PH issues possibly

[09bumblebee]

This morning I checked ph and it was 7.72 so I brought it up, it's at 8.05 now I need to bring it up more. Not sure what dropped it so much, Probly the red sea po4x stuff ive been dosing the past few weeks and or the new skimmer pump. My skimmer pump was bad so new pump and getting tons of crap now. Was it the skimmer now working properly or the red sea stuff? Since I don't have a dosing pump or room for a kalk reactor what should I use? Do I need to constantly dose something else to maintain my ph? No3 are 5 and po4 is .2 slowly coming down from 50 and .5 I had some ph+ stuff but that will raise my alk as well correct? I use my ato to keep my alk at 8.0. Suggestions?

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

I don't dose my reef so I can't help you there. I have been doing small daily water changes for the last couple of weeks. Just a gallon or 2 a day, it takes like 2 minutes, but the tank has been VERY stable. I am working on setting up a DIY Auto water change system. Regular small water changes can help to reduce the need for dosing. I don't think that the new skimmer pump would cause the Ph drop, but I could be wrong.

 

[SteveT]

If your PH is unstable it could be a sign of your carbonate hardness being low as well. What are you using to test your PH? I would use a different test method to verify that your PH is in fact that low before you start adding anything to raise it.

 

[djkms]

This morning I checked ph and it was 7.72 so I brought it up, it's at 8.05 now I need to bring it up more. Not sure what dropped it so much, Probly the red sea po4x stuff ive been dosing the past few weeks and or the new skimmer pump. My skimmer pump was bad so new pump and getting tons of crap now. Was it the skimmer now working properly or the red sea stuff? Since I don't have a dosing pump or room for a kalk reactor what should I use? Do I need to constantly dose something else to maintain my ph? No3 are 5 and po4 is .2 slowly coming down from 50 and .5 I had some ph+ stuff but that will raise my alk as well correct? I use my ato to keep my alk at 8.0. Suggestions?

Sorry - had to retype my post. I was reading what lpsouth wrote and was going off what he said.

Anyways, to answer your question (in bold). Sodium carbonate (soda ash, baked baking soda) will increase your PH while maintaining alkalinity. Kalkwasser is also a good way to increase PH. So to answer your question, yes something needs to be dosed to maintain alkalinity otherwise your corals will consume alkalinity which will lower PH and the CO2 in your house will also lower PH.

2nd question (in bold) - yes. I am not aware of a product that only raises PH and not alkalinity.

You say you use your ATO to keep alk at 8.0. What is in your ATO water to maintain that level?

 

[09bumblebee]

Are you referring to alk? I keep mine at 8.0-8.2 I use a pinpoint ph probe. Recently calibrated it. I'll check it at work with one of our ph meters to see if it's accurate.

 

[djkms]

Sorry, I retyped my previous post. I was going off what lpsouth said and got sidetracked into replying to that post and not yours.

IMO I wouldn't chase PH. As long as your alkalinity is stable you should be fine. 7.72 is low but not horrible. You can raise PH by using soda ash or kalkwasser to raise it, open a window near the tank to let CO2 from your house escape, run your skimmer air intake outside or add more macros to your system to produce O2.

 

[DyM]

Kalkwasser really helps raise PH. If you tank is happy, I wouldn't chase ph. 8.0 is fine.

 

[hurrafreak]

Is anything suffering in your tank? Are corals dying or anything because of it? I HATE chasing around my pH, it totally sucks so I don't do anything to mess with it. I check it and make sure that it doesn't get to dangerous levels, but I pretty much let it be. If nothing if suffering in the tank then why worr?

 

[09bumblebee]

Yea everything is happy as can be! No issues.