Ph issue

Shab

New member
Hi. I have been having low ph issue for few weeks now. Tried many places but cannot seem to get a solution.
My tank is 250 ltr with sump.2 year old. Have some soft and some lps coral and three fishes. My tank ph keeps dropping. Kh is at 8.9, ph 7.8,calcium 440, magnesium 1260. Even using kalk on ato cannot raise the ph. If i start dosing kalk the ph will rise around 8. But as soon as i stop kalk it comes back down around 7.8-7.77. Measuring ph using seneye ph meter and digital probe. Tank is in a open area and getting fresh air. Do you have any advise on how to raise it. Even with lights on ph dont go up.
Thank you for your support.
My tank: http://youtu.be/951yB0PHSu4
 
There are a couple ways to easily raise pH, the easiest of which is to open a few windows. You can also run your skimmer airline outside, provided that is an option with your setup.

Are you saying that your pH is the same all day long and you have no swing? If that's the case, I would suspect your probe needs cleaned or replaced.
 
How often are you changing water and how is your protein skimmer working? Accumulation of bio waste can also impact your ability to maintain PH.
 
FWIW, that isn't a terribly low pH, if indeed it's accurate. However, a little higher would be nice. Here's what I would do.

First calibrate your meter. When calibrated, remeasure.

If it's accurate, take a sample of tank water outdoors and aerate with an airstone for 15 minutes or so. Retest this sample. If the pH has risen, your problem is high levels of dissolved CO2 in the water. Do a search on fixes. A couple were mentioned by Spyderturbo.

If the pH doesn't raise after a fresh air test, I would first try slowly raising dKH to around 10-11 with an alk only supplement (baking or washing soda), then continue with your regular kalk drip. See if that raises it a bit.

If this doesn't work, look into organic causes as oscarinw suggested. Clean skimmer, reduce feeding, perform a few more water changes.

Chasing the pH is a bad idea, look at other causes first, though you do have a bit of play with your dKH.

HTH.
 
pH is directly related to co2 involved in and around ur tank. opening windows airing out the room getting the skimmer to run the air intake outside the house and co2 scrubbers are few ways to get pH up.
note: there is no such thing as pH increase in saltwater world they are all alkalinity increasing agents. their effect on pH is temp for few hours so avoid that.
 
Back
Top