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First, I'd say the term "chase" is most often used by people who feel pH is unworthy of attention.
How many people use the same about people controlling alkalinity?
That said, your pH is adequately high for a fine reef tank. If you want higher growth, raising pH may help provide it. So may higher alkalinity (although I do not know what yours is).
If rapid coral growth is not the primary goal, then any pH over 7.8 is clearly adequate based on the experience of reefers.
Sorry.I meant chase a higher pH than i have now. I keep my alk steady at 9 dkh from reading your article about calcium reactors tend to have lower ph so higher alk could benefit corals. It is a 700 gallon mixed SPS/LPS tank mostly sps. So anything I do must be done in large scale. I considered C02 scrubber but this would have to be connected to a commercial grade RK2 25 PE Protein Fractionator. I can not imagine what the cost of media would be.
Since this is a newer setup less than one year and heavily stocked with frags would i see a significant growth of sps frags to make it worth while to chase a higher number?
Sorry.I meant chase a higher pH than i have now. I keep my alk steady at 9 dkh from reading your article about calcium reactors tend to have lower ph so higher alk could benefit corals. It is a 700 gallon mixed SPS/LPS tank mostly sps. So anything I do must be done in large scale. I considered C02 scrubber but this would have to be connected to a commercial grade RK2 25 PE Protein Fractionator. I can not imagine what the cost of media would be.
Since this is a newer setup less than one year and heavily stocked with frags would i see a significant growth of sps frags to make it worth while to chase a higher number?
I'm going to pipe in with it may indeed make a huge difference. Once I got a little better control of my PH issues (based on your help) I immediately started seeing good growth on frags that had done very little for well over a year.I think it likely that growth will increase if you boost pH, and also probably if you increase alkalinity. Not sure which is the easier course, or if either is going to make a huge difference.
Do you have an ATO? Limewater in the ATO is often fairly easy.
My concern with limewater is that it is another method of alk adjustment and I have my calcuim reactor dialed in at 9. Wouldn't there be concern that adding another method of alk I could spike alk.I think it likely that growth will increase if you boost pH, and also probably if you increase alkalinity. Not sure which is the easier course, or if either is going to make a huge difference.
Do you have an ATO? Limewater in the ATO is often fairly easy.
My concern with limewater is that it is another method of alk adjustment and I have my calcuim reactor dialed in at 9. Wouldn't there be concern that adding another method of alk I could spike alk.
Same situation here. Windows closed pH dips to 7.6-7.7, usually right around 7.7. Windows open, it sits around 8.1-8.2. I do have a fresh air intake coming directly into my air handler in my house, I am wondering if I keep that open year around if that will be enough to help stabilize pH.I went through a very similar situation. My "chase" was stability, not higher Ph readings. Due to climate in NY state (90F one day, 65F) the next, we are either on AC or open the windows, and my Ph was all over the place. I bought a CO2 reader and tested my house, 500 ppm on fresh air days all the way to 1300 after windows are closed for 48 hours, as you can imagine PH reading were all over the place.
My goal with the the tank is harder SPS, so I need stability. I am not chasing growth. As much as I wanted to avoid it, I drilled through the floor to drop a pipe into the basement, and then out of the house through the wall to draw in fresh outside air for the skimmer. All this was done on the 25th. Now I am slowly letting the tank adjust to the new PH (day one had the skimmer shut off at Ph 8.0, today it will shut off at 8.1, and so on until it stabilizes).
Yeah but if you're using a calcium reactor, the more stuff grows the more CO2 is added by cranking up the reactor.IMO IME. As the tank matures the ph(with normal situations and decent husbandry) will steadily increase as more and more organisms that uptake co2 are introduced and also grow larger and uptake more and more co2.
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My concern with limewater is that it is another method of alk adjustment and I have my calcuim reactor dialed in at 9. Wouldn't there be concern that adding another method of alk I could spike alk.
has anyone seen or can verify this method? https://www.reefnation.com/calcium-reactor-modification-part-2-j-chamber/
I suspect it really doesnt work since there's been no follow-up or response on threads. I bet his readings were false due to the air getting into the pH probe. Having said that, I'm trying what he did initially, which is to let the effluent drip over some rocks/media to aerate it.
Another option is a CO2 scrubber that is used inline with your protein skimmer. I struggled with low pH for a while. Where I live it's hot in the summer and blisteringly cold in the winter, so opening up the house wasn't an option most of the time. With the CO2 scrubber, my tank sits comfortably at 8.35-8.5 pH nearly 24/7. When it starts dipping down towards 8.1 then I know it's time to change the CO2 beads. (I get about 3-5 weeks out of a cartridge)