Ph problems with instant ocean

[a1amap]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11325438#post11325438 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mbbuna
the PH of sea water is controlled by the amount of CO2 in the water and the surrounding air...chasing an ideal PH # is futile, especially using buffers. what you will end up doing is driving your ALK through the roof. if you want your tank PH higher try dripping a little kalk or run a tube so your skimmer get fresh outside air.

After adding a lot of soda my alk is 4 meq/l or about 11.2dkh so I am set there. But my PH is about 8.02 on average. After reading this and a litte more research I ran a line from the skimmer input to the outside door where I put a small hole to feed fresh air. My tank backs up to the water heater and the house gas heater. I wonder where it gets co2 from!! Will test again tomorrow.

 

[a1amap]

At first when ronert posted the following thread my first thought was "geeks". http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1287177
While in its self these 2 threads didn't seem to be related, it seems to make since now. Yesterday I made new salt water because I knew I would use extra water acclimating new arrivals. Today I tested the ph of the newly made water and the ph was 8.25. Big difference from the 7.6 I was getting before. The only change? I started a new bucket today. I would venture a guess that the bucket before had the same problem that was reported in the thread ronert posted. While it is impossible to prove I added nothing to this new bucket and alk, ph, calcium all tested fine. (I don't have the test for Mag) On the old bucket I only tested ph. But for the new bucket after the ph came out fine I wondered if there were any thing else out of the ordinary.