High PH, High Enough to Worry About?

[Saltine]

I've read a few of the threads, and I'm just not quite sure what to do regarding my high PH. With 2 part I was around 8.3-8.5, now I'm switching to kalk, since I've had such great success in the past, but now I'm looking at 8.5-8.7/8.8. Will this harm my inhabitants? Do I switch back to two part to keep the PH lower?

Thanks for the help!

Salt

 

[Jekyl]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

High pH is most often test error unless you are dosing very high pH supplements

Unless alkalinity is very high, simple aeration will bring it down.

I'd first recalibrate the meter, and if still high, try this aeration test with indoor air. If the pH does not drop a lot, the measurement is wrong. :

http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/

The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

 

[Saltine]

High pH is most often test error unless you are dosing very high pH supplements

Unless alkalinity is very high, simple aeration will bring it down.

I'd first recalibrate the meter, and if still high, try this aeration test with indoor air. If the pH does not drop a lot, the measurement is wrong. :

http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/

The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

Thanks Randy, I recalibrated my probe, a few weeks ago, I'll do that again. Is there any harm with it being high or should I not worry about it as long as other levels are good and everything's happy?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy, I recalibrated my probe, a few weeks ago, I'll do that again. Is there any harm with it being high or should I not worry about it as long as other levels are good and everything's happy?

I expect it is not pH 8.8. That's pretty hard to attain even if trying everything to do so.

But the main problem when pH is increased precipitation of calcium carbonate on pumps, heaters, sand, etc.

My tank ran pH 8.35 to 8.55 for years without an apparent problem.

 

[Shadows Reef]

Just changed my media co2 media on the 30th and I dose kalk and soda Ash currently but I’ll be changing that to dose bicarbonate in the day to flatten out my spikes, yes probe calibrated and double checked every now and then with calibrated Hanna as well