Help needed. extreme low pH high alkalinity high nitrate high phosphate

I am not familiar with your skimmer but there should be an airline running from your skimmer pump to an air intake on the upper part of the skimmer. You could attach some vinyl tubing to the air intake nozzle and run it outside your house. It would be drawing fresh air and should raise your ph if c02 build up is in fact the problem.
 
I think I'd rather try to just get air from outside the tank....and try the use of an electric air bubble maker or an air stone with a tube going to outside of tank....then if that doesn't solve problem I know its a house issue and I'll need to plan out a permanent fix. Might really need to hire someone like an air quality engineer....or that right person who assesses homes. Could be something that eventually helps out with more than fish tank...if it truly is elevated. I'm not in a position at the moment to hire inspectors, plan out new equipment and installation...but I can do the simple fixes like the scrubber and some air stuff in tank. Was at a small pet store yesterday looking around they didn't have scrubbing things but they had air lines , return stop nozzle for backflow on the lines, and they had the stones of various sizes and they have the electronic version for various size tanks...I'm guessing the hose can shoot out of the back of the stand and upward, out of sight.

on another note, my pH is back down to 7.5 ish ...in day...and an anemone died was decomposing flesh looking substance when I saw it finally removed with a fine net. I might have to do the my last 5 gallon waters of salt I have and then make more water. I'll need to get some help because my back from the injections is really hurting.

Other than PH and NEM passing, tank looks clean. I do have a lot of empty shells now in tank....i wonder if snails are dead or relocated or if thats significant of something....

all fish are acting normal look healthy sand is clean rocks look fine...all coral look fairly similar, the tiny ones on the rack are growing new tiny heads.

skimmer does have an air tube not sure if its removable...its not a good skimmer.

I'd like to upgrade to a new one one day
 
Noting the issues---your skill and knowledge could be useful to a reef club, and from such you might get the occasional assist with a problem. You might take a look at the listings for your area.
 
Hey champ sorry your having a rough time and hope thing get better for you soon.

I am unfamiliar with the climate in Texas . Is it hot all the time or is it seasonal? Reason for me asking is my ph problem is a winter thing only. In the winter the house is well sealed so we must be getting a co2 build up. In the summer when the doors are open and the sump doors are open I have no ph issues at all. Just trying to see what might be the best thing to try, do you have good surface aggitation on your tank. You may just need to move a power head to help your ph
 
Thank you blue spot. Texas weather is fairly warm most of year with some sporadic coldness here and there. Never any snow . I'm working on the turbulence issue . I haven't gotten the air stone and tubing yet.

Sk8er that's probably a good idea. I'm sure there are some groups in town. I'll have to Google them.

I'll have the power heads repositioned this week. Will be doing my last salt water container change to help alleviate the nitrate and phosphate issue some . and I'll begin making more water on Thursday or Friday. My back is doing better and energy is returning slow. I just need to be efficient in choices. I've got a lot todo. I finally got the tax paperwork done today. I've never filed this late in my life .
 
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Moved powerhead on left higher because rockwork sticks out further (not sure if best thinking logic) so that one will get more surface breakage. Moved powerhead on right from right glass to back glass and placed lower than powerhead on left (since rockwork not in way and it can sweep around tank. Main return nozzle still forward and slight to the right when looking at tank. I haven't bought any products yet. Going to get water change done so that the nitrate and phosphate lower. I'm also watching my feeding more and the doing one feed a day. Going to dose calcium just a hair since it was a tad low. Will run tests in few days to check out levels. I think now that powerhead are in better place and not directly in front of any coral(that was problem with side placement) I have ability to increase power and select different modes and do some alternating pulses or flows from one side then the other.
 
Seems like MAAST may be only group in town unless there are some tiny clubs. Will need to do further research.

Got a air machine used at lfS for 8 bucks. 2 air stones. 2 lines.

Got some puregen.

How long do you think it will take the 2 air stones positioned in middle sump compartment....to raise pH naturally..?
 
PH is 7.5 ish....I have both stones going full blast but they are not on bottom of sump...sort of near surface of middle section....

To make a difference do they need to be in the DT?

Do they need days to take affect?
 
No indication of positive effect.

I moved one air stone to DT and placed it in rock crevice. These are large stones creating intense amount of bubbles each.

I found a pH calibration solution I only had one. My apex probe was with 0.06 of true reading. Was a very old solution....expired so I'm satisfied with result of probe...

I can let the bubbles go over night I guess but after so many hours of no change now...7 hours of air bubbles....and two mp40's which I've ramped up and am using reef crest and other settings rather than constant.....and my vectra is churning out water quickly...

It appears I'm stuck with some house issue that could be affecting tank and my family...or I have some other unknown issue..

I can do another alk test in morning and see what it is, I'm expecting it to be fairly good since this last water change. I have to start making water....I'm all out..of Salt and RODI have maybe 2 gallons left....

Unless I'm overworried about pH..and my main issue i need to do is more and more water changes until alk is lowered...

Then maybe when its low enough I can use a buffer to safely raise both or kalkwasser or other.....
 
Hi champion,

Sorry to hear about your situation.

When measuring pH, do you do it in the sump with a lot of equipment around? Stray voltage could influence the reading of a pH meter considerably!

Easy test is to quickly take some water out with a small container and measure it somewhere else without much agitation!

Of course you could also directly measure stray voltage, especially in your DT. I am not familiar with anemones (I'm still beginning in the hibby) but as they are sensitive to most everything that might be affecting them?! Worth a try.

One more thing. We keep our pH probes in a kcl solution when not in use. Make sure that you wash that off with some rodi water and also wash of calibration liquid before going to measure tank water. Otherwise it could influence reading. Also make sure that there are no air bubbles on the pH probe.

CO2 would be affected fairly quickly by agitation. As long as the co2 in the air is low. If you take your air still from the inside, this might not help.

I would not worry too much about water changes to bring phosphate and nitrates down. That will only have a minimal effect and most likely be negated quickly by the system. You should think about having some algae scrubber (waterfall or upfliw) or chaeto that you can run especially during night. It would help to reduce co2, remove nitrates and phosphates and increase o2 in your water. I'm just building my own and I am surprised how easy it seems to be. The biggest challenge is the electric installation for the grow light.

BTW, your tank looks amazingly clean taking the nutrient levels into account!

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Happyschneider said:
Hi champion,

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Thank u

When measuring pH, do you do it in the sump with a lylot of equipment around? Stray voltage could influence the reading of a pH meter considerably!

The apex probe is in sump on a probe holder next to the temp and salinity probe. There is quite a bit of electronics but with 2 large acrylic dividers separating electronics from sump. Might not make a difference for stray volt. I don't know much about that topic I know I tried researching it. I know they have elec devices that can protect fish from voltage but my conclusions were inconclusive on effectiveness of said product while running grounded outlets to surge protector to gfci . I'm not sure how well the lab grade pH apex probe holds up against stray volt.


Easy test is to quickly take some water out with a small container and measure it somewhere else without much agitation!

When I do calibration it's with solutions that are warmed in tank sump water and then I use probe near tank but not in it. But I'm limited to proximity since probe is connected to apex module inside sump.tomorrow will take a cup of dt water out of tank. Use air machine on it outside of house altogether. If it rises it should be a 100 percent house issue. As far as permanent placement the sump area where probes are are extremely tepid. No visible water movement. I use filter socks so there no water coming down hard or bubbles in that area.

Of course you could also directly measure stray voltage, especially in your DT. I am not familiar with anemones (I'm still beginning in the hibby) but as they are sensitive to most everything that might be affecting them?! Worth a try.

I'm a beginner too, trying to play catch up. Nem and coral have no growth. But with multiple possible factors or the combo of all of them, trying to work on everything sort of at once.

One more thing. We keep our pH probes in a kcl solution when not in use. Make sure that you wash that off with some rodi water and also wash of calibration liquid before going to measure tank water. Otherwise it could influence reading. Also make sure that there are no air bubbles on the pH probe.

I do rinse in clean Rodi cup when switching solutions or going back to tank or before a reading like I did today.

CO2 would be affected fairly quickly by agitation. As long as the co2 in the air is low. If you take your air still from the inside, this might not help.

I'm confused of this paragraph. Co2 affected by agitation? Powerheads?

I would not worry too much about water changes to bring phosphate and nitrates down. That will only have a minimal effect and most likely be negated quickly by the system. You should think about having some algae scrubber (waterfall or upfliw) or chaeto that you can run especially during night. It would help to reduce co2, remove nitrates and phosphates and increase o2 in your water. I'm just building my own and I am surprised how easy it seems to be. The biggest challenge is the electric installation for the grow light.

Algae scrubber ? Waterfall? Chaeto or sounds like a smart choice, I did get some green plant for tank and some red dragons breath which might be pure cosmetic. But amt I got of green is minimal and it went to dt. I don't have room in sump for fuge. Problem of having small cube stand aquarium. I do have a bright led in sump.

BTW, your tank looks amazingly clean taking the nutrient levels into account!

Thank u. After my clean up crew was put in I have spotless sand and rocks since. I only clean the glass now. And I have a tiny clusters of bubble algae which recently grew so I added 3 emerald crabs today also. I also added purigen . Water is crystal clear right now. Sand is white.

I've read up quite a bit tonight on alk and pH and new homes tightly sealed and sick building syndrome. Talked to wife. Because of my diagnosed and serious medical issues I deal with , medicine I take its ez to blame that for all problems. I have a strong feeling that I may have inadvertently discovered a true problem wit home that potentially has been affecting me and my wife. She gets headaches often ..fatigue..she works from home. I'm reading that it's recommended the air should be changed 7 to 8 times every 24 hrs. We do not get that whatsoever. No where close. We have a 1 year old now and for her sake and ours, based on house, amt of time we have doors open, 3 people 2 dogs in a well insulated home with only one return filter on our home ac, a co2 issue makes all the sense in the world now. My goal is to do some quickfixing on tank. I read a lot on the co2 scrubbers, and costs, that will have to be a secondary or third option Priority is wife and daughter and home . When that's fixed and we are healthier...fish and coral should follow suit. Perhaps by that time I can create a way to have a tiny custom fuge put in such a way in sump where the plant or chaeto doesn't stray from its container ..or maybe there is a dt small fuge hang on I could do. For home there is the senseviera plant we should get. Room air purifiers, open windows and door, the exhaust intake device that gets installed in ceiling, ac checkup, ac improvements, hiring air quality engineer for assessment and recommendations.

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Click to expand...


Blue spot said:
Hi champ. I have had exactly the same sort of issues as you have been describing. For me I read on here about CO2 scrubbing . Very simple to try you just add the co2 absorbent onto your skimmer intake. Ph problems disappeared over night and as a result a lot of other things seamed to kick in. Lower alk as not dosing so much, for some reason my bio pellets kicked in , not sure if their is a reason for this or simply coincidence . From my point of view the only Downsides have been , you have to change the media regularly , at first this was expensive but I found that the media used in diving rebreathers was much more cost effective. The only other negative is that I also had an algae explosion . Good in the sump, but unfortunately I had imported byropsis into my tank early on , before I had discovered what it was !!! I now know what it is........its a pain in the arse ! Anyway co2 scrubbing Might be worth trying,I've been happy with the results so far.
Hope your health improves soon and good luck with your treatments.
Click to expand...


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I appreciate everyone taking the time to assist. Happy I'm feeling a little stronger today. Being medically challenged and a father and husband and dog owner and fish keeper can keep things challenging! ;)

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Wow, definitely get life sorted before you spend a lot of time and money on tank. It should not add to the worry but help calm you down! Apparently, there are studies showing that people who look into a tank for 15 minutes a day have a lower resting pulse. ;)

I agree new houses quiet often are sealed so well that there is hardly any gas exchange without open windows.

CO2 is one issue, the bigger one is humidity! This can lead to growth of fungi which release spores that can lead to serious health problems especially on the respiratory tract. But as you live in a warm area you probably do not have a cold wall where condensation of the humidity could lead to that issue.

In any case, I wish you all the best in sorting everything out!

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Thanks. I did respond to all your questions but they are dispersed within the reply text above . Somehow another posters message got attached. Theres no differentiator between my text and yours, except paragraphs .

I hope I can get air quality improved for us and tank. I'll rest better then.



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Lol, yeah technology. I got it. With agitation I meant both, your pumps that disrupt the surface and the airstones. If the air pump gets the air from inside, you might not see much change but if you get it from an area that is low in CO2 you should have a quick effect.

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