Is vinegar dosing dropping my pH too low?

AdamNC

Lawnmower Blenny says nom nom
View Badges
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
4,117
Reaction score
3,234
Location
Winston Salem NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Just as the title says. I'm at the last day of week 13 of 29.6ml/day following the 16 week guide and my pH has dropped down below the point of sale API pH scale. I'm going to guess 7.0-7.2. I have noticed my RBTA looking a little deflated on his bubble tips and not near the extension of his tentacles. So after doing an Alk test using Red Sea it showed my level at 8.1, I like to keep it at 9.0 so using the Seachem dosing app on my iPhone I decided to raise the Alk to 10 to help boost the pH. Well it worked getting my pH to 8.1 but the app said to dose 12 grams of Seachem Reef Builder powder. Now my Alk is at 13dKH! Way above what I wanted. I know it will go down quickly as I have a lot of sps in a small tank a dose 4 grams twice weekly but I'm still concerned about the pH dropping that low again. I can deal with 7.8 pH but not lower.

My question is should I start to drop the vinegar dosing 5ml a week or just stop dosing vinegar all together? I've also noticed a second Cyano bloom since starting the carbon dosing.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,549
Reaction score
62,843
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I doubt the pH is really 7.0 - 7.2. Calcium carbonate rock would be dissolving.

I wouldn't change vinegar dosing based on a pH kit, which may not be accurate.

Stop dosing alk supplements, which is not a suitable way to boost pH.

Do you what the pH was with that kit before the vinegar dosing?
 
OP
OP
AdamNC

AdamNC

Lawnmower Blenny says nom nom
View Badges
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
4,117
Reaction score
3,234
Location
Winston Salem NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Do you what the pH was with that kit before the vinegar dosing?

Well I've noticed since dosing vinegar my pH has been low. Before dosing vinegar it always stayed around 8.1-8.3.
I also was looking around for causes and fixes and this popped up on one for your paper/webpages.

Low pH Due to Low Alkalinity


Low alkalinity can also lead to low pH. For example, if alkalinity is not supplemented as fast as it is removed by calcification, the pH will likely drop. This drop will occur with all alkalinity supplementation schemes, but will be most observable when using schemes that do not themselves raise pH (like CaCO[SIZE=-1]3[/SIZE]/CO[SIZE=-1]2[/SIZE] reactors or bicarbonate). In this situation, the obvious solution is to somehow add more alkalinity (as shown in Figure 4).
 

ken77

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 9, 2013
Messages
465
Reaction score
54
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
When carbon dosing you don't want the alk much if any above 8 or you will burn your sps.
 
OP
OP
AdamNC

AdamNC

Lawnmower Blenny says nom nom
View Badges
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
4,117
Reaction score
3,234
Location
Winston Salem NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well just did a normal 5 gallon wc and brought it down to 10dKH. It will be down to 8 by tomorrow or monday.
 
OP
OP
AdamNC

AdamNC

Lawnmower Blenny says nom nom
View Badges
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
4,117
Reaction score
3,234
Location
Winston Salem NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Of which I'm definitely not. Looking at my corals today everything still looks good and colorful. I did notice one thing tonight that may have been affecting my pH was my skimmer powerhead was not producing it's normal skimmate. Took it apart and it was working at about half capacity from being so gunked up. Soaked it in vinegar for a few and cleaned it up, cleaned first time in 11 months. I think the half capacity operation was not adding the normal amount of o2 to the system.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
AdamNC

AdamNC

Lawnmower Blenny says nom nom
View Badges
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Messages
4,117
Reaction score
3,234
Location
Winston Salem NC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So just did a pH test today and it's back up to 8.2 pH. Looks like it was definitely the skimmer pump being clogged up.
 
Back
Top