Low ish PH??

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Either of those two options can work, or you can leave it alone. That range isn't outside the norm for reef tanks.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

I have Ms. Wages Pickling lime and RODI water. What I DON'T have is an ATO. How can I dose it without an ATO?
I usually add ~3 quarts of top off per day. I've read that I should start with a 1/2tsp per gallon ( with an ATO ) and adjust from there.

Could I mix it gallon jug and siphon drip it in over an hour or 2? Maybe quart at a time?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Better to spread it out over more time, or manually add a bunch of times each day.

 

[Downbeach]

I once did a DIY using an old plastic jug, along with a drip acclimator device, some airline tubing and an air valve I had lying around. I placed the jug on the top of my canopy, started/adjusted the drip using the valve, and allowed it to drip overnight.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Thats what I did. @Downbeach

I just used a clean milk jug, some air line tubing and a valve. I have dripped 1/2 gallon @ 1/2tsp per gallon mix over the last 16 hours and seen no change. PH is 7.8, 5 hours after lights on.

@Randy Holmes-Farley
Should I mix bump it to 1tsp per gallon or drip it faster? Both?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thats what I did. @Downbeach

I just used a clean milk jug, some air line tubing and a valve. I have dripped 1/2 gallon @ 1/2tsp per gallon mix over the last 16 hours and seen no change. PH is 7.8, 5 hours after lights on.

@Randy Holmes-Farley
Should I mix bump it to 1tsp per gallon or drip it faster? Both?

I'd drip slower, not faster. 1 tsp per gallon is fine.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

How long before I see PH rise? I dropped 1gallon @ 1tsp/gallon last night. PH is 7.8 this morning. Gonna recheck after lights have been on a while. I planned on dripping Kalk as my top off from now on but it doesn't seem to have any effect this far even at 50% max solution

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The effect is temporary as the tank pulls in CO2 to offset the raised pH.

How many hours after the addition ended did you measure the pH?

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Not exactly sure but probably 2-3 hours

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Then I'd monitor the alkalinity and make sure it doesn't rise higher than you want while upping the concentration.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Well after many attempts the kalkwasser just wasn't cutting it. I was dripping in 2 gallons ( at full saturation )a day no change in PH, however alk continued to climb from 9-10 to 12-13. I also removed my glass tops during this time. So I halted dosing Kalk for now. May need to resume when I have more coral load.

So do deal with my PH issue I drilled a 1/2" hole behind the tank to the outside of the house and ran a fresh air line to my skimmer. The outdoor aeration test gave me 8.2 so we will see what the tank looks like tomorrow. At time of install it was just before lights out and PH was 7.8.

 

[Downbeach]

Did you use a 1/2" tube for the air line? If so, it would be a good idea to add something to the outside to keep anything from blocking the tube from the outside, possibly causing your skimmer to overflow, i.e.small bugs, etc. I used to use an old prefilter sponge from an old MJ pump I had for this purpose. I would also be careful when spraying any type of insecticides or other chem's around the opening.

 

[CubanHogFish]

Hi I'm a new reefer and reel redneck reefer and I are also having the same issue where our ph is low ish I tried running an air tube outside it helped but never broke the 8.0 mark I use 2 part and it seems that it spikes up to 8.03 for about 2-3 hours and then dips back down to the 7.9 range

 

[Downbeach]

Your pH, although important, isn't a number you should be chasing, as long as your other param's are within acceptable ranges. Testing is another issue, most liquid, or test strip test kits don't have enough resolution to give you a truly accurate reading, so your readings may not be as low as you think they are. The closest you can get would be using a decent pH meter. i.e. Pinpoint, Apex, RK, etc., with a properly calibrated probe. The pH in your system is controlled primarily by the amount of CO2 in your system, and through gas exchange, surrounding household atmosphere, and will have a daily swing being lower in the am and higher pm, thereofore, its best to measure at the same time each day. A good gas exchange, via surface agitation, skimming, etc., will help the CO2 in your system reach equilibrium with its surrounding atmosphere. During the months that your house may be closed up, you will experience elevated levels of CO2 in the household atmosphere, which will tranfer to your system, having an effect on the pH. This is the reason running a separate outside air souce can be helpful.
Anytime you add an alk supplement, you will see a temporary change in your pH, but once your system reaches equilibrium with the surrounding atmospher(again the CO2 thing), it will return to its base level.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Did you use a 1/2" tube for the air line? If so, it would be a good idea to add something to the outside to keep anything from blocking the tube from the outside, possibly causing your skimmer to overflow, i.e.small bugs, etc. I used to use an old prefilter sponge from an old MJ pump I had for this purpose. I would also be careful when spraying any type of insecticides or other chem's around the opening.

I put a pump inlet conical screen from and old rio pump on the outside end of the 1/2" hose for he reasons mentioned. I will also be adding an inline carbon filter (once I get it built) to protect against unwanted chemicals.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Your pH, although important, isn't a number you should be chasing, as long as your other param's are within acceptable ranges. Testing is another issue, most liquid, or test strip test kits don't have enough resolution to give you a truly accurate reading, so your readings may not be as low as you think they are. The closest you can get would be using a decent pH meter. i.e. Pinpoint, Apex, RK, etc., with a properly calibrated probe. The pH in your system is controlled primarily by the amount of CO2 in your system, and through gas exchange, surrounding household atmosphere, and will have a daily swing being lower in the am and higher pm, thereofore, its best to measure at the same time each day. A good gas exchange, via surface agitation, skimming, etc., will help the CO2 in your system reach equilibrium with its surrounding atmosphere. During the months that your house may be closed up, you will experience elevated levels of CO2 in the household atmosphere, which will tranfer to your system, having an effect on the pH. This is the reason running a separate outside air souce can be helpful.
Anytime you add an alk supplement, you will see a temporary change in your pH, but once your system reaches equilibrium with the surrounding atmospher(again the CO2 thing), it will return to its base level.

The reason I went with outside air is because I determined it was excess CO2 and I didn't want to chase it with chemicals and have more or larger swings. With the outside air I should be able maintain a high-er PH consistently, which is the goal. I had the same issue in Florida but never ran a line as tank was in the middle of he house. In this house it's on an exterior wall so it was easy to do. Also my readings are taken with a calibrated handheld meter and verified with API or vice versa.

Thanks for all the help everyone! I'll be back after the light have been on a while longer to report my findings.

 

[Downbeach]

I put a pump inlet conical screen from and old rio pump on the outside end of the 1/2" hose for he reasons mentioned. I will also be adding an inline carbon filter (once I get it built) to protect against unwanted chemicals.

I had an old RO unit that I used the components for that were great for this purpose. One I used to make a CO2 scrubber since I couldn't run an airline to the outside, the other an airline carbon filter for another reefer who did an outside airline.

The CO2 scrubber:

The reason I went with outside air is because I determined it was excess CO2 and I didn't want to chase it with chemicals and have more or larger swings. With the outside air I should be able maintain a high-er PH consistently, which is the goal. I had the same issue in Florida but never ran a line as tank was in the middle of he house. In this house it's on an exterior wall so it was easy to do. Also my readings are taken with a calibrated handheld meter and verified with API or vice versa.

Thanks for all the help everyone! I'll be back after the light have been on a while longer to report my findings.

Yea, trying to quote on Mitch3...s post, and others who might be reading this thread. I just learned how to do the multi quote on the new site(as of this post).

 

[Reeftech]

This is a very interesting thread... the pH readings people are reporting seem fine to me. I'd be concerned if it was going below 7.7 at any given time. My tanks are heavy with sps/acros and for the past 4 years I was running a calcium reactor which will usually keep your tank pH on the low side. Mine would fluctuate between 7.8-8.0 day in and day out. Never did anything to mess with pH just made sure alk/ca/mg were always dialed in and left everything else alone. The past 5 months I've stopped running the ca reactor due to a leaky pump and been using klak in my top off water. I use 8 tspns per 5 gallons of ro/di water, let it mix for 3-4 hours and then let it set for at least an hour before using it. I use an aqua lifter pump on a timer that goes off once every 4 hours for 15 minute intervals and a drip rate of a drop per second. Mind you it took some time and some experimenting to get the results I get now but everything's dialed in beautifully. My parameters are steady at alk 8.0 ca 420 and mag is around 1400-1450. My pH now fluctuates between 8.2 and 8.4 day in and day out. I use a pinpoint pH probe that I calibrate every 4 months.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Bringing fresher air into the home, a scrubber, or dosing limewater are options, but that pH range isn't a problem.

 

[ReelRednekReefer]

Bringing fresher air into the home, a scrubber, or dosing limewater are options, but that pH range isn't a problem.

Then why is 8.1 - 8.3 "optimal" in everything I've ever read? You are a household name in every forum and site regarding reef chemistry that I've seen so I'll take your word for it but all other info seems to be to the contrary. My goal for this tank is to keep softies and some LPS but I've lost both acan frags I got 2 weeks ago, while a frogspawn and duncan seem to be fine. In every tank I've had PH has been low and i haven't seen the growth that others see with similar parameters despite feeding. PH has been the only metric I have been unable to move the needle on to get spot on. Reef Crystals and WC's has always kept other parameters dead on. Kinda an OCD thing I guess... my Eleanor: lol