Low pH...

[Phixion]

i started up a new tank this past weekend and transfered my old tank into it. off the bat my pH was 8.0 and it's still at 8.0pH 4 days later. My alk is 2.5meq/L right now as well, which I know those 2 relate to eachother. How can I boost up my pH and how bad is it being at 8.0? I understand that pH can drop a few points at night, so that's my main concern with it being on the low side already during the day. As for filtration, I'm just using L/R rubble, Purigen and PhosGuard. I'm also running a couple of the small Sea-Lab #28 cubes in the tank to suppliment for Ca for the meantime. I started the tank off with fresh new water using Tropic Marin salt.

[Gwoardnog]

in short.

 

it's fine. don't worry.

[ODOG]

Do you have a sump? You can run a small airpump and airstone, this should raise the ph. How about dripping kalk at night. This would also bump it up.

[ReefBuzz.com]

I agree wtih Gwoardnog. 8.0ph is nothing to worry about. If you want to raise it, use baking soda.

[invertaholic]

BAKING SODA!! are you sick man? u know how much nutrients is in that stuff?

[ezcompany]

BAKING SODA!! are you sick man? u know how much nutrients is in that stuff?

 

Baking Soda is used to raise ALK and PH a bit. It is part of Randy's famous 2 part formula. In other words, it is totally fine, but should be dosed slowly~

[Phixion]

Baking Soda is used to raise ALK and PH a bit. It is part of Randy's famous 2 part formula. In other words, it is totally fine, but should be dosed slowly~

 

I'm hesitant about that method, lol! But if it sounds fine, then I won't touch it. I guess I just need more aeration in the water...

[low tide]

I'm hesitant about that method, lol! But if it sounds fine, then I won't touch it. I guess I just need more aeration in the water...

 

 

Ezocompany is right baking soda does help raise alk and the ph very safe and very inexpensive

[Phixion]

Ezocompany is right baking soda does help raise alk and the ph very safe and very inexpensive

 

Perhaps I'll look into it then. I'd imagine once I get my protein skimmer going and tuned right, then the pH will raise a little.

[low tide]

Sand normally helps keep the ph up or extra air being pump in via airstone or by dripping kalk at night which will also raise your alk a little.

be ery careful if you have sps the will suffer also your fish will suffer good luck

[DRoy1124]

i started up a new tank this past weekend and transfered my old tank into it. off the bat my pH was 8.0 and it's still at 8.0pH 4 days later. My alk is 2.5meq/L right now as well, which I know those 2 relate to eachother. How can I boost up my pH and how bad is it being at 8.0? I understand that pH can drop a few points at night, so that's my main concern with it being on the low side already during the day. As for filtration, I'm just using L/R rubble, Purigen and PhosGuard. I'm also running a couple of the small Sea-Lab #28 cubes in the tank to suppliment for Ca for the meantime. I started the tank off with fresh new water using Tropic Marin salt.

 

 

phbuffer?

[low tide]

ph buffers are great, but the really push up your alk and they do not hold the ph at the correct level for very long. Its a short term solution.

[ODOG]

ph buffers are a waste as stated and sand really ahs no buffering capability. In order for to dissolve sand/aragonite you need an extremely low ph hence the reason co2 is used on ca reactors. I would second the baking soda idea as well. If it's good enough for Randy it's good enough for me.

[Gwoardnog]

This is all my experience as I understand things. You could probably get more technical and more complicated but I can’t pronounce most of those words let alone spell them.

 

IME, buffing or adding baking soda or the like has never raised my PH in the long run. Sure it might go up for a bit and first, but it goes right back down to where it was there in a bit. If you keep on adding buffer or baking soda or what have you, eventually your Alk/Calc levels start to get out of whack so make sure you test if you're adding those.

 

Now, Baking soda is great for your tank. I use it all the time good stuff, safe etc. But it shouldn’t be used for raising PH, it's used for raising Alk. The alkalinity levels, if they are in their proper levels (balanced with Calcium), will help your PH stay stable. As in keep the swings as short as possible. I.E. 7.8 -8.0. The point of Alk is to keep Ph stable, not make Ph be “better” or more in the normal levels. With low Alk you could be seeing .5 differences in PH throughout the day, this is not stable, and therefore not terribly good for your tank. The point of Alk is to make the ph swings less.

 

So.. Ph is pretty much your O2 or Co2 levels or something or-other in your water. It’s something to do with air and that’s what I know. It isn’t your chemicals in the water to be added to or crap like that really (well it probably is, but it’s simpler not to look at it that way for me).

 

Usually if your PH is low it’s because your home is pretty airtight, and you’ve got more Co2 in your home, therefore lowering your PH. So, if you really want to up your PH an air stone might work, but there will be lots of salt creep everywhere and it generally doesn’t work as well unless you’re having the air pump, pump air from outside of your place (yay for drilling holes in your wall). With the air stone pumping in outside air, Co2 problem solved, and your PH is back up to where it should be.

 

The next way, other than just opening a window, would be using a substance referred to as “Kalk”. Which is pretty much grocery store pickling lime in water (one tablespoon to a gallon). You CAN NOT add this to a tank in large amounts. Your PH will skyrocket and stuff will start to precipitate out (hey look my tank is snowing). Usually this mixture is used as your top off water via a drip line or some sort of doser that adds the water a bit at a time throughout the day. This not only keeps your tank topped off but it also takes the place of a 2 part buffer system like B-Ionic. Unless your tank is uber stocked on corals it will keep your alkalinity and calcium balanced at their current levels (you have to raise and lower their initial levels via something like baking soda and calcium additive, then the Kalk water will take over at maintaining those levels). Because the kalk is added throughout the day, it's constanly maintaing an elevated tank Ph. If you stopped dosing, your Ph would go down. Why is this better than adding the Ph8.2 buffer stuff you say? Because kalk keeps your Alk and Cal. balanced. And that is what "buffer" like ph 8.2 and stuff, does not do.

 

So anyway, that all said, I had my tank running out of a super air tight place for 2 years where my tank PH would constantly be 7.6-7.8 with fish, corals, and anemones and no ill effects. So seriously, I wouldn’t worry about it =p

 

I think that's it, man it turned out long

[Phixion]

That was good and understandable, thanks for the input Gwoardnog! The pH in my AP12g I had for several months was always at 8.2-8.3, so nothing in my apartment has changed other than the super dry weather we've had recently, and i haven't been opening up windows like I used to. But the tank on the otherhand is open-top now where it wasn't before.

[Chupacabras]

pH between 7.8 and 8.4 is fine, don't fiddle with it else there's a good chance you'll end up catching the buffer tiger by the tail and in a constant battle trying to keep it where you think it should be as opposed to where the tank actually wants to run.

 

Again, if your alk and calc are right, do not touch a thing with your pH as some tanks run a little lower then others.

[macperry]

Well everyone...here is what not to do. I was having a serious low pH problem, so I started dripping Kalkwasser every day for the last week. Then I read this nifty little article about making the Kalkwasser even more potent by mixing it with white vinegar (about 25ml) before adding the RODI water. The pH would go from 7.8 in the morning to 8.4 by the end of the Kalk drip a couple of hours later. I get up this morning and decide to do my usual Sunday 25% water change. Out goes the old water...which was maxed out on Calc and Alk due to all the Kalkwasser....and in goes the new LFS premixed, tested, used for the last year water. Now the "fun" begins. A large snowstorm developes, my BTA stings everything in sight, my 2 Ocellaris hide under a rock, my 3 Chromis start gasping on the bottom of the sand and are dead wihin 2 minutes, my Pseudochromis hides in his cave, my sand sifting Goby hides in her cave, and my Pacific Cleaner Shrimp is just standing there staring at me. It is 3 hours later now, and everyone has come out of hiding (except the Chromis....but we won't talk about that now). I tested all my water params, and everything is "good"...Calc-400 Alk-9.8dKh Salinity-1.023 Temp-80F and pH-8.0 (and of course slowly drifting down again).

 

Now the big question: Did the anemone truly freak out due to the rapid change in water chemistry and "sting the tank".....thereby killing the Chromis, or was it the chemistry that killed the Chromis?

 

Now the lessons: Less is more...don't "chase" water parameters, use Kalkwasser with caution, and make sure the water you are replacing "matches" the water you removed.

 

OK everyone......Flame Away.

 

Hobby Experience: 30 yrs FW/8 mos SW

Current Tanks: 12g Nano

Interests: Mustangs,airplanes, the ocean, aquariums

[Phixion]

In my situation my pH is now at 8.1 Just one point up, but I'm more comfortable with that at least. How did I raise it? I just didn't mess with the tank. Didn't add anything to it, and didn't make any changes other than my protein skimmer is now running, and it wasn't in the first week of my tank being up and running.