Soft coral growth rate and pH

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I’ve been playing with pH for a while on my nano and I definitely see an increase is alkalinity consumption with higher average pH. A pH change of 0.2 is pretty significant.

I don’t have soft corals so I don’t know what the impact it. I really don’t know if my LPS prefer the higher pH.

dead stable pH at 8.4? I’m sure it’s doable with a lot of effort. To keep alkalinity, etc stable it would be all about managing CO2.

Have you been “playing” with anything else in the same time frame, or solely ph? When you say higher ph, and a change of .2, at what level (ie. going from 7.7 to 7.9, or 8.2 to 8.4)? Lastly, was ph the missing puzzle piece, where everything else was already dialed in?

 

[Treefer32]

Well, my 340 gallon very mixed reef is going on 6-7 years old. I've noticed some things,
My orange ricordia seem to have receded some with a more stable higher ph. I have swings of 8.1 to 8.4 per day. They were multiplying fairly rapidly and now have backed off on the multiplication. Not Dying not, growing.

I have a Nepthea that a couple tiny frags got lost in the sand and they've been growing exponentially faster than anything else, going from 1/2" tall buried in the sand, to nearly 6" tall and multiple branches.

I had entire rocks full of pulsing Zenia that came out of nowhere one year. They grew for about year threatening to take over multiple rocks. Then the colony just collapsed melting away. I have Bubble mushrooms of some type that around the same time as the Zenia popped up out of nowhere and They have stayed, going through phases of getting larger, moving to different spots on the rocks and multiplying to remaining stable now.

In the meantime my acros went from 1/2" frags on a 20" shelf to taking over the shelf mixed with a Hydrophora and Purple Monti.

My hammers and Frog Spawn, along with the SPS seem to like the higher PH's I'm maintaining now. My soft corals, it's a mixed bag. Some are thriving and doing way better than others.

P.s. I can't keep Zoas as I have found out the hard way I have zoa eating asterinas.

 

[rishma]

Have you been “playing” with anything else in the same time frame, or solely ph? When you say higher ph, and a change of .2, at what level (ie. going from 7.7 to 7.9, or 8.2 to 8.4)? Lastly, was ph the missing puzzle piece, where everything else was already dialed in?

All good questions. I am definitely not running any proper experiments, just playing.

For a long time my pH was approximately 8 to 8.2, but varied a lot if windows were open vs closed. It is now about 8.3-8.4.

I cannot say that I kept other things constant during this time. I’ve fiddled with it many things. But lighting, nitrate, phosphate, and alkalinity have been fairly consistent. I am confident alkalinity consumption increased as a consequence of higher pH because both changed quickly. I could see the higher alkalinity consumption trend within days.

I don’t feel like pH was a missing piece. I wasn’t solving a problem. Everything was fine before I started messing with it

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

All good questions. I am definitely not running any proper experiments, just playing.

For a long time my pH was approximately 8 to 8.2, but varied a lot if windows were open vs closed. It is now about 8.3-8.4.

I cannot say that I kept other things constant during this time. I’ve fiddled with it many things. But lighting, nitrate, phosphate, and alkalinity have been fairly consistent. I am confident alkalinity consumption increased as a consequence of higher pH because both changed quickly. I could see the higher alkalinity consumption trend within days.

I don’t feel like pH was a missing piece. I wasn’t solving a problem. Everything was fine before I started messing with it

Honest answer, I love it. To be honest I knew you had started ammonium recently. I bring that up as I have noticed (like you, not a scientific test system or anything) that my alkalinity consumption increased about the same amount (don’t really remember exactly, but it was measurable) with raising my average ph from around 8.1 to 8.3 as I noticed when I switched from dosing sodium nitrate to ammonium. Was it growth, health? Beats me, I’m blind as a bat now and can’t use optics as a reference. Was it some sort of chemical conversion process? Beats me, I’m not smart enough or qualified to make that call. I do appreciate people in this thread being honest with their observations. My beef is with statements that say that one singular thing, albeit ph, a trace element, a specific parameter target, etc that elude to the holy grail of reef keeping. Reef’s are team players. I don’t believe that ph (or anything else) is the Micheal Jordan in our tanks.

 

[rishma]

Honest answer, I love it. To be honest I knew you had started ammonium recently. I bring that up as I have noticed (like you, not a scientific test system or anything) that my alkalinity consumption increased about the same amount (don’t really remember exactly, but it was measurable) with raising my average ph from around 8.1 to 8.3 as I noticed when I switched from dosing sodium nitrate to ammonium. Was it growth, health? Beats me, I’m blind as a bat now and can’t use optics as a reference. Was it some sort of chemical conversion process? Beats me, I’m not smart enough or qualified to make that call. I do appreciate people in this thread being honest with their observations. My beef is with statements that say that one singular thing, albeit ph, a trace element, a specific parameter target, etc that elude to the holy grail of reef keeping. Reef’s are team players. I don’t believe that ph (or anything else) is the Micheal Jordan in our tanks.

Reefs are team players! That’s perfect.

Regarding ammonium bicarbonate, you are correct. I did start that around this period, but I do not attribute the change in alkalinity consumption to starting ammonia. I could be wrong but I definitely felt like it was pH driven.

I stopped ammonia cold turkey 2 days ago and I’ll see what happens with alkalinity and report back.

One last thought, if your ammonia dose is resulting in higher nitrate, I think this process consumes alkalinity. In my case, nitrate was pretty constant.

 

[exnisstech]

Any idea why? The ATS proponents describe them like they are made of rainbows and gold.

No rainbows and gold but a constant supply of food for tangs and no nuisance algae in the display. The tangs could very well be the reason the display stays clean so if it's just a food source for them I'm good with that too. It's easier tossing a handful of this in vs messing around putting nori on a clip

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Let me rephrase myself with a thought-provoking question:

If someone has 2 algae scrubbers in their tank: would one cause the other not to grow?

We should start a competition. The Miami Reef ATS thunderdome.

2 ATS enter, only one leaves. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

For a long time my pH was approximately 8 to 8.2, but varied a lot if windows were open vs closed. It is now about 8.3-8.4.

FWIW, I noticed a clear pH shift lower when we got new storm windows.

 

[Miami Reef]

FWIW, I noticed a clear pH shift lower when we got new storm windows.

I never knew you got new windows. I remember reading that your old house had windows where you can physically feel the draft. All I could think were the roaches and bugs that could enter through those cracks.

We should start a competition. The Miami Reef ATS thunderdome.

2 ATS enter, only one leaves. lol

lol

Was your latest thread inspired by my post in this thread about my experiments?

 

[rishma]

FWIW, I noticed a clear pH shift lower when we got new storm windows.

I believe it. My previous home was really weather tight due to the climate. pH of my tank in that house was exceptionally low, especially in winter.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I never knew you got new windows. I remember reading that your old house had windows where you can physically feel the draft. All I could think were the roaches and bugs that could enter through those cracks.


lol

Was your latest thread inspired by my post in this thread about my experiments?

We can still feel the wind, but the new storms tend to slow it down. The old windows are still there inside the storms. I was sitting in a chair over Christmas and felt a cool breeze on my neck. The inside window was actually open a bit. lol

Yes, it was. lol