Low PH I've tried a few things.. Need help!

[ramesis]

You could add a refugium(natural method) to help lower the CO2 in the tank.

I was trying not to but I may have to. Just didn't want to deal with that. On the 10 there is no room so I would have to buy an hob on the 25 the sump is small and I'm using the refugium chamber for equipment but I may have to move things around.

 

[ramesis]

run the airline from your skimmer outside. works wonders.

I've seen other peope do this. I don't really want to drill my outside wall. I've heard that this does work. If someone wants to try it just be careful of pesticides and sprays used outdoor around the area where the intake is.

 

[ramesis]

you can find his article here:

Chemistry And The Aquarium: The Relationship Between Alkalinity And pH

Randy answers many questions in this complex relationship.

reefs.com

Great article. A little technical so I'll have to give it a few reads. I got excited when they started to talk about CO2 issues in the household but the author didn't give a solution. I do have to read it a few times. I also would love to know his opinion on the high DKH that I'm seeing Thank you!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Great article. A little technical so I'll have to give it a few reads. I got excited when they started to talk about CO2 issues in the household but the author didn't give a solution. I do have to read it a few times. I also would love to know his opinion on the high DKH that I'm seeing Thank you!

The author is me, and I do give solutions to low pH in this article:

pH And The Reef Aquarium
http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/

I didn't give solutions to high indoor CO2 as the only choices are open windows more or use an expensive air exchanger.

I think the pH 7.4 is likely inaccurate. Try recalibrating and doing the indoor and outdoor aeration tests in the article.

High alk tends to raise pH. There's no apparent issue here.

 

[ramesis]

The author is me, and I do give solutions to low pH in this article:

pH And The Reef Aquarium
http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/

I didn't give solutions to high indoor CO2 as the only choices are open windows more or use an expensive air exchanger.

I think the pH 7.4 is likely inaccurate. Try recalibrating and doing the indoor and outdoor aeration tests in the article.

High alk tends to raise pH. There's no apparent issue here.

Oh! So sorry. I didn't realize you were the author. I would have worded my response differently. Thank you for taking the time to go over my issue and for the article. It is very Informative. I will try to recalibrate the probe and see. So my findings of dealing with CO2 indoors match what you said. Glad to hear that you think everything is ok. Makes me feel better.

 

[NanJ]

We have been struggling with pH on our 20 g coral quarantine tank. It runs 7.7-7.9. Our DT with its much more elaborate filtration system and heavily stocked with fish runs 7.9-8.15. Many articles discuss elevated CO2 levels in the house so we assumed that was our issue. We were ready to install a CO2 scrubber but decided to get a CO2 meter first. The CO2 is about 700-900 ppm in our fish room in the basement and in the rest of the house. The outdoor CO2 is 380-420.

My gut feeling is a 700-900 ppm CO2 is not the main driver for our lower pH. Mike Paletta posted on FB about the CO2 reading in his house (870) and mentioned he installed a CO2 scrubber and it didn't have as much effect as opening a window and adding a fan. We do see up to a 0.2 increase in pH when we open a window but that isn't possible here in SC during the summer.

And one more interesting point....our local fish store comes once a month to do maintenance on our DT and he monitors several customers' tanks with Apex. He went down the list and all his customers' tanks run less than 8.1. Makes us wonder if it is the local water supply. (We use RO/DI for the tanks.)

pH is a complicated issue in a complicated hobby!

 

[ramesis]

We have been struggling with pH on our 20 g coral quarantine tank. It runs 7.7-7.9. Our DT with its much more elaborate filtration system and heavily stocked with fish runs 7.9-8.15. Many articles discuss elevated CO2 levels in the house so we assumed that was our issue. We were ready to install a CO2 scrubber but decided to get a CO2 meter first. The CO2 is about 700-900 ppm in our fish room in the basement and in the rest of the house. The outdoor CO2 is 380-420.

My gut feeling is a 700-900 ppm CO2 is not the main driver for our lower pH. Mike Paletta posted on FB about the CO2 reading in his house (870) and mentioned he installed a CO2 scrubber and it didn't have as much effect as opening a window and adding a fan. We do see up to a 0.2 increase in pH when we open a window but that isn't possible here in SC during the summer.

And one more interesting point....our local fish store comes once a month to do maintenance on our DT and he monitors several customers' tanks with Apex. He went down the list and all his customers' tanks run less than 8.1. Makes us wonder if it is the local water supply. (We use RO/DI for the tanks.)

pH is a complicated issue in a complicated hobby!

Matches exactly what I'm experiencing. I have a CO2 scrubber on the 25 and don't see a big improvement. Opening the windows also gives me approx a .2 bump but I can't keep the windows open in south florida.

I'm curious,. What does your DKH and Calcium run at on the qt and dt?

 

[Scorpius]

co2 scrubbers work, but you have to have a skimmer with a large enough air intake, lph, to overcome the co2 in the tank water and how much co2 is being added back in from the surrounding air.

 

[Hydrored]

Look into an Aprilaire home ventilation. You can adjust how many minutes an hour it’s pulling fresh air in. Increased the PH on the tank and any resolves humidity issues.

 

[ramesis]

Look into an Aprilaire home ventilation. You can adjust how many minutes an hour it’s pulling fresh air in. Increased the PH on the tank and any resolves humidity issues.

Wow.. This is really interesting! Funny because I was thinking about investigating an air purifier for the house. I have been getting really bad allergies.

 

[ramesis]

co2 scrubbers work, but you have to have a skimmer with a large enough air intake, lph, to overcome the co2 in the tank water and how much co2 is being added back in from the surrounding air.

Makes sense... Probably why I don't see a big impact with the CO2 scrubber that I have.

 

[NanJ]

Look into an Aprilaire home ventilation. You can adjust how many minutes an hour it’s pulling fresh air in. Increased the PH on the tank and any resolves humidity issues.

We did look into replacing an exhaust fan in the fish room with a supply intake fan like the Aprilaire but the exhaust fan has a 4" duct and the supply fan needs a 6" duct. The basement is mostly finished so replacing the duct wasn't an option.

We also looked into a fresh air ventilation system for the basement but that was cost prohibitive because of where the furnace/AC unit is - would be crazy money to run a fresh air intake to it.

PLUS, when we realized the CO2 was <1000 ppm in the house, there was no way we could justify spending on a ventilation remedy.

 

[NanJ]

Matches exactly what I'm experiencing. I have a CO2 scrubber on the 25 and don't see a big improvement. Opening the windows also gives me approx a .2 bump but I can't keep the windows open in south florida.

I'm curious,. What does your DKH and Calcium run at on the qt and dt?

The DT has an Apex Trident DOS system while the QT depends on me - hence the swings! The target alkalinity on the DT had been 8.6 but with the pH issues I bumped it up to 9.2, I think. I need to post a question in Randy's forum to ask if maintaining a bit higher alkalinity helps to keep the pH higher/more stable/none of the above.

 

[ramesis]

The DT has an Apex Trident DOS system while the QT depends on me - hence the swings! The target alkalinity on the DT had been 8.6 but with the pH issues I bumped it up to 9.2, I think. I need to post a question in Randy's forum to ask if maintaining a bit higher alkalinity helps to keep the pH higher/more stable/none of the above.

Your numbers are similar to my 10 gallon and I have low PH there which similar CO2 amounts as you. If you look at this thread I think on Page 2. Randy replied and commented on my situation.

This is what he said:

The author is me, and I do give solutions to low pH in this article:

pH And The Reef Aquarium
http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/

I didn't give solutions to high indoor CO2 as the only choices are open windows more or use an expensive air exchanger.

I think the pH 7.4 is likely inaccurate. Try recalibrating and doing the indoor and outdoor aeration tests in the article.

High alk tends to raise pH. There's no apparent issue here.

 

[ramesis]

@Randy Holmes-Farley , I tried the experiments and the problem is CO2. With outside air the PH went up to 7.8 Inside the home 7.6 (btw my tank does go to 7.4 overnight) DKH is 10 and CO2 readings in the house are aroun 1200ppm I can't really open windows for long periods of time or run airlines outside. My frags look healthy and they are growing but I haven't tried any sticks yet. I guess I should just let it be until the demands on the tank start using Alk and I can start dosing kalwasser and maybe that will help reduce the CO2 in the tank? I thought about though about adding an algae reactor to consume some of the CO2 in the tank..

 

[Butcher333]

My ph was hitting 7.5. I aerated a couple cups of tank water outside. Went up .4. I ran 1 inch PVC through a bulkhead to Two reducers and Pex tubing to the 2 air intakes of my skimmer. My skimmer pulls a lot of air so that help out lot. My PH hovers pretty consistently around 8 now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My ph was hitting 7.5. I aerated a couple cups of tank water outside. Went up .4. I ran 1 inch PVC through a bulkhead to Two reducers and Pex tubing to the 2 air intakes of my skimmer. My skimmer pulls a lot of air so that help out lot. My PH hovers pretty consistently around 8 now.

Thanks for the example!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

@Randy Holmes-Farley , I tried the experiments and the problem is CO2. With outside air the PH went up to 7.8 Inside the home 7.6 (btw my tank does go to 7.4 overnight) DKH is 10 and CO2 readings in the house are aroun 1200ppm I can't really open windows for long periods of time or run airlines outside. My frags look healthy and they are growing but I haven't tried any sticks yet. I guess I should just let it be until the demands on the tank start using Alk and I can start dosing kalwasser and maybe that will help reduce the CO2 in the tank? I thought about though about adding an algae reactor to consume some of the CO2 in the tank..

The rise outside is much lower than expected, which makes me think the values may all be reading too low. Or maybe it just didn't finish aerating.

How did you measure the CO2 indoors? That certainly is high.