Dosing Kalkwasser

[mini-reefer]

Ive been dosing my other tanks for a couple years so its not new to me, however Ive never had a refugium on a tank with a reverse lighting cycle until now. My question is about the pH. Should the refugium light be turned off on the nights that a dose the tank? If I dont turn it off, do I take a risk in driving the pH too high? How do those of you with 24 hour refugium lighting, and reverse refugium lighting dose your tanks? Just curious.

 

[nm reef]

Good question....I run a rather large refugium and dose kalk nightly(approximately 1/2 gal...sometimes more). I drip mine directly into the refugium with no problems to date....drip rate is slow and refugium lights are on 24/7.Using this system my ph has never fluctuated much to speak of and the caluperas in the refugium have suffered no ill effects.

 

[ed r]

I don't have a refugium, but I dose continuously to provide both Kalk and make-up water. If you dose every night, I think you would greatly minimize the fluctuation in the pH. If this is in a water quantity that does your make-up, you should also have a more stable salinity. Good luck with it.

 

[mini-reefer]

After I posted the question I decided to stay up and monitor the pH while dosing(tank lights were off of course and refugium light was on). I checked it about every thirty minutes the entire time the kalk was dripping(about a drop per second). It never went above 8.3. I was kinda surprised because my smaller tanks pH went up from 8.3 to 8.5-8.6 or so while dosing.
I had to leave for work early(4:30am) so I turned off my DIY doser before I left. As soon as I got home I checked it just to see and the pH had dropped to 8.2. This entire time the refugium lights were on, up until thirty minutes after the actinics came on on the display. I guess 1/10 of a change isnt so bad. Ill continue to keep an eye on it while Im dosing it at night. Thanks for the input. By the way, for those of you without digital gauges, I highly recommend them. It sure beats trusting a test kit color match-up!