Highering PH
- Thread starter Panathas
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40B Knasty
Valuable Member
Before you get slammed with a million different ways to raise it, cause everyone will say use kalkwasser. That is your instant gratification powder you mix with your saltwater. We should talk about how to stabilize it as it raises. Raising it is the easier part, but it is just a bandaid for the really problem. CO² can actually lower your pH. So you might have the ability to have 8.3pH with what you have already. So surface tension is a great start. Get your gas exchange as best as possible. Substrate like aragonite or crushed coral can raise it as it slowly dissolves and can hold the pH balance stable. Protein skimmer can add more O². It all depends on what route you want to go. Instant or stable?
I use Kalkwasser, but that is mainly for maintaining Alkalinity and Calcium. Raising pH is a nice benefit of using Kalkwasser. The hydroxide molecule (OH) in Kalkwasser is what combines with CO2 to form bicarbonate and some carbonate (alkalinity). CO2 dissolves in water and goes through a reversible reaction with water to form Carbonic Acid. This is what is lowering your pH. This reversible reaction will always move towards equilibrium meaning the concentrations of dissolved CO2 and Carbonic Acid will always maintain a certain ratio. So basically if you reduce CO2 than you reduce Carbonic Acid, raising your pH.
Having good gas exchange will help reduced the CO2 in the tank. When weather is nice out, you can open up windows to help reduce the CO2 that builds up in your house. My pH always drops in the winter because we keep the house sealed up. BRS sells a CO2 scrubber that you hook up to your protein skimmer and that will work too.
To my knowledge, O2 does not react with water so I doubt increasing O2 levels will have affect on pH unless you use it to helps gas off the CO2. I am not entirely certain on this though.
Fun Fact: Like pH, there is also pOH. To find out your pOH level. Take 14-pH=pOH. i.e. A pH of 8.3 means a pOH of 5.7.
Having good gas exchange will help reduced the CO2 in the tank. When weather is nice out, you can open up windows to help reduce the CO2 that builds up in your house. My pH always drops in the winter because we keep the house sealed up. BRS sells a CO2 scrubber that you hook up to your protein skimmer and that will work too.
To my knowledge, O2 does not react with water so I doubt increasing O2 levels will have affect on pH unless you use it to helps gas off the CO2. I am not entirely certain on this though.
Fun Fact: Like pH, there is also pOH. To find out your pOH level. Take 14-pH=pOH. i.e. A pH of 8.3 means a pOH of 5.7.
I also forgot to mention that dosing Soda Ash will also help increase pH. Na2CO3 will dissociate into its ions and the CO3 (carbonate) will combine with a H+ ion to form HCO3 (bicarbonate). Reducing H+ increases your pH. The concentrations of H+/OH- ions are what determine the pH value.
peterj66
Community Member
You could also affect pH by drawing air to the skimmer from outside or through a CO2 scrubber. The amount of CO2 in indoor air can lower your pH and the skimmer is your primary source of gasexchange
KJAG
Rogue
This
RobertP
Active Member
I got a CO2 scrubber a few weeks ago along with some BRS scrubbing media. When I load up the CO2 scrubber my pH goes from 7.8 or 7.9 to 8.1. The biggest issue I see is that the media does not even last me one week...more like 4-5 days and then the pH is dropping back down again. Perhaps my lifereef skimmer is pulling a bunch of air in and using up the media sooner than some.
Once my scrubber media is used up I wont worry about raising the pH any longer. As many others have said as long as your other levels are fine then a low 7.8 is not a big deal.
Once my scrubber media is used up I wont worry about raising the pH any longer. As many others have said as long as your other levels are fine then a low 7.8 is not a big deal.
Best Fish-Jake
Valuable Member
If you have a protein skimmer, you could add a CO2 scrubber (the name says it all). It attaches to the air intake on your skimmer and will help your ph problem a bit.. CO2 is acidic and will lower your tank's ph if it isn't removed via gas exchange.
Like I said before, chasing ph with dosing can cause more problems than it fixes, and it's always best to go the natural route. Good luck[emoji1360]
Like I said before, chasing ph with dosing can cause more problems than it fixes, and it's always best to go the natural route. Good luck[emoji1360]
beaslbob
2500 Club Member
suck out the co2 with macro algae.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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As was mentioned, in the first post, there are a lot of ways to raise pH. I don't agree with some of the things folks have posted, but they all work (well, mostly, but there's no need to get into a fight here 
).
Whether you need to do anything, or will see anything different if your pH were 8.2 is quite another story.
If you are reasonably new to reefing, focus your attention elsewhere unless the pH is well below 7.8.
This has more on each method and how they work:
pH And The Reef Aquarium
http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/
). Whether you need to do anything, or will see anything different if your pH were 8.2 is quite another story.
If you are reasonably new to reefing, focus your attention elsewhere unless the pH is well below 7.8.
This has more on each method and how they work:
pH And The Reef Aquarium
http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/
