Increase pH without skimmer. How?

[KonradTO]

What type of corals are not growing?

None of them. I have a duncan, a zoa people eater, a ricordea florida and a leptastrea. Hard to tell if the reason is the pH tough, I had few drops in salinity/alk recently due to ato failing (now its fixed) so they also might be still stressed. It's just that I want to exclude one more problem from the list, so I will not keep wondering whether it was the pH.
I had also few frags dying recently but again, it is hard to tell why now.
If I can increase a bit the pH it will have the double effect to grant higher growth rates and help with dinos, plus in winter I will not bottom down to 7.5-7.6 like last winter.
Let's start with getting a probe and testing properly. Maybe I can also try to increse kH slowly with the doser and keep it more at 9ish rather than 7.5.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Why not just add a skimmer and run it really dry? Skimmers are the best airstone money can buy.

You can also use Hydroxide based dosing for your Alkalinity (kalk or Randy's high pH 2 part).

 

[ss30]

None of them. I have a duncan, a zoa people eater, a ricordea florida and a leptastrea. Hard to tell if the reason is the pH tough, I had few drops in salinity/alk recently due to ato failing (now its fixed) so they also might be still stressed. It's just that I want to exclude one more problem from the list, so I will not keep wondering whether it was the pH.
I had also few frags dying recently but again, it is hard to tell why now.
If I can increase a bit the pH it will have the double effect to grant higher growth rates and help with dinos, plus in winter I will not bottom down to 7.5-7.6 like last winter.
Let's start with getting a probe and testing properly. Maybe I can also try to increse kH slowly with the doser and keep it more at 9ish rather than 7.5.

How long has the tank been setup?
As you only have Soft and LPS corals higher nutrients would make them grow faster.

 

[BanjoBandito]

None of them. I have a duncan, a zoa people eater, a ricordea florida and a leptastrea. Hard to tell if the reason is the pH tough, I had few drops in salinity/alk recently due to ato failing (now its fixed) so they also might be still stressed. It's just that I want to exclude one more problem from the list, so I will not keep wondering whether it was the pH.
I had also few frags dying recently but again, it is hard to tell why now.
If I can increase a bit the pH it will have the double effect to grant higher growth rates and help with dinos, plus in winter I will not bottom down to 7.5-7.6 like last winter.
Let's start with getting a probe and testing properly. Maybe I can also try to increse kH slowly with the doser and keep it more at 9ish rather than 7.5.

I won't be snippy about the issues of transporting a sample for testing, but I will tell you this, PH is only part of the problem. It won't magically fix something else. If you want help post your parameters and lighting and a shot of the tank and I can try and help you get some footing. Seen lots of tanks at 7.8 PH grow crazy stuff. Good luck!

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

While I'm not saying that pH is the reason for your corals not growing but I will say that even having your windows open does not mean you have sufficient airflow to reduce CO2 levels inside. I tried having my windows open for a couple of days and even with my tank in between 2 windows and my sump in front of one of those windows and lots of water surface agitation, I did not see a change in pH. I do not have a skimmer because I also have trouble keeping my nitrates/phosphates up with my roller mat. My dKH is consistently at 11-12 (using reef crystals salt) so I decided to try and make a CO2 scrubber without a skimmer. After doing that my pH went from 7.8 to 8.2 in a couple of days and everything in my tank looks a lot happier.

 

[BanjoBandito]

None of them. I have a duncan, a zoa people eater, a ricordea florida and a leptastrea. Hard to tell if the reason is the pH tough, I had few drops in salinity/alk recently due to ato failing (now its fixed) so they also might be still stressed. It's just that I want to exclude one more problem from the list, so I will not keep wondering whether it was the pH.
I had also few frags dying recently but again, it is hard to tell why now.
If I can increase a bit the pH it will have the double effect to grant higher growth rates and help with dinos, plus in winter I will not bottom down to 7.5-7.6 like last winter.
Let's start with getting a probe and testing properly. Maybe I can also try to increse kH slowly with the doser and keep it more at 9ish rather than 7.5.

Those corals are not high ALK demanding due to most of them not having a skeleton of any kind. It sounds like a lot of fluctuations and lack of stability. You'd be surprised what coral will grow in with stable conditions. My tank has a phos around .3 and I grow acros.

 

[KonradTO]

Why not just add a skimmer and run it really dry? Skimmers are the best airstone money can buy.

You can also use Hydroxide based dosing for your Alkalinity (kalk or Randy's high pH 2 part).

I considered it but I seem to not find how long does the ph boost lasts when you dose Hydroxide. If it is for 12h than is ok, if it is for 1h it does not worth giving that I bake my own sodium carbonate

 

[KonradTO]

How long has the tank been setup?
As you only have Soft and LPS corals higher nutrients would make them grow faster.

like 20ppm nitrates would be good?

 

[KonradTO]

While I'm not saying that pH is the reason for your corals not growing but I will say that even having your windows open does not mean you have sufficient airflow to reduce CO2 levels inside. I tried having my windows open for a couple of days and even with my tank in between 2 windows and my sump in front of one of those windows and lots of water surface agitation, I did not see a change in pH. I do not have a skimmer because I also have trouble keeping my nitrates/phosphates up with my roller mat. My dKH is consistently at 11-12 (using reef crystals salt) so I decided to try and make a CO2 scrubber without a skimmer. After doing that my pH went from 7.8 to 8.2 in a couple of days and everything in my tank looks a lot happier.

That's quite interesting. How did you plumb the CO2 scrubbing media to the tank?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I considered it but I seem to not find how long does the ph boost lasts when you dose Hydroxide. If it is for 12h than is ok, if it is for 1h it does not worth giving that I bake my own sodium carbonate

@Randy Holmes-Farley could answer that.

All I know is that is has a much higher pH increasing effect than carbonate does. My tank has an issue with pH being too high, so I have to use bicarbonate or a mix of bicarbonate and carbonate myself.

 

[ss30]

like 20ppm nitrates would be good?

Yeah but you would need more Po4 as well. My tank runs at .2 Po4, No3 15.
With your coral stock you could get away with weekly water changes no need to dose unless your alk and Cal are dropping that much over a week.

What is your calcium at?

 

[KonradTO]

Those corals are not high ALK demanding due to most of them not having a skeleton of any kind. It sounds like a lot of fluctuations and lack of stability. You'd be surprised what coral will grow in with stable conditions. My tank has a phos around .3 and I grow acros.

I totally agree the main issue with my tank is lack of stability. I am perfectionist so I keep adjusting parameters and stuff, plus my ato failed twice causing an alk drop. I am planning to just keep the tank the way it is once I solve my problem with dinos and fill it with frags once I see at least some coral growing. Before though I want to be sure that pH is not one of the problems because many people report huge changes with pH boosted from <8 levels to >8

 

[ss30]

I totally agree the main issue with my tank is lack of stability. I am perfectionist so I keep adjusting parameters and stuff, plus my ato failed twice causing an alk drop. I am planning to just keep the tank the way it is once I solve my problem with dinos and fill it with frags once I see at least some coral growing. Before though I want to be sure that pH is not one of the problems because many people report huge changes with pH boosted from <8 levels to >8

You need to get the basics right first.

 

[KonradTO]

Yeah but you would need more Po4 as well. My tank runs at .2 Po4, No3 15.
With your coral stock you could get away with weekly water changes no need to dose unless your alk and Cal are dropping that much over a week.

What is your calcium at?

I am keeping Ca around 440 ppm. Alk drops quickly if I do not dose, I will drop 1dkH every 4 days. Probably it's because of coralline algae growing everywhere. And tons of filter feeders with carbonate shells. I am skipping water changes for now since it is one of the main tips for Amphidinium dinoflagellates fight

 

[ss30]

Patient's is the key with reef tanks, only bad things happen fast with reef tanks.

 

[KonradTO]

You need to get the basics right first.

I think my parameters are fairly ok, maybe not optimal for growth but many people keep mixed reef tanks with much lower nutrients. I also did an ICP some time ago to test for possible issues with rusting stuff but it was fine.
The ato failed first time because the sensor fell while I was doing maintanance, second time there were GHA growing on it and it was stuck. Now I am cleaning it once a week and added a safety measure in the ATO so after 30 secs if it does not reach the desired level it will deactivate

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

That's quite interesting. How did you plumb the CO2 scrubbing media to the tank?

Very simply actually, I just bought an air pump and had it push air through a canister with sodalime in it and then just plumbed that to an airstone in my sump. Was amazed how well it works! I thought about making a thread with details for my setup for people to reproduce because I only found 1 thread on here of someone doing something similar.

 

[ss30]

People say that if you change something in your reef tank give it 5/6 weeks to see if it mad any difference. Buy the same rule if something going wrong look back 5-6 week to see what you changed, I have noticed this being the case with my tank.

 

[ss30]

I think my parameters are fairly ok, maybe not optimal for growth but many people keep mixed reef tanks with much lower nutrients. I also did an ICP some time ago to test for possible issues with rusting stuff but it was fine.
The ato failed first time because the sensor fell while I was doing maintanance, second time there were GHA growing on it and it was stuck. Now I am cleaning it once a week and added a safety measure in the ATO so after 30 secs if it does not reach the desired level it will deactivate

don't chase numbers stability is key

 

[KonradTO]

Very simply actually, I just bought an air pump and had it push air through a canister with sodalime in it and then just plumbed that to an airstone in my sump. Was amazed how well it works! I thought about making a thread with details for my setup for people to reproduce because I only found 1 thread on here of someone doing something similar.

Cool. I am thinking to store the airpump in an airtight plastic box and feed it with air coming from a CO2 scrubber. But I would be very interested in seeing your setting! Please quote when you write the thread, I will follow