question about high pH

[skanderson]

i just adjusted my calcium reactor and topped off the kalk in my top off tank yesterday night. today the ph is up to 8.5. it has been stable at 8.24 for weeks and everything looks really stressed out. i did a water change to bring it down but it only dropped to 8.48. the only thing i can figure is that maybe the top off pump pulled some kalk powder into the sump when it went on last night. anyone have any suggestions. i never try to change any factor quickly but im concerned about the ph. thanks

[Billybeau1]

If things look stressed, I would shut the reactor down for a few days and let things stabilize.

I'm not as concerned about your pH levels as I am the possibility your alk is really high right now.

[skanderson]

dkh is 9.6 and ca is 380, still on the low side. was thinking of skipping on the kalk top off tonight and just using straight ro to help bring the ph down . do you think with dkh of 9.6 you would turn off the reactor? it doesnt seem like and outrageous number to me. thanks for the quick response above.

[Billybeau1]

No, 9.6 dkh is a fine place to be. I thought it might be much higher because of the kalk addition.

I'm not sure why your animals looked stressed unless you are just tinkering too much too fast.

Maybe slow down a bit for a few days.

Good luck.

:)

[kgross]

I would also ask if you have calibrated your pH monitor 8.5 pH is very very uncommon.

Kim

[skanderson]

havent reecalibrated it since starting up the tank but that was less than 2 months ago. it used to be around 8.3 most of the time when i was only using kalk to maintain the ca. when i installed the ca reactor last week the ph dropped down to 8.24 and was rock steady at that number until i adjusted the ca reactor upping the flow through and the bubble rate. i still cant see how upping those 2 things can make the ph go up, am i missing something? my pump is adding kalk now i will keep an eye on the meter and see if the ph goes up again. i believe my earlier stable ph was due to my having my 40 gal frag tank and 65 gal refugium counter lit to my tank. also have an approx 100 gal sump that is lit 24/7. tank is a 300 cube with a modest stock level now. thanks again appreciate all the advice

[tmz]

Did you get abiotic precipitation. FYI,FWIW,I was able to pull down high ph during an emerging precipitation event by pulling the CO2 air hose off the reactor and cranking out a bit more CO2 right near the skimmer input. Pulled it down from 8.7 to 8.45 in about 10 minutes and short ciructed some precipitation.

[skanderson]

no big snowstorm but the tank looks a bit hazy. nothing opening up like id like to see it. ph looks pretty stable now so i think ill just leave it alone and not screw with it . dont want to make anything worse.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This has more on high pH and how to deal with it:

High pH: Causes and Cures
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/index.htm

[skanderson]

thanks for the reply randy i read the article. im less worried about the ph lvl now but will be keeping a closer eye on my hardness and ca lvls. i think as per the article that my tank is underaerated. im still waiting on my skimmer so im using a really undersized model. thanks again all.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

:thumbsup:

Happy Reefing. :)