Raising PH alternatives

[dank reefer]

Hello fellow reefers

I am wanting to find out what other alternatives our out there to raise PH in a reef tank?

I can't open the windows to allow fresh air to come in this time of year cause of the weather being too cold. I am in a rental, so I cant drill a whole and run tubing from my skimmer to the outside to get fresh air that way. Not sure if running an airstone in the sump would help since it would be pulling air from inside the house either.

I don't want to run KALK because I am currently dosing 2 part. Even though its a small amount I am dosing at this time (6ml of both ALK and CAL to keep it at around 9.5 ALK), I just don't rust myself dosing KALK with all the horror stories I have read about it.

My Tank runs ATM at around 7.9-8.1 PH and fluctuates during the day, and night. I have my DOS dripping ALK at night during lights out and CAL during the day. When I was able to open up the windows my PH would hover around 8.15-8.29.

I know stability is key in this hobby, and we don't want to chase numbers. But I feel that I should at least try and increase my PH so that it stays above 8 at least.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Reefing!

 

[Jacked Reefer]

Ive seen people run fantastic tanks at 6.5 alk. Your numbers are fantastic. But if you want to keep the fluctuations to a lesser extent running a Fuge or algae scrubber on an opposite lighting schedule would help. A calcium reactor would also keep fluctuations to the minimum. You could even drip a minimal amount of Kalk at night to keep ph more level

 

[SPR1968]

I would say your pH is pretty much perfect and it’s such a small % difference anyway, personally I wouldn’t touch it unless you have a very good reason that you need to

See below from the expert

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

 

[Bryce M.]

Looks pretty good but if you want to I use seachem 8.3 buffer and it works like a charm

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Use a co2 scrubber on you skimmer air intake.

 

[pickupman66]

I see no issues with those numbers. My tank is in that exact range if not a bit lower. Dont chase PH. just look for a big change in a short amount of time. I would not worry about what I am seeing here in any way, shape or form.

 

[dank reefer]

Thanks for all the advice reefers.

I did forget to mention that I do run a fuge with chaeto and run lights opposite to DT lights. Although I am not getting huge growth from chaeto, its still kicking.
Thanks @SPR1968 for the article from King Randy, and I see he says 7.8-8.5 OK, and I also see he states 8.1-8.3 is better...lol. I don't have a very good reason too run it higher other than I would like to see if that would help my live stock out. I don't have any colonies of corals, but frags of SPS, LPS, and Zoas.

I did notice that when I had a bit higher PH, I had better PE from my SPS. Don't know if there was any correlation to that but its just what I noticed.

I consider myself a newb to this hobby and I've had my fair share of SPS death since I started. I haven't tried to change anything in the tank as far as temp, lights go. I do change placement of my WAV pumps just so that I am giving my SPS the proper chaotic flow the need. And when I mean change placement, I mean tilt the pump either up, or down.

I've had some corals resurrect from the grave after a long distance move, and a new tank setup (went from a 36BF, to a 90G).

Ill post some pics up of the tank that I have on my phone shortly from some of the livestock I have.

 

[dank reefer]

Here e some before and after pics of some of my corals. You can see that 2 of them came back from the grave a I thought they surely would not make it. Also, some of the Acro pics were taken when my PH was a bit higher. I was also running higher ALK as well, but dropped it down a bit. Used to run it a 10.5-11, and now at 9-9.5

 

[ReeferReefer]

Putting in another vote for running reverse photoperiods on the fuge. Keeps my pH very stable (between 8.21-8.41) daily. Stability is more important than chasing pH.

 

[dank reefer]

Putting in another vote for running reverse photoperiods on the fuge. Keeps my pH very stable (between 8.21-8.41) daily. Stability is more important than chasing pH.

That's being done already.

 

[mattgsa]

I have the co2 scrubber, and it does help. However, I also dose Kalk. I too have read the horror stories when it comes to Kalk. However, they are mostly linked to ATO problems. So I dose it with a BRS dosing pump controlled by my APEX, and right now my PH goes between 8.03 and 8.28. If the PH gets to high the controller will discontinue the kalk. I'm in the process of getting the refuguim going again to try and minimize the swing.

 

[dank reefer]

I have the co2 scrubber, and it does help. However, I also dose Kalk. I too have read the horror stories when it comes to Kalk. However, they are mostly linked to ATO problems. So I dose it with a BRS dosing pump controlled by my APEX, and right now my PH goes between 8.03 and 8.28. If the PH gets to high the controller will discontinue the kalk. I'm in the process of getting the refuguim going again to try and minimize the swing.

Are you only dosing kalk? Or are you also dosing 2 part as well?

 

[mattgsa]

Are you only dosing kalk? Or are you also dosing 2 part as well?

Right now I only have a few small sps frags, so my demand is not that great, so i can get away with just dosing Kalk. That being said, I'm only dosing a very small amount. I think right now I run the pump for 17sec every hour. But if you are doing it just to maintain your PH I don't think you would need much, and could just use it as a supplement. Putting it on a dosing pump really takes a lot of the risk out. I would never use Kalk in my ATO. I know a lot of people who use calcium reactors dose Kalk to maintain the PH. I will tell this much, I bought the CO2 scrubber to avoid kalk the same as you, but the difference in made in my tank was negligible. Thus forcing me to do Kalk, Once the media runs out on the scrubber it will probably just go back in the closet.

 

[dank reefer]

I bought the 90g second hand and the previous owner ran kalk in the tank. I have the kalk and the kalk stirrer already, just been hesitant to run it.

I am going to hold of on the kalk alternative for now and let it ride in its current form.

 

[Michael Llabona]

Co2 scrubber worked for me. I was at 7.75-8 pH. I made a DIY scrubber out of a Gatorade bottle. All I buy is the media from BRS. The 7 pound media lasts me 4 mo or so. I try to switch it out once a week. It maintains above 8 at night and max at 8.4.

 

[Michael Llabona]

Co2 scrubber worked for me. I was at 7.75-8 pH. I made a DIY scrubber out of a Gatorade bottle. All I buy is the media from BRS. The 7 pound media lasts me 4 mo or so. I try to switch it out once a week. It maintains above 8 at night and max at 8.4.

I have noticed increased growth in my SPS corals and therefore more 2 part uptake. To me, it was worth it.

 

[Saveafish]

Don't go chasing the numbers. They look good. You go chasing the numbers and you're headed into a merry go round.

 

[dank reefer]

Don't go chasing the numbers. They look good. You go chasing the numbers and you're headed into a merry go round.

The only thing I liked chasing was booty. But since I've found my forever booty, I'm done.

 

[2una]

7.9 low is really not much to worry about but if you want to push it higher Co2 scrubber or if you got a friend with a larger skimmer you can borrow try that, i know running a calcium reactor it will bump it up the harder you run the skimmer pump but without a carx whether it will work or not i'm not sure.
OT - how did you make those legs on the frag rack? did you heat then bend or cut the lower part & reglue??

 

[Scrubber_steve]

If your NO3 isn't too low you could increase the intensity of your chaeto light.
This will increase the rate of photosynthesis (assuming the light intensity is on the low side) algae growth & assimilation of the carbon atom leaving O2 ^pH