Can't get my PH down

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wingnrotor

wingnrotor

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I upgraded to a new 120gal tank a week ago last Saturday and I have been struggling with high Ph. After the setup my ph was about 8.35. Then as the week went by it steadily increased. All the way to 8.79. I tested using HM meter and my api kit. My ATO was buffered with Kalk only half of the recommended dosage. When I got the high reading I dumped the water out and made a new batch of RO/DI and cut the kalk by half again. It was after this that I got the 8.79. I dumped that water and used straight RO/DI in my ATO. Now my PH is 8.71 during the light cycle and 8.47 during the night cycle. Any ideas? Could I still be dealing with the kalk dosing? If so, what should I do? I did a 25% water change one week in and that water I used was 8.32. Nothing seems to be bothered by the elevated PH except maybe my Duncan frag. Thanks for the help!
 
Nutramar Foods
Do you have a lot of macros? I'm grabbing at straws here, but I know that's part of why people run reverse photoperiods on their sumps that have macro.
 
icecool2 said:
Do you have a lot of macros? I'm grabbing at straws here, but I know that's part of why people run reverse photoperiods on their sumps that have macro.
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Just a small ball of Cheato. I'm running a reverse cycle. Only running my tank lights for 8 hours and only 2.5 hours of that is high intensity. Running my fuge light 8 hours at full power but it's only 1100 lumes led spot light. I am however running a moon light period.
 
Deltec
I would suggest stop dosing.
If you just set this up you need to let it balance out.
But this is just an assumption as you have not stated livestock.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
twilliard said:
I would suggest stop dosing.
If you just set this up you need to let it balance out.
But this is just an assumption as you have not stated livestock.
Click to expand...
I just have the small amount of live stock I transferred from my smaller tanks. I have 5 small Zoa gardens and two acan frags, 1 trumpet frag and 1 Duncan frag.
 
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Alkalinity is the big one that drives pH, but I expect the answer is testing error.

In the absence of overdosing limewater, no normal reef aquarium gets to pH 8.79.

How long ago was the last limewater dosing?
This has more:

High pH: Causes and Cures by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/index.htm
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The last dosage was either Thursday or Friday. That was at 1/4th of the recommended dosage. My ATO has been straight RO/DI ever sense. I tested the PH this morning and it was 8.46. So maybe it will return to a normal level without the limewater dosing. I did notice that when I dumped the last batch of lime water that it was cloudy.
 
Nutramar Foods
wingnrotor said:
The last dosage was either Thursday or Friday. That was at 1/4th of the recommended dosage. My ATO has been straight RO/DI ever sense. I tested the PH this morning and it was 8.46. So maybe it will return to a normal level without the limewater dosing. I did notice that when I dumped the last batch of lime water that it was cloudy.
Click to expand...

Limewater gets cloudy when exposed to air, but that would only serve to make it even weaker.

How are you measuring pH?
 
AS
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Have you recently calibrated the meter?

pH kits are often not reliable and cannot be easily tested for accuracy.
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I haven't calibrated it.I actually pulled out the instructions and calibration fluid last night and will do that when I get home from work today.
 
Just to chime in (and allowing for test error - tho when two kits agree...), dosing a tank this new with kalk would pretty much have this effect.

If aeration isn't great (tank is new so who knows) it would take a while for enough co2 to dissolve and equalize the tank's pH.
 
wingnrotor said:
I haven't calibrated it.I actually pulled out the instructions and calibration fluid last night and will do that when I get home from work today.
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OK. pH meters don't generally come " well calibrated" so let's see what it looks like after calibration. Hopefully it is two point calibration. :)
 
Nutramar Foods
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
OK. pH meters don't generally come " well calibrated" so let's see what it looks like after calibration. Hopefully it is two point calibration. :)
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Okay sorry for the delay. I checked the PH with the meter when I got home and it was 8.79. I went to calibrate the meter and saw that my DI resin was used up. So I had to change that out and long story short I was finally able to calibrate the meter and it was off by a lot. I tested the water after calibrating to 7.0 and my tank is at 7.91. SO it is actually low. So just because I don't trust anything now lol I'm taking a water sample and my meter to the LFS in the morning and am going to have them check it. But I think 7.91 is probably right. Now once I confirm that what would you recommend as far as buffering my RO? Should I not dose with limewater in a newer tank? Should I use 2 part? And Thank you very much for the help!!
 
A safe rule is to only dose what your tests tell you to. Just use vanilla-plain RODI water for top-up in the mean time.
 
Does you pH meter allow you to calibrate using two fluids? (one at pH 7.0 and one at pH 10.0) If it is possible on your meter, you will get a more accurately calibrating instrument.
 
Tidal Gardens
wingnrotor said:
Okay sorry for the delay. I checked the PH with the meter when I got home and it was 8.79. I went to calibrate the meter and saw that my DI resin was used up. So I had to change that out and long story short I was finally able to calibrate the meter and it was off by a lot. I tested the water after calibrating to 7.0 and my tank is at 7.91. SO it is actually low. So just because I don't trust anything now lol I'm taking a water sample and my meter to the LFS in the morning and am going to have them check it. But I think 7.91 is probably right. Now once I confirm that what would you recommend as far as buffering my RO? Should I not dose with limewater in a newer tank? Should I use 2 part? And Thank you very much for the help!!
Click to expand...

pH 7.91 is quite typical and is fine. When you need to supplement alkalinity, I'd use either a high pH two part (most are) or limewater. :)
 
Ok, so my meter was out of whack. The LFS confirmed that the PH is actually 7.8 -7.9 . My meter is calibrated correctly now and I will continue to distrust the API color kit.
So, now that has been solved I'm concerned I have been screwing up the whole time dosing my RO. I have been told that kalkwasser is magic to dose Limewater every time. I have been told that if your system is not using a lot of calcium that that can be bad. In my bio cubes I upgraded from I dosed two part every time I added RO and my PH stayed around 8.3. I know you're not supposed to chase the pH just not sure what to do now. I do weekly water changes using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. I mix it to 1.25-6 8.3pH. Right now Im doing 25% water changes since I upgraded to the single big tank. I plan to go back to 10% as soon as I know there is no cycle or whatever small cycle might happen. What would you all recommend?
 

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