Manual Dosing of Kalk to Raise PH Question

J

Jhunt269

Hi Everyone,
I've got a 29 gal Biocube that has a bad case of Dinoflagelites (brown slime / snot with air bubbles). I read that raising PH to 8.5 or 8.6 is one of the best ways to get rid of this stuff. I mixed up a tiny batch of kalkwasser mix earlier today and plan to start dosing manually tomorrow. My PH is currently 8.0, not bad & not great. I'm just wondering how much to dose and where is the best place to add it in the tank? I plan to use my feeding turkey bastor, it's the small white plastic one with the blue top. I think it holds up to 7MM of liquid. Any ideas or warnings???

Regards,
Jeff
 
Do it slowly. Make sure you let it settle and the water turn clear before you dose it. I would drip it slowly and make sure the ph doesn't go higher then .1 every 4-5 days. You have to give the coral and fish time to acclimate to the ph change.

Also whats the flow like in the tank and how old is the tank.
 
Thanks for the info. The flow is the standard biocube pump, but I have one of those mechanical spinning nozzles on the output. It spins a full 360 degrees. The tank has been up and running for 8 months. Any idea about how many millimeters of the kalkwasser water to add each day?
 
It's hard to say what you should do is start with a small amount. Maybe 5ml and wait an hour and test ph and see if there's a change then slowly ramp up daily making sure you test an hour or two and test the ph. Raising ph is a slow process and should never be rushed.


Have you thought of adding more flow to the tank
 
I read on the seachem forums that using their Cuprisorb would kill off the brown slim by removing iron from the water. I've had a bag in my tank for 5 days now and see no signs that it is dying... Are there any other methods?
 
From what I read from other peoples experience is higher flow, raise pH. Have you tried a lights out for 3-4 days to see if that helps. I had a small out break a few years back and all I did was suck out as much as I could with airline and added another powerhead and gave the tank time to balance itself. I've always kept my tank at a pH of about 8.1-8.3. Try to keep you pH stable and it will help a lot. Try not to kill yourself over this be patient and siphon as much as you can whenever possible.
 
If you are going to go with the kalk dripping is the best. Make yourself a simple homemade doser. I took an old large plastic salsa bottle. Brought a small plastic air valve from the LFS. Drilled a hole in the bottle a few centemeters above the bottom ( this will help leave behind the undisolved kalk) just big enough so that the plastic air valve fits snug. Then you and set it over/on the tank, let everything settle and then open the valve until you get a drip. Now with kalk the valve will tend to get build up and clog but a quick soak in vineger will clean it right up. Now the whole mesure the pH level thing is a ball of wax in my experience. I would suggest that you watch the alk/calc. Keep the alk in the correct range will usually keep the pH there as well, not always. So for calculation of how much to add for alk/calc here is handy caclulator. Just look for limewater (saturated) in the drop down list.

http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html
 
Thanks for more info guys! I don't want to add more flow. The reason... I've got a new 92 gallon corner aquarium that I'm currenty setting up and plan to move everything from the biocube to it. Probably won't be moving everything over until late January. I'm still finishing up the stand that I've been building. I want this algea gone before I move it all over to the new tank. One problem, my current calcium level is 440 and I haven't added any kalkwasser yet. My current ph is 8.0...
 
If you calc is up then just do not dose until it reaches the range you would like. What is you alk at? Kalk adds alk and calc at the same time in a balance. If you alk is low and you want to increase pH a bit then what you can do is take some baking soda, yes the arm an hammer stuff, bake it in the over at 300' for an hour and it will turn from Sodium Bicarbonate to Sodium Carbonate ( basically heating it drives of one of the carbonate atoms). Use this in small amounts to increase the alk to where you want it. Sodium Bicarbonate slightly lowers pH while Sodium Carbonate slightly increases. One thing to note, the alk readings can be tested in a few hours where for pH I would wait 24 hours to test and see the effect. I believe it has already been said, but very good advice is, small changes over time. Quick corrections are dangerous and should be used for emergency purpose only. One last thing, have you read any/all of the Randy Holmes Farley articles on water chemistry? In my opinion they are compulsory reading for anyone who wants to have long term success in reefing. He is not the only source but I what I think of as a very good source.
Here is a link;
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102605
 
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