Struggling with ph.

[Baby Damsel 219]

open the nearest window for a couple of hours and see the results. I had an 8.0and then I did this and I got to 8.4

 

[thatone08]

open the nearest window for a couple of hours and see the results. I had an 8.0and then I did this and I got to 8.4

In the Midwest. Currently it’s 92 degrees. Tank is in basement. Opening the window down there starts raising the humidity to levels I’m not willing to have in a basement.

 

[thatone08]

Skimmer calmed down enough to start running again around 2.

Without skimmer on hit over night low of 7.65 and stalled out for an hour at 7.75 around 1. Ran the skimmer and got a little bit of a boost but not much.

Ran airline down through window cover at ground level and ran horizontal for about 4 feet away. Pulled the other have and connected to tubing that is connected to the skimmer. Have not ran yet.

Thought for above was not enough air flow where I was originally trying to pull air from. Going to run the skimmer after a water change. Added the salt and is mixing now. Once it’s to proper levels, water change will be performed and skimmmer ran.

 

[thatone08]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

Could too much bio media contribute to suppressed ph? Is there a by product of bacterial functions that could fight against ph?

Would adding sand help with increasing or help prevent dips below 7.8? Hear about sand being a buffer but not sure how true that is. Ideally would like to continue with bare bottom, but the low ph concerns me as I prefer sps and lps corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

Could too much bio media contribute to suppressed ph? Is there a by product of bacterial functions that could fight against ph?

Would adding sand help with increasing or help prevent dips below 7.8? Hear about sand being a buffer but not sure how true that is. Ideally would like to continue with bare bottom, but the low ph concerns me as I prefer sps and lps corals.

No, excessive biomedia should not cause low pH. Calcium carbonate sand is also not very useful for pH maintenance. If the pH does drop very low, and done dissolves, alk will rise and the pH effect is less than using kalkwasser or sodium hydroxide per unit of alk added.

 

[shent69]

I'm in the Midwest and I love air conditioning. I had a similar problem with CO2. In fact, I could always tell when my wife had her friends over just by looking at the pH of the tank; I could see it start to fall. A huge difference for me was when I connected the air intake of the skimmer and plumbed it to the outside. I still had swings, but they weren't nearly as severe.

 

[thatone08]

No, excessive biomedia should not cause low pH. Calcium carbonate sand is also not very useful for pH maintenance. If the pH does drop very low, and done dissolves, alk will rise and the pH effect is less than using kalkwasser or sodium hydroxide per unit of alk added.

Thank you.

 

[thatone08]

I'm in the Midwest and I love air conditioning. I had a similar problem with CO2. In fact, I could always tell when my wife had her friends over just by looking at the pH of the tank; I could see it start to fall. A huge difference for me was when I connected the air intake of the skimmer and plumbed it to the outside. I still had swings, but they weren't nearly as severe.

How did you go about plumbing it?

Currently as a test I have it going through a window up the window well and along the siding . To make this work I had to used couplings to a bigger size hose then again to the same size as the air intake to get through the window well cover. Hoping that this helps then I can drill and just do one coupling to reduce to the air intake line.

 

[thatone08]

Water change complete.

Ph went from 7.81 to 7.99 with the water change. Turned skimmer on. We are pulling air from outside open air instead of window well. We’ll see what we get as an overnight low and where we end up tomorrow.

 

[shent69]

How did you go about plumbing it?

Currently as a test I have it going through a window up the window well and along the siding . To make this work I had to used couplings to a bigger size hose then again to the same size as the air intake to get through the window well cover. Hoping that this helps then I can drill and just do one coupling to reduce to the air intake line.

I used a 1" hard PVC pipe that extended from the side of the house. I made a custom end with a screen to prevent critters from climbing in. The PVC ran into the house for about 3 feet, turned 90 degrees, and continued for another 10 feet. Then, I used a clear poly hose from the PVC on the ceiling, running it straight down to the skimmer. You can see the path in the attached image, the red line shows the route. I have since moved and no longer have that tank.

 

[thatone08]

I used a 1" hard PVC pipe that extended from the side of the house. I made a custom end with a screen to prevent critters from climbing in. The PVC ran into the house for about 3 feet, turned 90 degrees, and continued for another 10 feet. Then, I used a clear poly hose from the PVC on the ceiling, running it straight down to the skimmer. You can see the path in the attached image, the red line shows the route. I have since moved and no longer have that tank.

Thanks!

 

[Reef Puncher]

Forgive the length, trying to be as specific as I can.

Have a 30 breeder in the basement with sump for about 40 gallons of total water volume. Ph readings from apex probe has always showed the ph as very low.

Bought a salifert ph test kit to check against the probe and also calibration solution to ensure probe wasn’t off. As far as I can tell it is working properly.

I have a window near the tank but it is below ground so even though it’s open it doesn’t boost it a whole lot without opening the windows in the rest of the house. Due to the current heat it’s not an option.

Have trialed running an airline from skimme outside through cracking the window and taping the rest so humidity isn’t crazy in a basement.Ive seen marginal gains. Will be exploring more on this this. Concern on this is, Iwill need to run the line up and out of the cover on the side of the house. Neighbor on this side has lawn treated every couple weeks. And as of late we have had air quality warnings.

I keep alkalinity between 8.5 and 9.5. Dose manually when needed. BRS mixing jug for all dosing. Alkalinity I have both, the ph boosting mix is used when dosing tank, the one that doesn’t increase ph as much is used for adjusting water when mixing salt.

Salt Hw. Thinking of switching, as I’m finding myself not being close to what the levels stated on the box are.

Have an air scrubber that is currently not in use during the attempt of pulling in outside air with skimmer. Media is expensive and in the long run probably won’t help me much.

I have not tried the air stone test, but figured with all the windows opened it would just further confirm high co2 inside.

Only thing I have not tried is dripping kalk. Not against it, just worried about runaway calcium and alkalinity levels to maintain ph.

With all this said, is there something I might not be accounting for.

Additional tank info
Flow- 2 Nero 3
Dry rock and some bio filter media. Maxspect balls and plates.

amazon sells cheap scrubber material. but i run kalk at night and all for reef during day. you wont have runaway kalk if you just monitor the levels every day for like a week till you figure out your dose. now my alk is stable and my ph is never below 8.3, even at night.

 

[Adamc13o3]

You can always add a co2 scrubber to the skimmer intake even while it pulls from the outside. I struggled with very low PH as well. If my skimmer was off my pH would plummet. I am pulling fresh air from outdoors and noticed that the media lasts me 8 - 10 times longer. What would need to be replaced in a week now lasts 2.5 months. I also dosed very high amounts of Kalk but it barely helped. I added and air exchanger unit to the room that the tank was in. The unit also shows co2 levels on the app. I was at 900 and change and now I am at 550 on the worst days. Surprisingly it barely made a dent in my PH. My calcium levels were alway super high so I decided to switch to 2 part instead of all for reef. (Was dosing AFR with the Kalk). After a few days my PH which I was struggling to get above 8, hit 8.5!!!!! Yes I may have also added a little more Kalk but not enough to have it so high. I think the carbon dosing in the AFR was causing me low PH. I have been recently struggling with higher nitrates. So yesterday decided to add vodka to my dosing regimen on a doser. 100 gallon tank calls for 3.1 ML per day to start. I probably got 3 - 5 ml into the tank just while priming the dosing pump. Then for some reason my dosing pump dosed 35 ml to the tank even though it was set to 3.1. My nitrates went from 28 to 15 which I am very pleased with. I haven’t noticed anything off about my corals but while cleaning my glass I had a white / light brine film which is probably due to the carbon dosing and it being overdone at once. I turned the vodka off for now. Guess what? Even though vodka doesn’t lower PH as rapidly like vinegar does, because I over did it, my ph is low again. So again I think the carbon dosing of the AFR was causing my low Ph all along. I just went on this rant to share what I believe to be true. Either way scrub the outside skimmer air, it does help a little.

Adam

 

[thatone08]

You can always add a co2 scrubber to the skimmer intake even while it pulls from the outside. I struggled with very low PH as well. If my skimmer was off my pH would plummet. I am pulling fresh air from outdoors and noticed that the media lasts me 8 - 10 times longer. What would need to be replaced in a week now lasts 2.5 months. I also dosed very high amounts of Kalk but it barely helped. I added and air exchanger unit to the room that the tank was in. The unit also shows co2 levels on the app. I was at 900 and change and now I am at 550 on the worst days. Surprisingly it barely made a dent in my PH. My calcium levels were alway super high so I decided to switch to 2 part instead of all for reef. (Was dosing AFR with the Kalk). After a few days my PH which I was struggling to get above 8, hit 8.5!!!!! Yes I may have also added a little more Kalk but not enough to have it so high. I think the carbon dosing in the AFR was causing me low PH. I have been recently struggling with higher nitrates. So yesterday decided to add vodka to my dosing regimen on a doser. 100 gallon tank calls for 3.1 ML per day to start. I probably got 3 - 5 ml into the tank just while priming the dosing pump. Then for some reason my dosing pump dosed 35 ml to the tank even though it was set to 3.1. My nitrates went from 28 to 15 which I am very pleased with. I haven’t noticed anything off about my corals but while cleaning my glass I had a white / light brine film which is probably due to the carbon dosing and it being overdone at once. I turned the vodka off for now. Guess what? Even though vodka doesn’t lower PH as rapidly like vinegar does, because I over did it, my ph is low again. So again I think the carbon dosing of the AFR was causing my low Ph all along. I just went on this rant to share what I believe to be true. Either way scrub the outside skimmer air, it does help a little.

Adam

Thanks. I do have a scrubber. The single one from BRS that’s looks like and rodi stage. I noticed with indoor air that it wasn’t doing much of anything. Decided to try outdoor air on the intake, but it was only pulling from the window well. Then I switched and directly connected to the skimmer and ran the line up and out the window well. Currently this is keeping it above 7.8 so far and close to 8 towards end of light cycle. Dose soda ash for alkalinity. As my calcium is not consumed that fast.

Will try again connecting the outside air to the scrubber as it would be interesting to see where it ends up after moving the fresh air line up and out the window well.

I struggle with high nitrates as well. But low phosphates, near 0 on Hannah either 0.02-0 sometime the 0.00 is flashing sometimes it’s not. Had Dino’s in a tank before so when it gets that low I either dose neophos or feed mysis with spirulina or Hikari seaweed pellets.

Want to try carbon dosing but will be giving the tank another month or two to see if i can stabilize the nitrates in a range I want. Have a bare bottom tank for the first time, and started off with an unbelievable bacterial bloom. Full milky white tank. That water chances helped for about a day and it just got worse. Had to use uv to get it right after a mo th of waiting it out.

 

[thatone08]

Update:

Over 48 hours since running the skimmer line directly out window and up and out of window well. Seems to have stabilized boosted the ph and stabilized the low overnight above 7.8. Going to run like this the rest of the weekend and see where it ends up. I will try connecting back to co2 scrubber and the monitor for a few days and see where that takes the ph. Once I have some data on that I will share. Then comes setting up some kind of diy carbon filter. As neighbor has chemicals sprayed on lawn. Thinking for this I will use one of the empty magnesium containers from BRS. Some air line connectors. I have a furnace filter that is the wrong size that I can add before and after the carbon. Idea here is reduce pollen, and prevent any potential dust from carbon to reach skimmer.