High PH.

[stubbsz]

My ph range used to be in the 8.1 to 8.4 range but now is in the 8.3 to 8.6 (occassionally hitting 8.7) This is out of what I understand to be the acceptable range.

I have slowly been correcting a low alk, low ca problem and my Ca is in the low 400's and my Alk was at 135 ppm (2.7 meq/l). I've recently added a Tunze system to does Limewater automatically to replace my evaporation.


Other variables.. I have a Ca reactor (that I hate as I find it har to adjust) but I of course it should help in lowering ph so I should mention it.

I've been dosing C-Balance to bing up my counts.

I have a 5100k flood light in my sump and I run it at night to grow some Chaeto and help me see in the sump to watch the pods swim.

I have plenty of Coraline algae, even in the sump with a 9 Buck flood lamp.


So a few questions. Should I be as anxious as I am about it... I have a small bottlebrush acro that never grows and now seems stressed(much less polyp extension than it used to have) Also, my old yellow tang (8yrs in the tank) has one eye swollen( it could have been like it a while as the prevailing current in the front of the tank is such that he always swims with his good eye toward me, and when he turns the other way, he moves to fast to notice the eye. Oter than that, things seem OK.

If it's a dire situation, what is the most prudent course of Action?

Thanks
-Adrian

 

[trido]

KAlk raises PH and a calcium reactor lowers it. You say you have just started dosing the kalk and most likely that is when you started having elevated PH. Alot of People dose at night to help offset this. You could turn your calcium reactor up and your dosing pump down to help as well. I dont have a reactor but im sure that using the both takes alot of patience and tweaking to get the right balance between the two. Good luck

 

[stubbsz]

Kind of tricky to turn the dosing pump down... it's a system that replaces all your evaporation.

It's the second system on this page:

http://www.tunze.com/index.php?id=149&L=1&C=US&user_tunzeprod_pi1[predid]=-infoxunter036

with on of these plumbed in to supply the KAlk.

http://www.tunze.com/index.php?id=149&L=1&C=US&user_tunzeprod_pi1[predid]=-infoxunter037

So I guess I can just throw a gallon of make-up RO in by hand now and then in the evening to avoid the system supplying kalk now but it seems like a drag when I'd finally got a system that supplies Kalk with out being a total PITA... my old system would just stop dripping every other night.


So any other solutions AND should I be worried by that 8.3 to 8.6+ ph range

-Adrian

 

[Anonymous]

How are you testing your ph? A probe?, a test kit?
Is there anyway to verify the results you are getting against another type of test?
I would start with the most likely cause of your high ph reading (which may very well be an inaccurate test) and go from there.

 

[stubbsz]

I've been watching my ph controller that is set to stop my reactor if my ph goes too low (not gonna happen).

It's a Milwaukee controller. You make a good point though, I should at least calibrate it again... however, the rise has definitely occured since dosing automatically and consistently.

Still trying to get an idea of how dangerous/stressful a consistently high ph is.


Thanks
-Adrian

 

[Anonymous]

The only time I have hit a ph of 8.7 it turned out that my ph monitor needed calibrating. It was significantly off after just about a year and a half.

After re-calibrating it, what I thought was 8.7 was actually about 8.35.
So that would be my first guess. If it is an accurate reading I don't have much advice accept to make sure you are only doisng kalk when your lights are off, as trido suggests.

But calibrate your monitor first just for yucks.

 

[stubbsz]

I'm on it.... well not really, I'm at work and will be on it later tonight.
Thanks
-Adrian