day and match that with a baking soda dose each day just below that amount. Right now I'm adding 3 tsp of baking soda every 2-3 days, so I'm dosing 100ml of 1tsp per 100ml solution.
 
ok...as you know I use a Calcium Reactor to add my different elements to my tank...I will let someone else answer these questions who are dosing

I was going to see if I could help you program it into your Apex if that was an option and it sounds like no, yet you can plug the dosing controller into one of your EB8 and have that outlet not turn on say if pH is too high or if you have an ALD probe that detects a leak you have it turn off your dosing pump as it could be the one leaking???
 
I only dose twice a day with 1hr gaps between Alk, Mag & Cal (7am & 7pm Alk, 8am & 8pm Cal, 10am & 10pm Mag)

Does it make sense to switch to Sodium Bicarbonate (that brings up Ph) and dose at times when your Ph is low?
 
I too use Jebao doser, once an hour every hour while DT lighting is off, 2 refugiums are on during that time as well.

Is the Jebao reliable? pssshhhh I don't care haha, it was so cheap even if I replace the heads once a year it was still worth it... I do know this, if I ever get really sick of it I'll gut it for parts & use the electronics out of it to control some high grade medical pumps but so far so good.
 
Do what Mike said, dose hourly, or a few times throughout the day, unless you're dosing vast quantities your pH is not going to swing any noticeable amount.

I got that DP4 pump too, still sitting in the box as I haven't gotten around to setting it up yet, but IIRC one of the things you could do is set a dosage and then punch in the number of times per day to dose and it'll space it out equally, or something like that.
 
I'm at 1 liter/day kalkwasser and the recipe is 50ml vinegar + 3 spoons of kalk / gallon of RODI, my PH still actually drops while I'm dosing AND there are 2 separate fuges running during the whole time kalkwasser is being dosed. Either A. the vinegar in the mix is keeping the kalkwasser PH lower or B. you gotta dose a ton of this stuff to actually significantly increase your PH during doses.
 
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