ph question

[Craig]

My ph is low and I cannot figure out a way to safely raise it.

ph is 7.91
alk 8.0 dkh
calcium 500
mag 1480

how can I safely raise my ph without raising calcium? i've tried adding apowerhead poited at the surface with no luck. i'd like to get my ph into the 8.2to 8.4 range

 

[Deanos]

Low pH

 

[Craig]

Already saw this article but there are no reccomendation that will solve my issue.

I could use kalk but my calcium will raise to dangerous levels. I did a 10% water change but it didint make a difference. Alk and Mag are in the normal range. I'm aerating the tank with an extra powerhead so CO2 isnt the issue. I've recalibrated my ph probe ad also used a chemical ph test. Cant figure out how to raise it.

 

[herman]

7.91 is not bad at all. there are plenty of tanks that operate within that area. There are plenty of things that you can do. The easiest is probably to point one of your powerheads to the surface of the water for a more effective oxygen exchange. Bad air quality within the living space could be another issue. I had low PH a while back and it turned out that my boilers were releasing carbon monoxide into the basement. At the time my PH read 7.7~7.8. After that problem got fixed it read 8.0 ~8.2

Also I see that your Alk level is on the lower side. Raise it to 9.0 or higher and your PH will be where you want it.

HTH
Herman

 

[House of Laughter]

I agree with the Herm - decrease your ca to around 470 and raise your alk to 10

Also, drop your mg to 1300 or 1350. See what happens then.

House

7.91 is not bad at all. there are plenty of tanks that operate within that area. There are plenty of things that you can do. The easiest is probably to point one of your powerheads to the surface of the water for a more effective oxygen exchange. Bad air quality within the living space could be another issue. I had low PH a while back and it turned out that my boilers were releasing carbon monoxide into the basement. At the time my PH read 7.7~7.8. After that problem got fixed it read 8.0 ~8.2

Also I see that your Alk level is on the lower side. Raise it to 9.0 or higher and your PH will be where you want it.

HTH
Herman

 

[tosiek]

i had low PH also, and it was only days i spent alot of time smoking in the room watching TV =0) My PH was around 7.8 and all the coral were doing great.

 

[Craig]

i had low PH also, and it was only days i spent alot of time smoking in the room watching TV =0) My PH was around 7.8 and all the coral were doing great.

d'oh. there goes my plan to use my tank as a bong :biglaugh:


I'm going to do a few more water changes to try to lower the calcium and mg and add only carbonate daily until my alk is at about 9

also switching from oceanic to IO.

 

[tosiek]

meh not that kinda smoking =0P

 

[nanchil]

Craig, did you able to bring up the PH? Any update?

d'oh. there goes my plan to use my tank as a bong :biglaugh:


I'm going to do a few more water changes to try to lower the calcium and mg and add only carbonate daily until my alk is at about 9

also switching from oceanic to IO.

 

[gnatp2]

First question would be how did you get your calcium up to 500? I'm guessing from a calcium reactor. If that's the case, tone that guy down a bit and add kalkwasser in its place. I had the same issue in my tank a month ago and this helped me bring my calcium to 450, alk to 11 and ph to 8.3.

 

[Craig]

I wasnt dosing any calcium. i think the culprit is the oceanic salt I was using. I've decided to switch to IO, so i did a water change of 50/50 oceanic and IO. My calcium is down to 480 and ph is 7.9 in the morning and 8.0 with the lights on. It's still lower than I'd like it to be, but I'll kee doing water changes with IO weekly. If my calcium drops to below 450 i'll start a kalk drip to help the ph. So far so good.