Reef Experts, I need help with PH

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WvReefJunkie

Member
I have a 220 Gallon Reef aquaria that has been running roughly a year and a half. I have been dosing alot of calcium chloride and super dkh buffer. So I decided to get a Reef Octopus Kalk reactor. I have it on a timer that mostly stirs on a hour intervals. Iam also running a Neptune Apex with a PH probe recently calibrated. I have a target value of 10dkh and Calcium 435 ppm that I keep close to by dosing. The problem I am having is PH swings. Before I went to bed yesterday was 8.15 and this morning it was 7.92. I would think with the hand dosing and reactor that these levels would be higher. Iam also running reverse light cycle. Any help would be appreciated.
 
As you turn lights on, algae start using the carbon dioxide in your tank which lowers the carbonic acid and raises your pH.

When you turn lights off, algae stops using co2 and it starts building up again causing pH to drop.
 
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Frozenguy, I agree with what your saying. But my lowest point of PH is five hours till my display lights come on. I just tested my Kalk solution in the reactor, it is 11.7. Also checked my PH against a API test kit and it was correct.
 
Sorry Frozenguy, I miss read your post. What could I do to remove excess Co2? Increase aeration, my vortech mp40s stay in nighttime mode. I can reset them by pulling the power cord to them, but that is temporary. I need to disable that feature permanently. Thanks.
 
Opening a window or door would raise your pH as CO2 levels are generally higher inside a house.

I've heard of some people hooking up an airline to their skimmer that can be routed outside to suck in air with less CO2. But I'm not sure increased aeration from same source would help.

Your pH looks fine. It's what my tank runs at and I've been told it's within range especially if alk is good. When I open my window or door for a few hours a day, for a few days then the pH range goes up to about ~ 8.15 lights off to ~ 8.25/8.3 lights on
 
I have a Co2 scrubber waiting at my house to be installed when I get home. It's basically a cheap reactor hooked to the intake of protein skimmer filled with a CO2 absorber. Expensive to run though (I hear).
 
Stop chasing Ph. Get the alkalinity stable and in check. I would even just throw the test kit in the garbage can.
 
That's a perfectly normal pH swing that won't cause any issues.

If, however, it simply bothers you on first principles, then you have 3 options, all based on CO2 removal during the night:

1) Run a much bigger algae refugium on an opposite photoperiod - the algae will strip the CO2 from the water at night, thus increasing the nighttime pH.

2) Run an airline from the skimmer to the exterior of the home. This will lower the CO2 concentration in the incoming air, which will have the effect of stripping some of the CO2 in the tank water, and thus increasing the pH. This method will still result in swings between day/night, just at a higher average pH than running an indoor airline.

3) Automate an active CO2 scrubber with your Apex. You'll need soda lime CO2 adsorption media in a reactor that your skimmer airline is piped through, with a switching valve between running the air through your CO2 adsorption reactor and room air. You set the Apex to run the air through the CO2 adsorption media when the tank's pH is less than 8.1, and switch back to room air when greater than 8.15. There's someone in the Reef Chemistry section that did exactly this to flatten out his tank's pH to 8.2, day or night.
 
I really wouldn't do anything. If you dipped to 7.8 every single night then I might look at something to bring up the pH over 7.9. There's already good options given above on how to increase pH with out increasing Alk which you said you have stable through dosing.
 
Took 5 minutes to set up.

I'm not sure using an apex and valve is necessary but will let you know.

FWIW I only set this up because my LP gas logs can drive ph to dangerous levels in no time.
 

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Drawing air from outside can help and is cheap but has risks of pollutants that GAC filter may help with hopefully and requires drilling a hole to the outside and make sure insects don't get into the line.

Like above a CO2 is easy to setup but does have the cost of Soda Lime. I setup an old BRS GFO/GAC reactor I had laying around. Other have gone even cheaper using old juice bottles or GFO containers etc. Doesn't need to be anything fancy as long as the air passes through the Soda Lime.

I was dropping to 7.8 and its hard to open windows at my house due to severe allergies. I don't trust the pesticides that are used around the neighborhood. So after setting up the scrubber I'm constantly above 8 at night and usually around 8.2 during the day.

I split my air intake so the skimmer isn't pull 100% of the air through the scrubber increasing the life of the Soda Lime I got from Medvet yet still being very effective.

I think this was around $80 and should last me quite a while.
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pdiehm said:
My tank goes from 8.08 to 8.24. doesn't seem to bother anyone.
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The swing isn't so much a problem I don't think and hasn't shown to be a major issue historically in many great looking tanks. But 7.8 is about as low as you'd want to go as under 7.7 you'll start dissolving coral skeletons potentially. But on the other end above 8.6 and you start precipitating out calcium and related issues with that even damaging equipment.
 
Open up just about every PH thread and people will say don't worry.

For the most part it really doesn't. If your tank is somewhat consistent, that's all that matters.
 
jason2459 said:
The swing isn't so much a problem I don't think and hasn't shown to be a major issue historically in many great looking tanks. But 7.8 is about as low as you'd want to go as under 7.7 you'll start dissolving coral skeletons potentially. But on the other end above 8.6 and you start precipitating out calcium and related issues with that even damaging equipment.
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randy holmes-farley advised me once to not chase. If my pH is stable at 7.8-7.9, it's perfectly fine. It never dropped below 7.78, but if I could maintain an Alk of 9-11, with the 7.8 pH it would be just fine.
 
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