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Raising pH

ThatGuy

ThatGuy

I know people say don't chase the pH but mine is LOW. It's normally 7.8 but now its more like 7.4. I don't even know how things are staying colored up and growing in these conditions. I'm thinking if I can get the pH to a more reasonable level things will start growing more so than they are now. Any suggestions would be great.

pH-7.4
Phos-0
Sal-1.023-Starting to raise it slowly.
Amonia-0
Cal-450
Alk-7
trate-0
trite-0

20130911_223023_zpsb43e6ae9.jpg
 
Empire

Empire

aquavitro 8.4, best invention known to mankind. what time of the day do you test? IME 2 hours after lights are on and 2 hours before lights are off give the best readings.
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

Empire said:
aquavitro 8.4, best invention known to mankind. what time of the day do you test? IME 2 hours after lights are on and 2 hours before lights are off give the best readings.
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I've used this but stopped because I heard it could throw things out of wack. Plus it drops back down as soon as I stop using it. I know the whole closed windows can cause it to be low but they've been open up until 2 days ago.
 
Empire

Empire

ThatGuy said:
I've used this but stopped because I heard it could throw things out of wack. Plus it drops back down as soon as I stop using it. I know the whole closed windows can cause it to be low but they've been open up until 2 days ago.
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i've never experience anything out of whack, i use when needed!
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

I'll give it a shot. Will it be bad if the pH jumps that much in a short time? Should I half dose just to be on the safe side?
 
downbeach

downbeach

CO2 in the household atmosphere is the main reason for lower pH. Using a pH buffer will raise it, but only temporarily, since once the CO2 in your system has reached equilibrium with the household atmosphere it will go back down again, but the alkalinity that's in the buffer will remain and keep raising your alk. A reading of 7.8 is not unusual, I think the reading of 7.4 is a test issue. Also remember that liquid pH test kits can be unreliable. To get accurate readings, a properly calibrated instrument would be best.
 
falconut

falconut

NJRC Member
Your Alk is a little low too. Try raising that up from 7 to somewhere between 8 - 12 and maybe the ph will rise too. I believe my ph is lower when my alk is low.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
downbeach said:
I'd get a second opinion on your test.
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I agree with this. I don't believe your number! Verify with someone else.


Also, what are you doing to maintain ALK and CALC? If you are a two part user, make your own ALK by first putting 2 1/4 cups of baking soda on a cookie sheet and baking it for an hour at 350 degrees. This "converts" the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to sodium carbonate. Sodium carbonate has a slightly higher pH value. Dissolve this in a gallon of RO/DI water and use as you would your current two-part. This is what I've been using and it works great.
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

redfishbluefish said:
I agree with this. I don't believe your number! Verify with someone else.


Also, what are you doing to maintain ALK and CALC? If you are a two part user, make your own ALK by first putting 2 1/4 cups of baking soda on a cookie sheet and baking it for an hour at 350 degrees. This "converts" the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to sodium carbonate. Sodium carbonate has a slightly higher pH value. Dissolve this in a gallon of RO/DI water and use as you would your current two-part. This is what I've been using and it works great.
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I barely have to dose at this point. My calc stays above 420 and my alk drops from 8 to 7 inbetween waterchanges. I dosed alk after these tests. All I do is use kalkwasser in my topoff.
 
Tommyboynj

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
What's your tanks ventalation like? If you have a closed canopy and no ventaltion in the sump area that could be the culprit. Also make sure you have plenty if surface aggitation to promote gas exchange.

Sent from my SCH-I535
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

Tommyboynj said:
What's your tanks ventalation like? If you have a closed canopy and no ventaltion in the sump area that could be the culprit. Also make sure you have plenty if surface aggitation to promote gas exchange.

Sent from my SCH-I535
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Open top, No sump. Just HOB skimmer and Reactor. I think I have enough agitation as there is 2 koralia 400 and a gretch 1300. I've been tied up so I haven't had a chance of getting this double checked as of yet. Also been dosing slowly and raised my alk back up to 8. Might keep going until it reaches 9 and try and keep it there.
 
dppitone

dppitone

There's general agreement that rising CO2 levels or declining Oxygen levels in the reef aquarium is what brings pH under 8.0. Regular seawater is 8.1 to 8.3.

There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. And in this case, it can be anything from opening windows, to increasing fuge/macroalgae production, to oxygenating the tank better, etc. However you do one of those types of things, that's IMO the best solution, as you are fixing a problem environment - in the relationship between the water and surrounding air.

Dosing stuff to temporarily raise pH is a roundabout way to correct for this. But IMO it's better to fix the problem directly.

From reading about your system, it doesn't sound like you have a place to exchange gases - usually some kind of tank or container that is very agitated at the surface. Having something like that, and opening the windows will I bet get your pH up to around 8.0 right off the bat. Also, a good sized fuge with growing macroalgae will turn CO2 into O also. This is the main reason to have sumps and fuges, etc. They are first off both used to effect water chemisty. And secondly, any/all increases in the total water volume ratio to amount of livestock is beneficial to bringing down parts per million of bad things, like eg. Nitrates.
 
ThatGuy

ThatGuy

Has anyone used either product with success?

I think the reason mine does not go up is its is a very small serface area for the gallons. My servace area is only 20x18. If it wasnt for saltkreeps I'd just throw a bubbler in there. Maybe I'll look into getting a macro of sorts before adding another chemicle into the tank.
 
downbeach

downbeach

This is used in a CO2 scrubber, which is a container that holds the soda lime, which filters the air before entering the skimmers air intake.
 
dirtycontour

dirtycontour

ThatGuy said:
Has anyone used either product with success?

I think the reason mine does not go up is its is a very small serface area for the gallons. My servace area is only 20x18. If it wasnt for saltkreeps I'd just throw a bubbler in there. Maybe I'll look into getting a macro of sorts before adding another chemicle into the tank.
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downbeach said:
This is used in a CO2 scrubber, which is a container that holds the soda lime, which filters the air before entering the skimmers air intake.
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I'm leery to add chemicals as well. No chemicals are added with the CO2 scrubber. As downbeach said, only air runs through the dry soda lime, "scrubbing" the CO2 so only O2 is being drawn from the skimmer.

Don't let me talk you into though, I've never tried it. I am going to give it a shot though..
 
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