Help. Need to drastically improve ph

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Okay it's not lanthum. I think he was talking about potassium hydroxide. What do you think about dosing this?

I think it’s a bad plan for many tanks (can lead to excessive potassium) that has the same pH boost as better hydroxide options (kalkwasser and sodium hydroxide). Potassium itself does nothing for pH.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The kalk just doesn't provide enough ph boost and if I add anymore I'll increase alk too high and I would be getting to a point of replacing top off water with kalkwasser. Currently have it being dosed from a kamoer fix stp around 4ml a minute on a 150 gallon

Given that, there is no chemical you can add to boost pH because ANY pH boosting chemical is also an alkalinity additive.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Okay I read about Koh and NaOh. Seems like you suggested NaOh over Koh. I already dose CaOh or kalkwasser but how would I go about adding NaOh to improve pH. I know that would raise my alk so I would have to adjust my current kalk output. Or do you even suggest I use NaOh. I'm really trying to find an easy solution that doesn't require me using CO2 scrubbers, or a refugium.

All of the hydroxide alk additives have the same pH boost per unit of alk added.

 

[Project1004]

The kalk just doesn't provide enough ph boost and if I add anymore I'll increase alk too high and I would be getting to a point of replacing top off water with kalkwasser. Currently have it being dosed from a kamoer fix stp around 4ml a minute on a 150 gallon

That comes out to your kalk around 1.5Gallon in a 150Gal system. Which tells me your evaporation rate is pretty low. I don’t know exactly how strong you are mixing your kalk solution? Are you doing at max mixture?!? Funny because I go thru 0.75Gal evaporation on 50Gal system. And I dose max plus for kalk.
Add fans and make your evaporation go up. Lower your AFR and use more Kalk.

 

[alindell]

That comes out to your kalk around 1.5Gallon in a 150Gal system. Which tells me your evaporation rate is pretty low. I don’t know exactly how strong you are mixing your kalk solution? Are you doing at max mixture?!? Funny because I go thru 0.75Gal evaporation on 50Gal system. And I dose max plus for kalk.
Add fans and make your evaporation go up. Lower your AFR and use more Kalk.

I fill up a brute trash can and add 6.5 grams per gallon. I then test it to see max concentration which comes out to like 12.5 oh or something. Ughh I guess I'll have to figure out a way to reduce CO2 in the basement more. My evaporation isn't that much. I'm in Colorado, in a cool basement. I've got 3 tanks down here and it's already humid which probably hurts the evaporation rate

 

[alindell]

Given that, there is no chemical you can add to boost pH because ANY pH boosting chemical is also an alkalinity additive.

Come on Randy you are telling me there is no secret ph additive that will keep my alk the same, raise ph and keep everything else stable. Cook something up for me

 

[Baby Damsel 219]

I once had a similar problem and them I got a mesh bag and put coral crushed sand/aragonite and put it in my sump and within a week or two I saw the ph slowey going up close to 8.0 to 8.4 so if you would like you should try this as a natural method

 

[alindell]

I once had a similar problem and them I got a mesh bag and put coral crushed sand/aragonite and put it in my sump and within a week or two I saw the ph slowey going up close to 8.0 to 8.4 so if you would like you should try this as a natural method

Did It stay that way

 

[Baby Damsel 219]

yes it did

 

[Baby Damsel 219]

It also has a great affect on calcium levels in a good way

 

[Baby Damsel 219]

It also has a great affect on calcium levels in a good way

but make sure to rinse it good since it has a milkey color if you just added to the tank

Carib Sea Florida Crushed Coral 10 lb​

 

[alindell]

All of the hydroxide alk additives have the same pH boost per unit of alk added.

What do you think I should do randy?

 

[alindell]

All of the hydroxide alk additives have the same pH boost per unit of alk added.

Is there anything I could add that would increase ph more than alk

 

[thedon986]

I would try a skimmer airline to outside over the co2 scrubber and see if you get a change. I dose sodium hydroxide for alk, skimmer line outside and I open the house up a few days a week when it’s cool in the morning to exchange the air with house fan and air handler running. My tank is in the basement and my ph runs 8.2 at night to 8.5 in the day. Winter time sometimes it pushes 8.7 or higher. 120 footprint, 140ml of sodium hydroxide a day and 45ml of all for reef. If I was all sodium hydroxide my ph would be too high.

 

[alindell]

I would try a skimmer airline to outside over the co2 scrubber and see if you get a change. I dose sodium hydroxide for alk, skimmer line outside and I open the house up a few days a week when it’s cool in the morning to exchange the air with house fan and air handler running. My tank is in the basement and my ph runs 8.2 at night to 8.5 in the day. Winter time sometimes it pushes 8.7 or higher. 120 footprint, 140ml of sodium hydroxide a day and 45ml of all for reef. If I was all sodium hydroxide my ph would be too high.

I kinda did that already. I have window wells. I connected a line to the outside well and it didn't really increase ph

 

[thedon986]

Source might be your house then, if not enough air is getting exchanged the basement is gonna have more co2. I can tell when I need to exchange the house air because the skimmer will shut off during feedings and the ph drops fast while its off, then back up once the turns back on. Once I open up the house and really turn over the air, I don't get those dips anymore.

 

[LunkerPunker]

Lots of surface agitation

 

[thedon986]

Here’s my PH graph from earlier this week. You can see where the house was closed up, every two hours the skimmer shuts off for feeding and the PH drops. Then on 8/13 in the morning I opened up, turned on the house fan and ran the air handler for two hours. No more PH drops when the skimmer shuts off.

 

[painter1982]

It did in my 180. Stays at 8.2

Not sure what you are saying, but I do not doubt your pH values. What I doubt is that ozone played a significant role in determining that pH. I see no plausible mechanism for ozone to boost pH.

I think it was the extra oxygen in the water from the o3. Maybe the same effect as removing co2 to raise ph.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think it was the extra oxygen in the water from the o3. Maybe the same effect as removing co2 to raise ph.

Oxygen added to the water has no impact on pH. pH is determined mathematically by alkalinity and CO2.