PH guidance

[Joshxj3]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the site, and about a year into the Hobby. I have a 55 gallon saltwater reef aquarium setup. Running Coralife Lunar Aqualight T5 HO lighting (with a broken leg, if you know where i get a replacement), Fluval G3 canister (carbon), HOT Magnum 250 (carbon), Coralife super skimmer, with a Green Killing Machine 24w uV steralizer. I have a about a 3" fine sand bed with about 60lbs of live rock also.

It's stocked with 2 clowns, a sixline, a coral beauty, watchman goby, lawnmore blenny, 2 bubble anemones, a brittle star, a bunch of zoas, frogspawn, hammer coral, a toadstool, brain and pineapple corals, an assortment of crabs and snails.

Anyways my PH has been around 8.0 ever since I started the aquarium and I'd like to get to about 8.2. I have had a green hair algae issue and I think raising the PH may help. My nitrates are 0, nitrites 0, phosphates 0, ammonia 0, calcium 480 ppm, and kh around 125 ppm. It's been very stable over the last year so I'd like to make a gradual increase with disrupting the environment. So I'd like to hear your expert opinions on how to make this happen ;). In the past I have used API Buffer max, and it seemed to help, but it never stabalized. I would have to add and add and it raised my kh waaaaaaay up. Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

Josh

P.s. Oh yeah, I also do regular water changes tri weekly with RO/DI water. I hope I've included enough detail, heh. :beer:

[bertoni]

[welcome]

pH at 8.0 is good for a house with the windows shut. If the alkalinity kit is accurate, 125 ppm is fine, so the problem is either carbon dioxide (the usual suspect), or a testing problem.

[Joshxj3]

Hey John, It hasn't really been above 0 around here, so you won't find an open window. Thanks for your help.

[bertoni]

You're welcome! That's too cold for me! :)

[tmz]

Welcome,

8.0 is ok. Raising it to 8.2 wont help limit nuisance algae.

Having said that:

Some buffers may raise it for an hour or two or a little more but ultimately ,the pH goes back down as CO2 equilibriates with the water leaving increased alkalinity as you have seen. CO2 levels drive the pH level inversely.

Using calcium hydroxide (kalk) in lieu of calcium chloride and carbonate buffers will raise pH.The hydroxide in the kalk uses CO2 to produce the CO3 carbonate alkalinity. Kalk needs to be dosed slowly to avoid pH spikes and a biotic precipitation of calcium carbonate.

I'm cold too in Bffalo ,so open windows are out.

Using a CO2 scrubber via the skimmer air intake gets me a bump of about .15 to .2 pH with no effect on alkalinity.

Some use an airline piped to the outside at one end and into the skimmer air intake at the other in situations where thr room air is high in CO2.