How to increase PH level in my reef aquarium

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Hello Randy...

I really didn't want to bother you with this, but I'm at my wits end. I've tried just about everything and nothing seems to increase my PH. I have a 180 gallon tank with a sump that is currently at 30 gallons...so you can say the greatest amount of water I have is 210 gallons.
My current parameters are:
Cal. - 500
Alk. - 9.50
Mag. - 1350
It all started when I had to reconfigure my plumbing. My tank was shutdown for a week, but I still had my powerheads circulating tank water. Prior to that my PH was between 8.2-8.4, sometimes as high as 8.5. During that time and now I have a CO2 scrubber plumbed to my protein skimmer. I've had my system back up and running for almost 3 weeks. The highest my PH gets is 7.57. I was dosing Kalkwasser prior to the week shutdown, but I noticed I was getting a lot of build-up on my pump impellers. Maybe I was dosing too much. So my question is...how much Kalkwasser should I be dosing on a 24 hr basis?

Thank you for your time
Chris

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Hello Randy...

I really didn't want to bother you with this, but I'm at my wits end. I've tried just about everything and nothing seems to increase my PH. I have a 180 gallon tank with a sump that is currently at 30 gallons...so you can say the greatest amount of water I have is 210 gallons.
My current parameters are:
Cal. - 500
Alk. - 9.50
Mag. - 1350
It all started when I had to reconfigure my plumbing. My tank was shutdown for a week, but I still had my powerheads circulating tank water. Prior to that my PH was between 8.2-8.4, sometimes as high as 8.5. During that time and now I have a CO2 scrubber plumbed to my protein skimmer. I've had my system back up and running for almost 3 weeks. The highest my PH gets is 7.57. I was dosing Kalkwasser prior to the week shutdown, but I noticed I was getting a lot of build-up on my pump impellers. Maybe I was dosing too much. So my question is...how much Kalkwasser should I be dosing on a 24 hr basis?

Thank you for your time
Chris

Is it a testing error? Maybe the probe needs to be re calibrated. It doesn't sound like you changed anything that would make PH worse.

 

[SPS2020]

Hello Randy...

I really didn't want to bother you with this, but I'm at my wits end. I've tried just about everything and nothing seems to increase my PH. I have a 180 gallon tank with a sump that is currently at 30 gallons...so you can say the greatest amount of water I have is 210 gallons.
My current parameters are:
Cal. - 500
Alk. - 9.50
Mag. - 1350
It all started when I had to reconfigure my plumbing. My tank was shutdown for a week, but I still had my powerheads circulating tank water. Prior to that my PH was between 8.2-8.4, sometimes as high as 8.5. During that time and now I have a CO2 scrubber plumbed to my protein skimmer. I've had my system back up and running for almost 3 weeks. The highest my PH gets is 7.57. I was dosing Kalkwasser prior to the week shutdown, but I noticed I was getting a lot of build-up on my pump impellers. Maybe I was dosing too much. So my question is...how much Kalkwasser should I be dosing on a 24 hr basis?

Thank you for your time
Chris

IMO and I have run one previously, is that a CO2 scrubber is a band aid. I was purchasing media 5 gallons at a time and finally decided not to chase numbers.

Regarding your question of "how much" Kalk to dose, that depends upon your load and how much is needed to kep your Alk at your preferred level. I use soda ash from BRS and dose accordingly.

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

"Is it a testing error? Maybe the probe needs to be re calibrated. It doesn't sound like you changed anything that would make PH worse."

I purchased a new Neptune Apex probe...had it calibrated and 7.57 is the highest my PH will read

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

"Regarding your question of "how much" Kalk to dose, that depends upon your load and how much is needed to keep your Alk at your preferred level. I use soda ash from BRS and dose accordingly."

The Alk is not a problem...I also use Soda Ash from BRS. Trying to get my PH up to 8.4 is at the moment

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

Well I just performed another calibration and got the same results

 

[Miami Reef]

This article can help raise the pH.

You need to ensure the probe is calibrated and accurate. After that, check out the “causes of low pH” section and then move on to the “methods that raise pH” section.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-raise-ph-in-reef-tanks.1129406/
Know that the pH is fine between 7.8–8.6. There’s nothing wrong with wanting higher pH levels though.

 

[exnisstech]

Im not a big pH chaser but It doesn't really sound like you did anything that should cause that much of a drop. I would definitely have a second method to measure pH just to be 100% sure of the number before marking changes.