Maintaining pH

[SoonerFan732]

I have been having a problem keeping my pH above 8 the last month or so. It has been progressively worse the last couple weeks. Right now it is hovering between 7.8 - 7.93 depending on the time of day. My alk is about 2.9 meq/l and my Calcium is 415 PPM.

What can I do to maintain my pH from 8.2-8.3?

Thanks!

Kevin Ford

 

[luvabunny]

I use a powdered marine buffer from Seachem that keeps it at 8.2-8.3, and it's never wavered, however, I don't add kalk or etc which may cause it to change.

 

[SoonerFan732]

Thanks! The only thing I add is Calcium and Baking Soda and do 15% water changes every two weeks.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

I would get your parameters double checked, just in case. If the Alk or Ca is off, then raise the lower one appropriately. If it is fine, then don't worry about it.

If your Alk/Ca are fine, then check how much flow you have and check surface aggitation. You could be having problems with air/water mixture. You can check if it's a CO2 problem by adding an air pump and bubble stone. Let it bubble in the tank for a while (like an hour or so), and then test your pH. If it goes up, then you have too much CO2 in your tank. Too much CO2 could be caused by either too much livestock or by poor flow or surface aggitation.

Also, do you run a Ca reactor?

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7074135#post7074135 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SoonerFan732
Thanks! The only thing I add is Calcium and Baking Soda and do 15% water changes every two weeks.

An alkalinity at 3.5 to 4 Meq / lt will help maintain a higher PH (Note that PH supplements are basically Alkalinity supplements so fix your alkalinity if you want a better PH
Note that baking soda tends to temporarily reduce the PH. Baking it will turn it around.
Bake a portion of the baking soda in a tray at 350 *F for about 1 to 11/2 hours. Use a mix of 5 parts of baking soda to 1 part of baked baking soda to prevent either lowering or increasing the PH, If you want to increase the PH use 1 to 1 ratio of baked to baking soda. If you want to increase it noticeably use only baked baking soda.

Run the test for excess CO2 described above but IMO it is better just to take a cup of aquarium water, aerate it outside with an airstone over night and then test it's PH, if it increases you may have excess CO2 in your home which you can solve by opening windows once in a while specially during cooking.

Finally insure that whatever you are using for testing PH is giving you the right reading, if it is a monitor you may want to insure that the probe is properly calibrated.

Good Luck!

 

[SoonerFan732]

No reactor...

The readings have been about the same for a few weeks. I have been checking them every other day with my test kits.

I do think I have a problem with CO2. Our house is newer and is fairly well insulated. I notice that when we have more people in the house for an extended period of time the pH goes down. It went to 7.6 a few weeks ago when we had some people over (before that I had never seen it below 7.8). Also we have a treadmill in the room with the tank. When some uses the treadmill the pH drops about 0.2 during that time. I started turning off the skimmer while the treadmill was in use and the pH stopped dropping. I open up the windows to the house when weather permits and the pH comes back up a bit, but leaving windows open for a long period of time isn't an option in the summer or winter.

How can a combat CO2 accumulation?

Thanks!

Kevin

 

[SoonerFan732]

I bake the the baking soda before I mix it with RO/DI water. I actually add RO/DI water mixed with the baked baking soda to the tank. I should have been more specific about how I add it, thanks

I use a pinpoint monitor to check pH and I have been calibrating it about every month or so. It seems to be pretty close before I calibrate it (usually off 0.02 or something like that).

Thanks!

Kevin

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7074394#post7074394 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SoonerFan732
No reactor...

The readings have been about the same for a few weeks. I have been checking them every other day with my test kits.

I do think I have a problem with CO2. Our house is newer and is fairly well insulated. I notice that when we have more people in the house for an extended period of time the pH goes down. It went to 7.6 a few weeks ago when we had some people over (before that I had never seen it below 7.8). Also we have a treadmill in the room with the tank. When some uses the treadmill the pH drops about 0.2 during that time. I started turning off the skimmer while the treadmill was in use and the pH stopped dropping. I open up the windows to the house when weather permits and the pH comes back up a bit, but leaving windows open for a long period of time isn't an option in the summer or winter.

How can a combat CO2 accumulation?

Thanks!

Kevin

If it is possible to hose air from the outside to the skimmer so the skimmer bubbles in fresh air will help also with the CO2 issue.
If you have a duct based vent system in the house there is the possibility of installing a Heat recovery exchanger. It recirculates the air inside your house with outside air via fans in the ducts and uses a heat exchanger so the incoming air is heated by the outgoing air thus keeping your heating bill in line. It does the oposite with aircon but less efficiently than with heating.
By the way this also helps reduce alergies and improve the overal quality of your indoor air.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

If that isn't an option and if you have a venturi style skimmer, you can just get a new length of hose and have it hang out the window. Of course, you would have to watch out for air pollutants, but you would get well oxygenated air flowing into your system

 

[SoonerFan732]

Thanks everyone, I will look into getting the skimmer's air suction tube to pull in fresh air.

Kevin