How much will chaeto effect ph?

[BristleWormHater]

My ph has been stuck at 7.8. Chaeto will use the carbon to grow and thus raise ph, but how much should the chaeto raise it?

 

[BristleWormHater]

bump

 

[Spare time]

What light do you have over it?

 

[apb03]

It's hard to say how much pH benefit you get, but in my experience, you get a small boost. I get far more pH benefits out of Kalkwasser and Soda Ash.

This is my pH with Kalk running at night + chaeto and Soda ash dosed during the day.

 

[Formulator]

My ph has been stuck at 7.8. Chaeto will use the carbon to grow and thus raise ph, but how much should the chaeto raise it?

I get about 0.1 with a large 20g fuge. Thats with a Tunze Eco Chic light underneath the chaeto and an LED plant bar above. I wouldn’t use it a your only weapon. Better paired with others for a bigger cumulative gain. What do you keep Alk at? Good aeration? Do you run a skimmer?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My ph has been stuck at 7.8. Chaeto will use the carbon to grow and thus raise ph, but how much should the chaeto raise it?

I agree the effect will be variable depends in many factors, most notably the degree of aeration and the amount of photosynthesis.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I get about 0.1 with a large 20g fuge. Thats with a Tunze Eco Chic light underneath the chaeto and an LED plant bar above. I wouldn’t use it a your only weapon. Better paired with others for a bigger cumulative gain. What do you keep Alk at? Good aeration? Do you run a skimmer?

Still new so all I have is test strips. The strips say my total alkalinity is a 200ppm (11.18 Dkh) I will go to an lfs and have them test my water. I currently don’t run a skimmer and I don’t really plan on it, because I want to run a higher nutrient system with a lot of filter feeders (Flame scallops, crocea clams, and feather dusters). Should I start dosing something?

 

[GARRIGA]

My diy HOB Fuge/ATS raised my pH from 7.5 to 8.1 although some of that lower pH might have been because I was carbon dosing. Next experimentation will be with larger HOB to see how high pH will rise. No corals therefore co2 removal will be strictly by plants. First run will be ATS and hoping that suffice as much easier to grow GHA then other macroalgae such as Chaeto or Pom Pom. Fact is GHA ended up growing on top of my Pom Pom.

Duration of lighting I'm expecting to be the controlling factor. Unable to change intensity with my current light but that would be another option to play with co2 removal.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Did some more reading, my tank is only a few weeks old and I haven’t added any corals yet should I even be worried about this?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Still new so all I have is test strips. The strips say my total alkalinity is a 200ppm (11.18 Dkh) I will go to an lfs and have them test my water. I currently don’t run a skimmer and I don’t really plan on it, because I want to run a higher nutrient system with a lot of filter feeders (Flame scallops, crocea clams, and feather dusters). Should I start dosing something?

I'd ditch the test strips. I've never understood how a strip can even hope to measure the alkalinity of seawater, and even in freshwater, they do not work well.

Here's an analysis of test strips from a high end kit manufacturer (Hach).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-016-3023-8

For example, when values obtained using alkalinity test strips were plotted against standard values, the resulting regression line appeared to compare well with the 1:1 line, but the values obtained using strips were very variable compared to standard values. The strips over-predicted values within the 0to 160 mg/L range (Fig. 1), so that a standard value of 120 mg/L was detected by the alkalinity test strip as between 20 and 240 mg/L.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I'd ditch the test strips. I've never understood how a strip can even hope to measure the alkalinity of seawater, and even in freshwater, they do not work well.

Here's an analysis of test strips from a high end kit manufacturer (Hach).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-016-3023-8

For example, when values obtained using alkalinity test strips were plotted against standard values, the resulting regression line appeared to compare well with the 1:1 line, but the values obtained using strips were very variable compared to standard values. The strips over-predicted values within the 0to 160 mg/L range (Fig. 1), so that a standard value of 120 mg/L was detected by the alkalinity test strip as between 20 and 240 mg/L.

I’ve been looking to upgrade to Hanna checkers but they are $$

 

[BristleWormHater]

I'd ditch the test strips. I've never understood how a strip can even hope to measure the alkalinity of seawater, and even in freshwater, they do not work well.

Here's an analysis of test strips from a high end kit manufacturer (Hach).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-016-3023-8

For example, when values obtained using alkalinity test strips were plotted against standard values, the resulting regression line appeared to compare well with the 1:1 line, but the values obtained using strips were very variable compared to standard values. The strips over-predicted values within the 0to 160 mg/L range (Fig. 1), so that a standard value of 120 mg/L was detected by the alkalinity test strip as between 20 and 240 mg/L.

Right now I have the tetra easy strips which I know are very inaccurate. They test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, total alkalinity, and ph. So I have no way to test calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, besides going to an lfs. What should I get for testing?

 

[Spare time]

I’ve been looking to upgrade to Hanna checkers but they are $$

The salifert alk test is cheap and works well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’ve been looking to upgrade to Hanna checkers but they are $$

A Salifert kit for alkalinity is a fine way to go and less expensive.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Right now I have the tetra easy strips which I know are very inaccurate. They test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, total alkalinity, and ph. So I have no way to test calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, besides going to an lfs. What should I get for testing?

Alkalinity is by far the most important. if it has not declined substantially from the salt mix, then there's no need yet to worry about calcium.

I do not recommend testing for magnesium. Just dose it based on calcium (if your methods does not naturally do that).

Just say NO to magnesium testing: RMM is born

OK, this thread has been many years in the making, and I'm posting it here since folks in the chem forum are probably already tired of all the threads relating to problematic magnesium testing. I'm going to propose a method, let's call it the Randy Magnesium Method, or RMM for short. All good...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Uncle99]

Did some more reading, my tank is only a few weeks old and I haven’t added any corals yet should I even be worried about this?

I have not payed attention to PH in years.
In a vast majority of settings, the PH is just fine.
Ensure water movement and skimmer are running and forget it, it is the least least important. IMM anyways.

 

[BristleWormHater]

A Salifert kit for alkalinity is a fine way to go and less expensive.

Was looking at getting the Red Sea marine care kit which has a alk test in it is that test good or should I get selifert test kit as well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Was looking at getting the Red Sea marine care kit which has a alk test in it is that test good or should I get selifert test kit as well.

I expect the Red Sea is fine.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Did some more reading, my tank is only a few weeks old and I haven’t added any corals yet should I even be worried about this?

PH matters most when growing SPS. If you don’t have any corals, don’t worry about it.

 

[lil sumpin]

Did some more reading, my tank is only a few weeks old and I haven’t added any corals yet should I even be worried about this?

If you plan to keep a high nutrient system, figure out a consistent way to export. I run a HOB fuge, used to run a skimmer on my nano, can’t say either of those did anything significant cause pH, N and P always remained in the same range. Water changes kinda do everything for nanos