Chemistry help please

Mr_Banana_Pants · Nov 15, 2016

Everytime I'm testing my water I always seem to have high alk around 3.9 and high calcium, and a low pH around 7.8

I use HW reefer marine mix salt which is supposed to be balanced. Any recommendations?

rock_lobster · Nov 15, 2016

salt with lower alkalinity or decrease your dosing. Also check your test kit on standard solution.

spidercrab · Nov 15, 2016

Other parameters?

Brew12 · Nov 15, 2016

Mr_Banana_Pants said:
Everytime I'm testing my water I always seem to have high alk around 3.9 and high calcium, and a low pH around 7.8

I use HW reefer marine mix salt which is supposed to be balanced. Any recommendations?

It is possible to have both high alk and calcium with a low pH if your water is low in oxygen. Is your water well oxygenated by running a skimmer? If you run a skimmer, is your aquarium in a location where it gets fresh air? Aquariums in newer, more air tight, homes often have lower pH because not as much outside air gets into the house.

Mr_Banana_Pants · Nov 15, 2016

spidercrab said:
Other parameters?

All my other parameters are within check.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.01
Nitrate 40
Salinity 1.025

Brew12 said:
It is possible to have both high alk and calcium with a low pH if your water is low in oxygen. Is your water well oxygenated by running a skimmer? If you run a skimmer, is your aquarium in a location where it gets fresh air? Aquariums in newer, more air tight, homes often have lower pH because not as much outside air gets into the house.

Brand new house so it is fairly air tight, and I'm running a canister filter until I can build my stand and sump for a new 75gal with overflow built in. Low O2 would make sense, what are some possibilities to increase it?

Brew12 · Nov 15, 2016

Mr_Banana_Pants said:
All my other parameters are within check.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.01
Nitrate 40
Salinity 1.025

Brand new house so it is fairly air tight, and I'm running a canister filter until I can build my stand and sump for a new 75gal with overflow built in. Low O2 would make sense, what are some possibilities to increase it?

Easiest and cheapest way would be to add an air stone. Just a cheap Petco version would let you see if it started getting your pH headed in the right direction. I would strongly advise against adding any chemicals to try and raise pH at this point.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 15, 2016

Mr_Banana_Pants said:
Everytime I'm testing my water I always seem to have high alk around 3.9 and high calcium, and a low pH around 7.8

I use HW reefer marine mix salt which is supposed to be balanced. Any recommendations?

I assume that is 3.9 dKH. That is fine.

pH 7.8 is OK, and is driven by CO2 in the water, which is usually driven by CO2 in your home air. If you want to raise it, you need to somehow reduce the Co2 level in the water.

This has more:

pH and the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/

Fitzreefer · Nov 15, 2016

Open windows or doors and get a good cross ventilation with a fan for a few hours, maybe even half a day and then test your pH. If it has risen, you probably have tight house syndrome (ths) like I did.

Fitzreefer · Nov 15, 2016

Simple aeration was not enough for me. I had to run an outside air intake to a venturi skimmer in my sump. You will need a sump and a skimmer with venturi air intake before that can happen.

Mr_Banana_Pants · Nov 15, 2016

Hrmmmm, was hoping to hold off till after Christmas to drop another 2 grand or so changing tanks to an overflow and sump... have pretty good surface agitation with my power heads and HOB fuge... was debating on a HOB protein skimmer, any thoughts if that would help

Brew12 · Nov 15, 2016

Mr_Banana_Pants said:
Hrmmmm, was hoping to hold off till after Christmas to drop another 2 grand or so changing tanks to an overflow and sump... have pretty good surface agitation with my power heads and HOB fuge... was debating on a HOB protein skimmer, any thoughts if that would help

I think it would help but I wouldn't do it. Odds are your pH isn't causing problems. If you really want you could try an air pump, it will have the same impact on pH as adding a skimmer for a lot less money. If the pH isn't causing problems, and you are going to upgrade soon, I wouldn't bother.

wowkingjames · Nov 15, 2016

My alk was low and cal was good, then my cal went low and alk went high. My corals look good I'm tying to get my cal up again but I'm taking my time because everything looks great. If your corals look good just keep an eye on them and make gradual improvements.

Mr_Banana_Pants · Nov 15, 2016

In your opinion, how much alkalinity is too high? Cuz I'm wondering if I bumped up the pH in the alkalinity goes a little higher, maybe the corals will start using more alkalinity and it will drop a little

Fitzreefer · Nov 15, 2016

Just because there IS more Alk does not mean the corals will use more. They use it at whatever uptake they use. You just want to be in an acceptable range, and stable.

cmcoker · Nov 15, 2016

You can test if high co2 in the house is a problem by taking a cup of aquarium water outside and let a bubbler run in it for a while, if pH goes up then high co2 is the problem.
Saw someone built a diy co2 scrubber in a box to hold an air pump, something like that may be a temporary solution until you upgrade

Fitzreefer · Nov 15, 2016

If you are talking about using a buffer to raise Alk and subsequently pH, there are limitations and if you have the same situation as me, you will skyrocket your Alk and not solve your pH issue. While simple aeration isn't a bad thing...breaks surface tension, fresh air from OUTSIDE the house is the only solution I found to work in sustaining above 8.0 pH in a tight house.

Mr_Banana_Pants · Nov 15, 2016

I can't really pull air from outside(new England gets a bit chilly) so I'll probably just aim the power heads further up to try to get more gas exchange.

Future question for when I build my sump. Has anyone had and success with elevating their pH with an air filter filled with co2 absorbent piped into their protein skimmer? BRS said in a video they did but I'm curious if any one in the real world has tried?

KingBlingTX · Nov 15, 2016

Mr_Banana_Pants said:
Future question for when I build my sump. Has anyone had and success with elevating their pH with an air filter filled with co2 absorbent piped into their protein skimmer? BRS said in a video they did but I'm curious if any one in the real world has tried?

Yes. I have. Here's a link to my thread about how i did it. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/low-ph-co2-scrubber-is-an-easy-solution.271647/

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 16, 2016

Mr_Banana_Pants said:
Hrmmmm, was hoping to hold off till after Christmas to drop another 2 grand or so changing tanks to an overflow and sump... have pretty good surface agitation with my power heads and HOB fuge... was debating on a HOB protein skimmer, any thoughts if that would help

You can do aeration tests to see the effect of complete aeration (I describe them in the article linked above), but in terms of boosting the pH overall, more aeration alone is not going to help if the problem is excess CO2 in your home air, and might even make it worse.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 16, 2016

Mr_Banana_Pants said:
In your opinion, how much alkalinity is too high? Cuz I'm wondering if I bumped up the pH in the alkalinity goes a little higher, maybe the corals will start using more alkalinity and it will drop a little

Yes, but what you mean by "buffer" impacts the answer. A buffer would typically be a mix of bicarbonate and carbonate salts. Some buffers won't do much at all for pH. Pure sodium carbonate (baked baking soda) is better than most "buffers" and limewater (kalkwasser) is about twice as good as sodium carbonate in terms of pH boost per unit of alkalinity added.