pH too low?

[e_reef]

I was wondering what everyone considers too low for pH levels. I know ideal would be like 8.2-8.4.

If you've noticed my other posts bugging everyone, I've just finished cycling my tank and my pH is coming in at 7.6. From what I've seen on some other posts, this isn't the worst but its clearly low. I have a Pistol Shrimp in a QT and would like to get him in the tank soon. Would he be fine in 7.6? It'll still be a few days or so until I do move him(I want to do a good water change, get in a CUC for some of the algae, and just give the tank a little more time to stabilize).

 

[Dkuhlmann]

7.6 is fine. Just do your WC and put your shrimp in and go about stocking your tank. With saltwater tanks its more important to have good levels of Alk if they are in line so will the PH. I only test PH in a new tank to see where it is, after that I never test PH again.

 

[Bent]

The most common culprit for a chronically low PH is your house retaining co2.

Don't worry about it, the animals won't care. Plenty a successful reef has been kept at 7.6


If you get really stressed about it, you can try to agitate the surface of the water more to drive off more co2, but it won't matter if the co2 level in the house is at x rate.

 

[thegrun]

How are you testing for pH?

 

[e_reef]

7.6 is fine. Just do your WC and put your shrimp in and go about stocking your tank. With saltwater tanks its more important to have good levels of Alk if they are in line so will the PH. I only test PH in a new tank to see where it is, after that I never test PH again.

The Alk level is just fine, sitting happily at 10 dKH.

The most common culprit for a chronically low PH is your house retaining co2.

Don't worry about it, the animals won't care. Plenty a successful reef has been kept at 7.6


If you get really stressed about it, you can try to agitate the surface of the water more to drive off more co2, but it won't matter if the co2 level in the house is at x rate.

Yeah, I was looking at that when searching around. It doesn't help also that its a BioCube 14 and I've noticed it definitely does not get much air flow through under the lid(and in the current location of the tank, the lid is a must).

I had a feeling it would be acceptable. I was wondering what the lowest people would feel comfortable with is.

How are you testing for pH?

Red Sea test kit

 

[Bent]

Truthfully if the alkalinity is within limits, I wouldn't care how low the Ph is. With a normal alkalinity, it's impossible for it to be driven too incredibly low by co2 retention alone.

 

[downbeach]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/rhf/index.php

 

[Bent]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/rhf/index.php

That's a great read.

 

[Timfish]

Corals can be happy with surprisingly low pH and alkalinity.

http://www.whoi.edu/news-release/palau-corals

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1797/20141856