Ways to increase pH

[Scorpius]

The only cheap and sure fire way to keep your ph up is to get fresh air into your house all the time or fresh air to your skimmer.

I ended up drilling a hole in my wall and routed a fresh air line to my skimmer. PH of 8 in the winter now. Every other option introduces parameter swings and/or requires constant monitoring on out part.

Air scrubbers require media change. Kalk adds parameter swings. Refugiums do little to battle co2 unless you run a HUGE setup. Believe me when I say a hole in the wall to get fresh air to your skimmer will solve your problem for good and doesn't require any maintenance.

 

[2una]

bigger or extra skimmer can also help....maybe not so much if the room is high Co2 but it must help lower the carbonic acid from other factors within the tank which does help keeping the ph from falling more lower than it would without.
Gave me about the same bump as what a Co2 scrubber does
(its not the skimming factor helping its the extra aeration)

 

[blasterman789]

I'm convinced that C02 /Carbonic acid levels can have detrimental effect on captive corals, but can't put a firm number on it. My own theory is that there's a relationship here with calcium carbonate saturation levels and pH and tank size that has yet to be determined. When I kalk my small tanks at night the effect on SPS is dramatic and obvious. I've seen birdsnests and digipora respond with improved calcification within 48 hours if I haven't run kalk in a few months and then start. Then again I've owned plenty of big tanks with reactors where mean pH levels were far lower than my current small tanks, and yet the former grew SPS like crazy. I've also noted that higher alk levels in small tanks seem to be mandatory to help buffer against nightly pH swings. So, IMO, it's not pH levels that are the problem. It's pH levels in relation to other things in the water, and I've never quantified what 'other' is other than SPS in big tanks doesn't seem as bothered by persistent low pH as in smaller tanks.

 

[tmz]

I've read in these forums that running Refuge/Chaeto lighting opposite day/night cycles can help even out dips in PH. Have you tried that?

Yes, that helps and gives some oxygen too.

 

[tmz]

Adding outside air is a good thing if you can ;just insure the air intake tube is large enough to avoid restricting airflow to the skimmer. It's not the only way though. Kalk can be dosed slowly without parameter swings. There are several other ways you can try if you like.

 

[Walla2GSP]

Hello,

I have read that CO2 causes pH do go down so I am trying to figure some way I can keep the CO2 level in the house low.

House plants? I keep exotics plants as another expensive hobby I can't really afford, and I had to build a greenhouse because my plants were using up all the free CO2 in the house and starting to die. I would maybe plop a couple of bushy plants from walmart down near your tank, but not so close that leaves fall into the water, or salt spray gets on the leaves and see if it helps. Word of warning, never water your plants with water from your saltwater tank. I made that mistake last year, because i used to use water from my cichlid tanks years ago to water plants, and was in the middle of a water change and dumped a couple gallons on one the plants on my way outside and didnt give a second thought till the plant died a week later. The salt will pull the water out of the plant and keep it from absorbing any new water.

 

[kecked]

I have the same problem and use a gas scavenger on my skimmer. It helps some but my real problem is my basement is loaded with coffee trees and jasmine and orchids and ....
Every night they eat the oxygen and make CO2! Took me a while to figure this out.

Why has no one mentioned buffers? I understand excessive borate but they do work.
Guess kalk makes a lot more sense though.