House water low pH

[backintothereef]

my house water has notoriously low pH. I started making my own RODI for use. pH is about 6.0. Tank pH is about 8.0. What's the best/safest way to raise pH prior to adding to tank? I plan on using the RODI as evaporative makeup as well as my saltwater mix for water changes. Would like to keep things as balanced as possible.

 

[Pistondog]

my house water has notoriously low pH. I started making my own RODI for use. pH is about 6.0. Tank pH is about 8.0. What's the best/safest way to raise pH prior to adding to tank? I plan on using the RODI as evaporative makeup as well as my saltwater mix for water changes. Would like to keep things as balanced as possible.

I would not think the amount of ro water replenished qdaily would change ph.

 

[Pistondog]

Whats the ph of your mixed saltwater, mightbnot be an issue.

 

[backintothereef]

Whats the ph of your mixed saltwater, mightbnot be an issue.

I'm at 8 in the tank. Daily probably not an issue, but repeated water changes could lower the overall tank pH.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I am currently dealing with lower ph. I ordered some tubings to run air line out to the window to see if that helps. If not, I will go the co2 scrubber route which costs about $10 a month for media

 

[ColoredRock]

Dont worry about the ph of your rodi water:

PH Drops when Red Sea 'Coral Pro' Salt is added

Hi, I want to know why my PH drops when I add salt. My RODI water gives me 8.6PH on its own. But when I add Red Sea Coral pro Salt at 35ppm, my PH reads at 7.6-7.7 Any advice?

www.reef2reef.com

Look at some of these type of posts re pH:

Recommendations for Dosing Kalkwasser on top of Two Part for better PH?

Hey Everyone, I have recently (over the last couple months) started dosing BRS Liquid Soda Ash via a dosing pump at night to stabilize my dKH consumption and it's been working well. Previously I dosed by hand weekly when needed but my consumption has increased and I now dose daily via my...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is not useful or desirable to try to measure the pH of RO/DI water with ordinary reefer tools:

Reverse Osmosis/Deionization Systems to Purify Tap Water for Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Final Effluent pH

Aside from the issues discussed above concerning the effluent’s pH when the DI resin becomes depleted, the final pH coming out of an RO/DI system should not significantly concern reef aquarists. Many aquarists with low pH problems have asked, for example, if their aquarium’s low pH may be caused by their replacing evaporated water with RO/DI water that they measure to have a pH below 7. In short, the answer is no, this is not a cause of low pH nor is it something to be generally concerned about, for the following reasons:

1. The pH of totally pure water is around 7 (with the exact value depending on temperature). As carbon dioxide from the atmosphere enters the water, the pH drops into the 6’s and even into the 5’s, depending on the amount of CO2. At saturation with the level of CO2 in normal (outside) air, the pH would be about 5.66. Indoor air often has even more CO2, and the pH can drop a bit lower, into the 5’s. Consequently, the pH of highly purified water coming from an RO/DI unit is expected to be in the pH 5-7 range.

2. The pH of highly purified water is not accurately measured by test kits, or by pH meters. There are several different reasons for this, including the fact that highly purified water has very little buffering capacity, so its pH is easily changed. Even the acidity or basicity of a pH test kit’s indicator dye is enough to alter pure water’s measured pH. As for pH meters, the probes themselves do not function well in the very low ionic strength of pure freshwater, and trace impurities on them can swing the pH around quite a bit.

3. The pH of the combination of two solutions does not necessarily reflect the average (not even a weighted average) of their two pH values. The final pH of a mixture may actually not even be between the pH’s of the two solutions when combined. Consequently, adding pH 7 pure water to pH 8.2 seawater may not even result in a pH below 8.2, but rather might be higher than 8.2 (for complex reasons relating to the acidity of bicarbonate in seawater vs. freshwater).