How much PH is to much

[Luckyyluciano]

How much ph is considered to high? Everything seems fine and all parameters is on point. Been noticing I need to add more alk also.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

The ocean typically has a pH of around 8 to 8.4, so going past that can be problematic not for your current livestock, but for anything you might introduce that would adapt to that poorly. That spike seems crazy fast too. More alk means higher pH, so you might want to do smaller more frequent doses so these spikes don't happen/are smaller.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Unless you are dosing very high pH additives, pH does not get too high (say, above 8.6) in a reef aquarium with reasonable flow. When folks in such situations post about high pH, it is almost always test error.

 

[Luckyyluciano]

I'm dosing kalk and I run my skimmer 24 hr with a c02 reactor and my fuge light is on 18 hrs reverse. I've also checked my ph with a hanna ph tester. My other is ghl ph probe that I calibrated about a month ago.

Unless you are dosing very high pH additives, pH does not get too high (say, above 8.6) in a reef aquarium with reasonable flow. When folks in such situations post about high pH, it is almost always test error.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Did you do something at that pH spike? It looks either like a big manual dose of very high pH alk supplement, or a test error.

If the pH is accurate and doesn't drop below 8.5, you may be wasting money or effort on the pH boosts, unless your goal is to drive fast skeletal growth of hard corals.

 

[Luckyyluciano]

Did you do something at that pH spike? It looks either like a big manual dose of very high pH alk supplement, or a test error.

If the pH is accurate and doesn't drop below 8.5, you may be wasting money or effort on the pH boosts, unless your goal is to drive fast skeletal growth of hard corals.

Yes I had to move my diy kalk reactor to clean the hose and when I moved it some water extra water dripped in my sump

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not sure I can read the axis correctly, but if the pH is otherwise not above 8.6, then it is not too high (IMO).

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

my PH is very similar, tops out at 8.66. Soda ash, kalk, and C02 scrubber running 24/7 . Amazing hard stoney coral growth.