Fighting to keep PH up.

[bassking16]

I wonder if there are any other tricks of the trade when it comes to keeping PH up. I am running a 150g DT with a 55g sump / fuge. This tank is relatively new. I set it up about two months ago, but everything that I put in it came from my old 75g which didn't seem to have the same problem. My tank has quite a few SPS corals, most of which are still pretty small. I also have a few LPS as well. Fishwise, I would say that I have a medium bioload right now since most fish are still pretty small. Everything seems to be doing fine for the most part, so I may be worried over nothing here, but I am curious to hear what other people have to say.

Currently, my PH will swing from 8.1 during the day down to 7.9 during the night. This is stable for me, but I feel that it may be a little low. I am using a Milwaukee meter with new probe and recently calibrated. I have also checked the PH with my Pin Point controller as well with the same readings. I do run a Calcium Rx, and I thought that might be the culprit. I turned my CO2 off for a couple days, and just dosed manually, but still no change other then the short term spike after dosing Alk.

I drip kalk 24/7 through my top-off water, and I have a fresh air tube running from my skimmer to the outside of my house. I also try to leave windows open when I can, but not often since summer in Texas is quite hot. I am planning on buying a few house plants in hopes to raise the O2 in my house, but I don't think it will help much.

As an experiment I tried SeaChem's PH buffer that supposedly raises PH to 8.3. It will kick my PH up temporarily, but is back to normal within a couple hours, andt the highest I got it was 8.2.

Anybody have anything I might be able to try. By the way, all other params are in check, and temp is stable between 80 daytime down to 78 at night. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Uncle Salty 05]

If your tank looks happy and healthy don't sweat it.
That's about where my tank runs.

[bassking16]

Wow, I'm glad you posted that. I feel a little more relaxed now. I suppose I just had it in my head that 7.9 was too low.

Does anyone else keep their PH at this level? What would be considered too low for PH anyway?

[cakemanPA]

Are you running your AC all of the time. I just did a little experiment with my tank. Duting a recent hot spell in PA, I noticed that my pH never was going over 8.1 during the day and then it was dipping down to 7.85 at night. Everything in the tank was fine. But I had never noticed my pH that low. So I started opening the windows on the cooler nights and my pH started to get back to 8.4 during the day and only dropping down to 8.2 at night.

[BrokeColoReefer]

I think your params are right on especially considering that you are using a calcium reactor. 7.9-8.1 sounds balanced. I have a similar setup, and my system runs about the same. I can get a bit higher (8.1-8.3) if i increase evaporation with a fan or wet skim introducing more kalk to the system. Make sure your limewater is completely saturated as well. You do mix it to a saturation point in a different container and syphon off the effluent ?

[Uncle Salty 05]

Wow, I'm glad you posted that. I feel a little more relaxed now. I suppose I just had it in my head that 7.9 was too low.

Does anyone else keep their PH at this level? What would be considered too low for PH anyway?

If your PH is too low, you will know bcause your inhabitants will show it.
If all your other parameters are good don't lose sleep over an 8.1 to 7.9 PH.
7.7 would mean alarm bells and your tank would not look good.
I don't purposely keep my tank at this level but that is where it seems to run.
I can bump my ALK up to 13 and still my PH rarely goes over 8.1.

[serpentman]

VERY common problem in the summer. I am assuming because you are in Texas you are running your A/C. Whenever the house is sealed up tight, ambient CO2 levels start to rise which will drop your pH. As long as it doesn't go too low, its best to let it stabilize than fight it. You can also run your skimmer intake outside or crack a window in the room at night. Fresh air is the magic elixir when dealing with CO2.

I've also heard getting a lot of house plants can help but not sure if its been verified.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Limewater and fresher air are the best options. This has more on how to raise pH:

Low pH: Causes and Cures
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

[jb61264]

i think your params are right on especially considering that you are using a calcium reactor. 7.9-8.1 sounds balanced. I have a similar setup, and my system runs about the same. I can get a bit higher (8.1-8.3) if i increase evaporation with a fan or wet skim introducing more kalk to the system. Make sure your limewater is completely saturated as well. You do mix it to a saturation point in a different container and syphon off the effluent ?

+1

[jc-reef]

Like Randy stated, Limewater works well....helps with pH and keeps Cal/Alk balanced.

I too have low pH levels as I live in S Fla and have A/C running 24/7. Limewater hasn't kept up this summer so I recently built a DIY CO2 scrubber and connected to air intake line of skimmer. The scrubber pulled CO2 out of air that is mixed in skimmer, thus reducing CO2 in the water column and raising the pH. This has helped me quite a bit. I got the idea from this thread below. I was a very easy build.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1818641

[serum153]

lol. You think that is bad...look at mine http://www.reeftronics.net/art-n/rkl-history. My ph probe is accurate (tests, pinpoint monitor, pinpoint ph probe, da ph probe all say the same). My growth is still incredible and everything is extremely happy. I am however going to start limewater as soon as can find some dang pickling lime. I have checked every store in town with no luck, so I am most likely going to order it on-line.

[yeloowtang]

thanks for the tread !! :reading:

i,ve been losing sleep with my ph aswell.
i used PH buffer to bring it up to 8.2 but i think the humid air we are getting
lately is having an effect.

i can get 8.1 in the day time but it goes down to 7.85 end i've seen it at 7.7 :hmm4:
i can't buffer to much since it brings up my alk went to 11+ at one point but went back down to 10ish a little later.

don't have a reactor yet but i leave a window open all the time.
THE WEIRDEST THING !! last night when the lights went out i watched it go down to 8.0 and i left the cabinet doors open,so i closed the cabinet doors and withing 2 minutes it went down to 7.95 ????

is this normal ?
i must say that all my habitants are happy and got nice groth on my sps corals with full PE but still wish i could keep the PH where i want it !!

but thanks to the replies on this tread i feel much better now:spin3:

looking a building a scruber,that sounds interesting..

steff

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Buffers are a poor way to boost pH, and usually just end in excessive alkalinity.

THE WEIRDEST THING !! last night when the lights went out i watched it go down to 8.0 and i left the cabinet doors open,so i closed the cabinet doors and withing 2 minutes it went down to 7.95 ????

is this normal ?

I would not put much emphasis on such small changes (0.05 pH units), but it is normal for pH to drop when the lights go off and changing the exposure to CO2 in the air (up or down) can easily alter pH.

Exhale into a skimmer intake and you can see pH drop fast. :)

[bassking16]

Thank you all for the great replies. Lot's of good info. I left a window open all last night, and will leave it open all day today and tonight since we have a cloudy cool day for a change. Hopefully this will help me out a bit.

My meter read 7.8 this morning when I woke up, but my alk was only at 8 DKH. I added three teaspoons of alk from my two-part, and it was just enough to bring my PH up to 7.9, but did not raise my alk past 8.

I'm going to do some more research on these CO2 scrubbers, and probably DIY one here pretty soon since leaving a window open 24/7 is not really an option.

Again, thank you all for the great info and suggestions.