Can’t bring my PH back up after using Vibrant

[The_Skrimp]

Hey folks. I’m having a hard time bringing my PH up to where it used to be before dosing Vibrant. My tank used to keep its PH at around 8.1. I’m guessing that the vibrant killed off enough hair algae and the decomposing algae dropped my PH to 7.7. That’s just my best guess though... I’ve done several large water changes and the Ph always ends up right back at 7.7. Unfortunately I use reef crystals which is very high in calcium so I cannot dose kalk to get my PH up as the calcium in my tank is currently reading at 500+. I’ve tried to slowly dose soda ash but that only bumped me up to 7.8. I can keep going that rout but I’m afraid of overdoing it. Since using vibrant, I’ve used an entire bottle of boost PH + at this point and that didn’t raise my Ph at all. I’m wondering if there’s anything I’m missing or any suggestions from the community as to what the solution might be. None of my corals seem to be too terribly affected by the low PH but I’d like to slowly bring it back to where it was before.

thanks!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Stop dose!!!! pH boost and soda ash raise alkalinity, and you didn't mention those numbers. Dosing stuff is NOT the way to raise pH. Low pH is the result of:

1. A bad test or equipment not calibrated or working properly
2. The person doing the test incorrectly
3. Carbon dioxide
4. Low alkalinity.....which is usually never the case.

How are you measuring pH. I'd suggest having a fellow reefer test you tank water or an LFS. I'm suspecting testing error. Anyway, 7.7 is not drastically low....it's livable.

 

[Deep]

Hey folks. I’m having a hard time bringing my PH up to where it used to be before dosing Vibrant. My tank used to keep its PH at around 8.1. I’m guessing that the vibrant killed off enough hair algae and the decomposing algae dropped my PH to 7.7. That’s just my best guess though... I’ve done several large water changes and the Ph always ends up right back at 7.7. Unfortunately I use reef crystals which is very high in calcium so I cannot dose kalk to get my PH up as the calcium in my tank is currently reading at 500+. I’ve tried to slowly dose soda ash but that only bumped me up to 7.8. I can keep going that rout but I’m afraid of overdoing it. Since using vibrant, I’ve used an entire bottle of boost PH + at this point and that didn’t raise my Ph at all. I’m wondering if there’s anything I’m missing or any suggestions from the community as to what the solution might be. None of my corals seem to be too terribly affected by the low PH but I’d like to slowly bring it back to where it was before.

thanks!

How long has it been since you stopped vibrant ? How is your Alk consumption ? Do you dose Alk ?

 

[The_Skrimp]

My alkalinity has stayed stable at 9. I used to dose kalk to keep up with it but since doing the large water changes brought my calcium up to 500 I’ve switched to just soda ash. I’m using my Hannah PH meter to check the water and double checking that it’s an accurate reading by testing the calibration fluid to make sure it’s close. The only other test I have for PH is API and that seems to be telling me about the same thing the Hannah checker is.

edit: sorry, forgot to mention, I stopped vibrant about four weeks ago now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Water changes are not a good way to deal with pH issues.

pH is controlled ONLY by alkalintiy and CO2 in the water. If alk is OK (9 dKH is OK), low pH means excessive CO2 and there are a variety of ways to remove it (fresher air aroudn tank, low CO2 air to skimmer, very high pH alk additives, etc.)

First though, recalibrate the pH meter.

 

[arking_mark]

A couple thoughts:
1. Algae helps maintain higher pH through CO2 uptake and biological processes
2. Vibrant helps outcompete nuisance algae

So lack of algae in tank could be why you are seeing lower pH

To raise your pH:
1. Macroalgae/refugium
2. Fresh air and/or CO2 Scrubber with Skimmer
3. High-pH dosing (balanced)

 

[The_Skrimp]

That makes sense. I have a new batch of chaeto in the refugium. Hopefully that’ll start making a difference. I opened the windows for a couple of hours today as well.

thanks for the responses everyone.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Old thread I know, but always make sure to use fresh buffer solutions to calibrate pH meters.

I know I used to put buffers into stopped test tubes and re-use them to save money.

A pH 10 buffer will drop pretty quickly once opened even in a stoppered bottle, which will make your test's read high.