HELP -- pH at 8.6....how do I lower it?

[RioReefr]

I woke up this morning and all my corals looked crappy. Devil leather completely closed up. Duncans closed, Green Star Polyp (which is almost always open is only 1/2 open). Mushrooms look sad.

Measured pH and it was 8.6! Normally 8.3 - 8.4 with same digital pH meter.

How do I lower pH (safely)??

I think my ATO (with kalk) may have push in too much solution overnight. I turned that off and just added in some pure RODI water.

Tank is 32G. Can I use something to drop the pH back down w/o affecting other water parameters?

 

[RioReefr]

I just read online I can use a hose and exhale my breath into the intake of the protein skimmer (thus by adding CO2) which will lower the pH.

I don't really want to keep doing this though...is there something I can add.

I have Seachem Reef 2 (Calcium), will that lower the pH. Any household products?

Only later this evening can I do a water change.

Is 8.6 too HIGH...will it kill anything?

 

[nereefpat]

Have you recently calibrated your pH probe?

If it is that high, just stop your kalk and let it come down on its own. If alk, Ca are out of line from an ATO failure, do a water change.

 

[Uncle99]

^^^^^^this above^^^^^^Check your Alk number.

 

[RioReefr]

pH probe has been fine. Just tested everything last Saturday and things were all in check:
pH was 8.3 and dKh was 9.2, Ca was 430, Salinity 1.025, Temp 80

Just checkd dKh with Hanna and got 11.1 (sad face) and pH still at 8.6.

Definitely too much kalk got put into the tank. Other than a water-change anything I can do?

 

[mcgyvr]

Nothing more you need to do..

 

[Uncle99]

Don't forget mag at say 1350 ish

 

[homer1475]

Did the same thing a few years back. ATO with kalk had a failure and dumped 5 gallons of saturated kalk in my tank. PH, alk, and cal all skyrocketed. My tank was super cloudy and parameters were all out of whack.

Left it alone for a few days. Everything fell in line and I didn't lose anything. Just let it come back down slowly on it's own. Your better off letting it fall naturally then making a huge adjustment in one shot IMO.

 

[billdogg]

Did the same thing a few years back. ATO with kalk had a failure and dumped 5 gallons of saturated kalk in my tank. PH, alk, and cal all skyrocketed. My tank was super cloudy and parameters were all out of whack.

Left it alone for a few days. Everything fell in line and I didn't lose anything. Just let it come back down slowly on it's own. Your better off letting it fall naturally then making a huge adjustment in one shot IMO.

^^^This^^^

A couple years ago I was adjusting the timers on my dosing pumps and accidentally switched the Alk timer from "auto" to "on". 2 1/2 gallons of Alk solution later I woke up to a tank that looked more like 1% milk than it did a reef tank. I just let it take care of itself. Sure, the corlas were a bit po'd, but everything survived. Now, I triple check the timers every time I touch them!

 

[RioReefr]

Anyway, after a few days of taking my ATO (w/kalk) offline and just topping off with normal water my water parameters returned to normal. Also did about 15% water change on Saturday.

dKh dropped to 8.6 and pH 8.4. Salinity 1.025.

Devil's Leather went from curled up to now it is shining glossed over -- this is normal though, I suspect in 1-2 days the skin will peel off. All other corals looking good.

(its amazing in this hobby how things can dramatically change overnight).