pH toooooo low!

[d2mini]

Help me get it up!
Seriously.... it's 7.57 right now.
Been running my fuge light 24/7. My Calcium Reactor is single chamber and internal pH is kept at around 6.8 with a steady flow of effluent.
I could probably manage to get a line of fresh air run to the sump but it's going to take some work.
Could also add a second chamber to the CaRx.
I don't want to do either unless I know it would make a substantial difference.
Any other suggestions?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is the pH probe recently calibrated?

 

[Abhishek]

As Randy said, I would first calibrate the probe if not done. Few things I would add :-

1. Bring in fresh air by opening up windows if you can . Best is to connect the airline to the skimmer intake as you already planned and ythat should help.
2. Degassing chamber for the calcium reactor effluent from the main chamber. Then you can let the effluent drop in the lats chamber of your sump where you can run an airstone at full blast to further degas.
3. You can try with CO2 scrubber connected with your skimmer but I fear that might become too costly .

I can only think of these as you are already running fuge .


Regards,
Abhishek

 

[d2mini]

Is the pH probe recently calibrated?

Yes, Randy. And this is not a knew thing. Well, my ph is always on the low side but of course it got lower after adding the reactor a few months ago.

 

[d2mini]

As Randy said, I would first calibrate the probe if not done. Few things I would add :-

1. Bring in fresh air by opening up windows if you can . Best is to connect the airline to the skimmer intake as you already planned and ythat should help.
2. Degassing chamber for the calcium reactor effluent from the main chamber. Then you can let the effluent drop in the lats chamber of your sump where you can run an airstone at full blast to further degas.
3. You can try with CO2 scrubber connected with your skimmer but I fear that might become too costly .

I can only think of these as you are already running fuge .


Regards,
Abhishek

Can't rely on windows. This is Houston.
I've tried a scrubber in the past on my previous tank. Didn't see much change and it was a PITA dealing with the media.
I'll research the degassing chamber. Not familiar with that.

 

[redfishbluefish]

That's a pretty bad CO2 issue.......if it's real. I'd have someone else check/verify your pH with another meter. I'm suspecting a bad meter/probe.

 

[d2mini]

That's a pretty bad CO2 issue.......if it's real. I'd have someone else check/verify your pH with another meter. I'm suspecting a bad meter/probe.

In every tank I've had, it's always in the 7's by early morning and breaks 8.0 by the evening. I never get to 8.2
But since adding the CaRx it's gone below my typical low of 7.75 and I'm happy if I see it hit 8.0 later in the day.
I can recalibrate the probe again tonite, but I wouldn't expect it to go up too much. We'll see.

 

[KJoFan]

I had one of those energy audits done on my house a few years ago and found that it's far too tight, which was illustrated by elevated humidity levels, even in winter as well as low pH in my tank. To help combat it we just installed a vent in the exterior wall of our utility room (split level home) and ran that flexible round ductwork from there over to the air handler of our heat/ac unit. This basically just allows fresh air into the mix of air circulating through the home. It has a simple open/close lever such that if you want/need to close it for any reason you can.

We generally end up leaving it open year round except maybe when the air is extremely cold/dry . My tank pH w/out a fuge currently stays around 7.8 which isn't high by any means but it does drop even lower without the vent open so it must do some good.

A window during open window seasons obviously does more good, keeping pH 8.0-8.3 depending on time of day but this at least keeps it in an acceptable range.

I would imagine this is not unlike an air exchanger, but without the expense, more of a passive system.

 

[Brew12]

Can't rely on windows. This is Houston.

Move to Hawaii, open windows!

I found a CO2 scrubber to be very effective. One thing I don't understand is that the media demand was crazy for the first few weeks but after a month or two it started lasting much longer. Brought my pH from 7.8 to 8.2. I only run it during the summer when I need to close up the house.

 

[bubbaque]

Dennis, do you notice any difference in the tank with it so low?

 

[d2mini]

Dennis, do you notice any difference in the tank with it so low?

Well like I was saying above, i have always had low ph in my tanks. And that's across three different homes, some new some old.
This just happens to be the lowest.
I've always felt I have slow growth... but don't we all feel that way? hahaha
But yeah, that to me would be the direct effect... slower coral growth. Not sure about the fish/critters.

 

[Drauka99]

Short term solutions - cut off the calcium reactor, dose kalk and 2 part, OR keep the CA reactor going and add a CO2 scrubber to the skimmer intake.

Long term solution - run an air line outside

I was having the same issues as you with low PH, ran a line outside and had to readjust my PH alarms to higher levels because the numbers improved so much.

 

[d2mini]

Short term solutions - cut off the calcium reactor, dose kalk and 2 part, OR keep the CA reactor going and add a CO2 scrubber to the skimmer intake.

Long term solution - run an air line outside

I was having the same issues as you with low PH, ran a line outside and had to readjust my PH alarms to higher levels because the numbers improved so much.

Yeah, i'm not pulling the reactor to run kalk.
What is "so much"? What kind of numbers did you see?

 

[bubbaque]

Dennis I sent you a pm in the past about low ph. I am not sure kalk will even help. I have low ph also, with the low being 7.65, so I wanted to dose saturated kalk along with my calcrx. I am dosing 6000 mls a day (250 mls per hr) and it doesn't do anything for ph. The kalk will use the co2 but by the aeration of my high co2 air, it just holds the ph down.

I even plumbed a frag tank out in the garage that is connected to my display to try and get fresh air but it doesn't help. I have the hose to the skimmer for fresh air also but doesn't do anything either.

 

[Brew12]

Dennis I sent you a pm in the past about low ph. I am not sure kalk will even help. I have low ph also, with the low being 7.65, so I wanted to dose saturated kalk along with my calcrx. I am dosing 6000 mls a day (250 mls per hr) and it doesn't do anything for ph. The kalk will use the co2 but by the aeration of my high co2 air, it just holds the ph down.

I even plumbed a frag tank out in the garage that is connected to my display to try and get fresh air but it doesn't help. I have the hose to the skimmer for fresh air also but doesn't do anything either.

Do you run an air stone in your frag tank to help with gas exchange? Or a separate skimmer?

 

[d2mini]

Do you run an air stone in your frag tank to help with gas exchange? Or a separate skimmer?

I was running nano microbubbles in the sump for a while. Didn't seem to make much difference. This was before i added the calcium reactor.

 

[Brew12]

I was running nano microbubbles in the sump for a while. Didn't seem to make much difference. This was before i added the calcium reactor.

I was curious about his system in the garage. Seems like that should have helped if it had good air exchange. Of course, the water flow in relation to the pH sensor would make a difference in his case.

 

[GoVols]

I was running nano microbubbles in the sump for a while. Didn't seem to make much difference. This was before i added the calcium reactor.

Might want to contact GEO and see their thoughts and incite with adding the second stage.
Dosing kalk in ATO water would help too.

 

[d2mini]

Thought on second chamber vs adding a kalk reactor to the mix?

 

[GoVols]

Thought on second chamber vs adding a kalk reactor to the mix?

I don't know if the second stage could pull it off.

@2una runs a kalk stirrer with his cal reactor.