High PH

[Danh Ngo]

Hi,
My Ph is at 8.52 right now, I’m planning to add Kalk to my ATO soon, I know that Kalk will raise PH even more, which may crash my tank. I read your post about lowering PH with Vinegar, but will the PH stay at that level after dosing, or it will raise up again? Any suggestion

 

[mitch91175]

First darn good problem to have. What about dosing sodium carbonate instead. Shouldn’t increase your pH.

 

[mitch91175]

Also have you calibrated you pH probe? I honestly have never seen anyone with 8.5 pH.

 

[Danh Ngo]

Do you mean baking soda

 

[mitch91175]

Are you monitoring pH with Apex or something’s my similar. You will need to get pH calibration fluid for 7 and 10 pH and following the calibration instruction for what ever you are using to monitor pH. You will have to do this at least every 6 months.

 

[Danh Ngo]

No I have reef seneye. I do all calibration as instruction.

 

[mitch91175]

When was the last time you calibrated the pH probe?

 

[Danh Ngo]

When was the last time you calibrated the pH probe?

I just put it in today, they ask to soak the slide for 2 days in tank water. And the sensor read 8.52 (light on) 8.48 light off

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

First darn good problem to have. What about dosing sodium carbonate instead. Shouldn’t increase your pH.

Sodium carbonate will raise pH. The effect is minimal and temporary, but if the goal is to avoid raising pH at all, sodium bicarbonate is a better choice.

@Danh Ngo is the slide in your Seneye new? A few posters have gotten funky readings when the slides were close to exhaustion. Also, vinegar is not a good way to lower pH. Vinegar is an organic carbon source, and you can cause bacterial blooms or drive nutrients too low by dosing a large amount of vinegar with the end goal of decreasing pH. The best way to lower pH (which I probably wouldn't in your case) is the same way you raise pH: control the CO2 in the water. Add seltzer water, which contains carbon dioxide, and that will lower your pH.

As I said though, personally I would not do anything. Per Randy's pH article, up to 8.5 is fine for reef aquaria. Before taking any action to lower your pH, I would confirm the reading with a quality pH meter.

 

[mitch91175]

Sodium carbonate will raise pH. The effect is minimal and temporary, but if the goal is to avoid raising pH at all, sodium bicarbonate is a better choice.

@Danh Ngo is the slide in your Seneye new? A few posters have gotten funky readings when the slides were close to exhaustion. Also, vinegar is not a good way to lower pH. Vinegar is an organic carbon source, and you can cause bacterial blooms or drive nutrients too low by dosing a large amount of vinegar with the end goal of decreasing pH. The best way to lower pH (which I probably wouldn't in your case) is the same way you raise pH: control the CO2 in the water. Add seltzer water, which contains carbon dioxide, and that will lower your pH.

As I said though, personally I would not do anything. Per Randy's pH article, up to 8.5 is fine for reef aquaria. Before taking any action to lower your pH, I would confirm the reading with a quality pH meter.

Thanks for the correct. I agree with getting a quality pH tester. I never really gave the Seneye any thought because I preferred Apex.

 

[Danh Ngo]

Sodium carbonate will raise pH. The effect is minimal and temporary, but if the goal is to avoid raising pH at all, sodium bicarbonate is a better choice.

@Danh Ngo is the slide in your Seneye new? A few posters have gotten funky readings when the slides were close to exhaustion. Also, vinegar is not a good way to lower pH. Vinegar is an organic carbon source, and you can cause bacterial blooms or drive nutrients too low by dosing a large amount of vinegar with the end goal of decreasing pH. The best way to lower pH (which I probably wouldn't in your case) is the same way you raise pH: control the CO2 in the water. Add seltzer water, which contains carbon dioxide, and that will lower your pH.

As I said though, personally I would not do anything. Per Randy's pH article, up to 8.5 is fine for reef aquaria. Before taking any action to lower your pH, I would confirm the reading with a quality pH meter.

I will test it with another Ph tester tmr. The coral seem to do fine atm, but I will have to correct it before start dosing 2 part or kalk

 

[mitch91175]

How long have you been reefing if you don't mind me asking? I wouldn't worry about trying to drop pH like what was already mentioned. If your ALK is low, just get it slowly where you want it to be then go from there. Trying to drop your pH may cause more harm than good. Just focus on your ALK and go from there (1 step at a time). I know that it helped me tremendously just focusing on ALK. It helped me quickly understand my usage and how much I needed to dose to raise my ALK to a certain level.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I will test it with another Ph tester tmr. The coral seem to do fine atm, but I will have to correct it before start dosing 2 part or kalk

Not necessarily. If you supplement with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) instead of sodium carbonate (soda ash or washing soda), you will see about a 0.04 pH decrease for every 1.4 dKh of alkalinity added to the tank. So even if your pH is 8.52 and even if we can agree that's too high (which I don't believe it is), you could dose a sodium bicarbonate solution to your tank with no ill effects.

I'll defer to Randy's opinion, of course. I just don't see a lot of benefit to lowering the pH in your situation, even if 8.52 is the correct reading. Controlling pH is relatively difficult in reef aquaria. No need to do something that's relatively difficult if you don't absolutely have to do it.

 

[lbacha]

I have a Seneye and the ph on it always ran .15 higher Than the actual ph in my tank. Not sure why but it was that way for 3 slides. I now only use it for par readings

 

[Danh Ngo]

How long have you been reefing if you don't mind me asking? I wouldn't worry about trying to drop pH like what was already mentioned. If your ALK is low, just get it slowly where you want it to be then go from there. Trying to drop your pH may cause more harm than good. Just focus on your ALK and go from there (1 step at a time). I know that it helped me tremendously just focusing on ALK. It helped me quickly understand my usage and how much I needed to dose to raise my ALK to a certain level.

For about a year, I usually check my Alk but not Ph, trying to move on to some sps frag, so I put my seneye in to check on Ph swing between day and night. The alert pop up that stressed me out. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think high alk will result in high Ph also. I will let Alk decrease to my desired level and check everything again. Thank you for the help.

 

[mitch91175]

For about a year, I usually check my Alk but not Ph, trying to move on to some sps frag, so I put my seneye in to check on Ph swing between day and night. The alert pop up that stressed me out. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think high alk will result in high Ph also. I will let Alk decrease to my desired level and check everything again. Thank you for the help.

What is your current ALK and where do you want to keep it? I personally like mine around 7.5, but every reef is different. My pH is between 7.8 - 8.2 (depending if I am running my CO2 scrubber). If I am not running my scrubber, my pH drops to 7.8 at night, but if I am running it, it only drops to 8.0 at night. So with me running the scrubber, I get 0.2 increase in pH.

I still just focus on my ALK and try to keep it at 7.5 since I am also dosing vinegar. Keeps everything happy in the tank at 7.5 with no burnt SPS tip and my LPS and zoanthids are happy. Since I started keeping my ALK at 7.5 with the vinegar dosing, I haven't lost any SPS, etc (knocks on wood).

You will ultimately have to decide where you want your levels and try to stick to it (within an acceptable range of what you want).

 

[mitch91175]

Also, I am running a kalk reactor and supplement dosing only my ALK at the moment. I try to do a weekly 10-15% water change to handle MAG and do not really test it or calcium that much. I only have been focusing on ALK.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi,
My Ph is at 8.52 right now, I’m planning to add Kalk to my ATO soon, I know that Kalk will raise PH even more, which may crash my tank. I read your post about lowering PH with Vinegar, but will the PH stay at that level after dosing, or it will raise up again? Any suggestion

What is the daily swing of that pH?

What is the alk?

Vinegar is not the best solution, except in emergency . Soda water is better, but needs to be added every day.

That all said, i do not think the pH 8.5 without limewater/kalkwasser is accurate.

This has more:

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

 

[Danh Ngo]

What is the daily swing of that pH?

What is the alk?

Vinegar is not the best solution, except in emergency . Soda water is better, but needs to be added every day.

That all said, i do not think the pH 8.5 without limewater/kalkwasser is accurate.

This has more:

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

@Randy Holmes-Farley Alk is at 9.7
Ph swing between 8.34 - 8.5 between day and night that is what I get. I will recheck with a quality ph test kit. But for now any idea?

 

[Danh Ngo]

Also, I am running a kalk reactor and supplement dosing only my ALK at the moment. I try to do a weekly 10-15% water change to handle MAG and do not really test it or calcium that much. I only have been focusing on ALK.

thank you for the info, I see at lot of reefer keep their Alk at around 7.7 as your case is 7.5. Are there any benefit for keeping that low