My Ph Is Too High
- Thread starter cfrazee
- Start date
Serioussnaps
New member
Are you dosing Kalk??????? What is your regimen
joelowrider
In Memoriam
how does ph get to high
Dosing buffers, kalk, calcium reactor putting out too much effluent are common causes.
What is your pH? It also will vary depending on the time taken. Higher at the end of the lighting period, and lower toward the end of the dark period that is early morning before light enters the system.
What is your pH? It also will vary depending on the time taken. Higher at the end of the lighting period, and lower toward the end of the dark period that is early morning before light enters the system.
smcnally
New member
Kalkwasser will raise Ph. a Ca reactor putting out too much effluent will actually lower Ph since effluent is normally in the 6-7 range.
A buffer will actually lower or raise the Ph to whatever it is a "buffer" to. Baking soda, for example will bring your Ph slowly to ~7.9 whether your Ph is low or high. A product that says it is a Ph buffer of 8.4 will bring a high Ph down and raise a lo Ph. But, buffers usually aren't the answer. This handy reef calculator should help you out. http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html
Yes the reactor effluent is in the range of 6-7 pH, but if it is run through a skimmer then most of the CO2 will gas off leaving a solution with a higher pH. Lots of algae could also take up the CO2 thus raising the pH.
Buffers will raise the pH. They are not a magic powder which will raise or lower pH depending on the existing pH of the water. If that were the case they would have = parts acid and base which would be neutral. You can not add buffers "willey nilly" to the system without raising pH.
But what we still do not know is what is or was the pH in his tank, the parts of the system which could contribute to the problem, and what he has been dosing.
Buffers will raise the pH. They are not a magic powder which will raise or lower pH depending on the existing pH of the water. If that were the case they would have = parts acid and base which would be neutral. You can not add buffers "willey nilly" to the system without raising pH.
But what we still do not know is what is or was the pH in his tank, the parts of the system which could contribute to the problem, and what he has been dosing.
Johnsteph10
New member
I think the key questions to ask are what is your pH and what, if anything, are you dosing?
smcnally
New member
I've never heard of the the efluant going through a skimmer and raising Ph. I won't ague that since I don't know whether or not it is true. What I do know as truth though is that I have personally had my Ca reactor dump too much effluant into my tank over a couple weeks period, and it caused my Alk to go way high and my Ph to drop to about 7.8-7.9.
I do believe you are mistaken about buffers though. I've talked to Randy Holmes Farley about them on more than one occasion. The thing that makes a buffer a buffer is that it has a set Ph value. In other words, Baking Soda for instance has a Ph value of somewhere around 7.9. So if you mix it in with your tank water and your tank water is above 7.9, it will bring the Ph down. If it is lower than 7.9, it will raise the Ph up. There really is nothing magical about it. I'll send a link to this to Randy and let him talk on the subject. For all I know, I can be completely wrong, but I'm pretty sure that it what he told me.
Please post what he says about the buffers. One way to check the pH of a buffer would be to mix a portion of the buffer with a portion of water (or even tank water). Try a teaspoon in a quart of water. That may be extreme dosing but it should show the effects of an overdose of the buffer. I do not have any sitting around the house and my pH probe fizzled out. Got to order a new one this week. I would also say that if mixing baking soda and water will give you a specific pH, then that would make a perfect solution to calibrate pH probes, but it won't.
As far as the skimmer bit many have a fitting to plug in either ozone or a skimmer effluent line. The turbulance in the reaction chamber will help to gas off the CO2 thus raising the pH and decreasing the impact on your system. A second chamber on the Ca reactor will also help to raise the pH of the effluent by further buffering of the effluent. Remember CO2 is an acid which reacts with the substrate in the reactor.
As far as the skimmer bit many have a fitting to plug in either ozone or a skimmer effluent line. The turbulance in the reaction chamber will help to gas off the CO2 thus raising the pH and decreasing the impact on your system. A second chamber on the Ca reactor will also help to raise the pH of the effluent by further buffering of the effluent. Remember CO2 is an acid which reacts with the substrate in the reactor.
HippieSmell
Occupy Reef Central
Buffers will lower or raise the pH. The pKa value (the pH value that the buffer will hover around) of the buffer is 50% ionized and 50% unionized, so it is actually = parts acid and base at the pKa value. It's a narrow range though, usually. If you go too far from the pKa value of the buffer, the buffer won't do much.
pH buffers are all alkalinity additives.
pH buffers can be made that when added will initially raise or lower the pH of seawater.
Pure baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), for example, has a small initial pH lowering effect on seawater (even if it has a higher pH when added to freshwater). If you bake it to make sodium carbonate, it has a pH raising effect. You can make a mixture of the two that will have no initial effect on pH, and that mixture comprises mostly bicarbonate and a small amount of carbonate (the exact ratio depends on the pH that you want to to be added to and have no effect).
That said, the higher the alkalinity, the higher the pH of the aquarium will tend to be. So boosting the alkalinity with baking soda will have a small pH lowering effect, but eventually may lead to a higher pH IF the aquarium is able to blow off the excess CO2 that the bicarbonate added.
I discuss such issues in this article:
The Relationship Between Alkalinity and pH.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/chem.htm
As to solving high pH problems, I address the ways to lower pH in this article:
High pH: Causes and Cures
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/index.htm
pH buffers can be made that when added will initially raise or lower the pH of seawater.
Pure baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), for example, has a small initial pH lowering effect on seawater (even if it has a higher pH when added to freshwater). If you bake it to make sodium carbonate, it has a pH raising effect. You can make a mixture of the two that will have no initial effect on pH, and that mixture comprises mostly bicarbonate and a small amount of carbonate (the exact ratio depends on the pH that you want to to be added to and have no effect).
That said, the higher the alkalinity, the higher the pH of the aquarium will tend to be. So boosting the alkalinity with baking soda will have a small pH lowering effect, but eventually may lead to a higher pH IF the aquarium is able to blow off the excess CO2 that the bicarbonate added.
I discuss such issues in this article:
The Relationship Between Alkalinity and pH.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/chem.htm
As to solving high pH problems, I address the ways to lower pH in this article:
High pH: Causes and Cures
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/index.htm
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