How fast can I raise PH?

E

extremeshannon

New member
Good morning,
I have been fighting low ph in my tanks. I tried using soda lime connected to my skimmer and my ph is still 7.60. So I decided to use soda ash to raise it. So my question is how fast should I raise my PH? The tank volume is 600 gallons and I change about 5 gallons of water a day.

Thanks Shannon


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I'd get a second opinion on the reading of 7.6 before getting too carried away. It is highly doubtful that it is really that low or you would start to notice rocks and sand dissolving.
 
Also keep in mind that the effect of the soda ash will be temporary. After a couple of hours you'll come back to equilibrium with the pH.

What is your alkalinity level? Be sure to watch that when you start dosing soda ash. Don't spike the alk trying to chase the pH.
 
Ok I pulled out my trusty API test kit and here are the results. I added some soda ash this morning and my apex shows PH7.7

API results
PH 7.8-7.9
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 5.0 ppm
KH 7 drops 125.3
Phosphate 0 ppm
Calcium 380
Nitrite 0ppm
salifert
Magnesium 1500


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Looks like your alkalinity is low. Soda ash will help bring that up and will make your pH look better for a few hours.

How long since you calibrated that pH probe? I'd want to verify that reading.
 
I have calibrated it 3 times. The last time was about 3 weeks ago and it has been holding steady. It is pretty dry here and I top off about 5 gallons a day. I was just told that will drop it down. My last tank had the same problem and thought it was my reef keeper elite read the same. The highest I have had is 7.8 in both tanks that is. I will recalibrate it later to make sure.


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extremeshannon said:
I have calibrated it 3 times. The last time was about 3 weeks ago and it has been holding steady. It is pretty dry here and I top off about 5 gallons a day. I was just told that will drop it down. My last tank had the same problem and thought it was my reef keeper elite read the same. The highest I have had is 7.8 in both tanks that is. I will recalibrate it later to make sure.


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I'm not sure who told you that or why but topping off more won't drive your pH anywhere.

The problem is most likely related to CO2 concentration and is being made worse by the low alkalinity.
 
azjohnny said:
Try getting more oxygen into the area ( open the windows)

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It's not about getting oxygen in. It's about getting CO2 out.

Windows are easy, but there are other ways of reducing the CO2 in your indoor air. It's good for you too. Any type of ventilation with outside air will help.
For the tank, if running the skimmer line outside doesn't help then try a big ole airstone in the sump bubbling like crazy. Get all the flow pointed at the surface to keep it agitating. Take any covers off the tank. Increase the amount of algae and decrease the number of animals. Run the refugium on reversed lighting. There are a million things you can do, or you can relax and think about how tight a range of pH we are really keeping here and understand that the low end of that range isn't a terrible thing.

I think the main thing the OP needs to get on top of is that alkalinity. Dose it up with the soda ash (dose to the alkalinity number and not the pH) and watch if the pH doesn't stabilize a little higher. With lower alkalinity, it takes less CO2 from the air or the animals to lower the pH. With higher alkalinity it is harder to change the pH up or down.

If you've got a lot of stony corals, you may need to be dosing the soda ash daily to keep the alkalinity stable. But without that alkalinity you can't win this pH thing.
 
my pH runs 7.7-8.0 all the time ... I've had no major issues
BTW, I have recently hooked up my skimmer to outside air (just because I could) and it raised the pH on avg by .1 ....
 
If the pH actually is that low, then I agree that limewater might help some. Did you notice any difference with the soda lime for the skimmer?
 
Thanks everyone. I have 2 display tanks that are 210 gallon tanks. I do not have much in there for critters. 2 black white clowns, 2 orange clowns, a yellow tank, blue hippo, 3 cromis, dragon goby, small diamond goby, mystery wrasse, about 100 hermits, 50 snails, 4 perpermit shrimp. Corals all small, frog spawn, Duncan, 2candy canes, 3 bubble tip anemones, Stylophora - Green. I am trying to get a handle on this before I add more. I have lost several fish in the system for no reason.

If a kalk washer will help I will order one today. My skimmer line goes to a soda lime reactor size 3.5 diameter and 18" high. Outside air is not much of an option this time of year. The sump is in my garage and the size of the garage is 30x26x12. We park a car and truck in there but they do not run long in the garage. For the most part just the wife's car lately. I will change the sump light to opposite schedule than tank. The light in sump has just been on.

My lights on the tank are on about seven hours. I have an apex controller and I am thinking about changing it to seasonal and letting the lights be on longer. Should I change this to seasonal and have them on longer?

I have 2 circulation pumps in each tank. One day I will have mp60s in the tanks. What location should I put the circulation pumps and were should I point them?

I have been dosing soda ash for about 24 hours and the lights are just coming on. The ph is 7.8 right before the lights come on


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Ozone won't raise ph.

Dosing kalk( limewater ) in lieu of soda ash and calcium ; it will provide both alkalinity and calcium in balanced proportions and use CO2 in the water as it does.
 
The Kalk approach might help. That depends on the aeration rate of the tank. If the pH is 7.8 in the morning, that's fine. The morning pH reading should be the daily low. Are you still getting 7.6 at times?
 
I am not getting readings of 7.6 this morning was 7.8 and the hose for the dosing pump was plugged. So I am dosing again today. I found another problem and I was using Red Sea salinity tester (clear one you fill up and floats the arrow) and my salinity is just below 1.025 so I have tried to raise it a little. After recal on my probes conductivity was reading 40 so checked it with my refractometer the reading is 1.030 so I am dropping that down. The saga continues and I will order my kalk tonight.

Shannon

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