How to increase low PH

[Decopod]

Hello to everyone. I have recently taken a 2 week trip and my wife has been adding RODI water to top off the evaporated water. I just tested my PH and it's at 7.4 I've got an airstone in the water now and I hope it will test higher tomorrow. I suspect that adding RODI water with a lower PH has lowered the PH of my tank. Am I correct in my suspension?

Will addigg Kent nano A and B be sufficient to raise Ph over next few days?

Tank details 20gal(74L) and a 10gal(37L) sump. I have run a skimmer too.

 

[RobZilla04]

Welcome!

Don't expect the air stone to raise the pH unless:

1) You didn't have sufficient oxygen exchange with the tank water to being with (surface agitation, skimmer, etc)
2) If the air stone is not pulling in air from outside your house/office

Bet on the pH of your top off water not having much to do in this equation unless a ton was added at once. Even still after a few hours it will stabilize back out to match the tank pH before it was added.

You can raise the pH with a CO2 scrubber, or simply running and air line from the skimmer air intake to the outside of your house/office. Added surface agitation and/or an air stone can only do so much due to the CO2 concentration of the room the tank is in.

 

[Decopod]

Welcome!

Don't expect the air stone to raise the pH unless:

1) You didn't have sufficient oxygen exchange with the tank water to being with (surface agitation, skimmer, etc)
2) If the air stone is not pulling in air from outside your house/office

Bet on the pH of your top off water not having much to do in this equation unless a ton was added at once. Even still after a few hours it will stabilize back out to match the tank pH before it was added.

You can raise the pH with a CO2 scrubber, or simply running and air line from the skimmer air intake to the outside of your house/office. Added surface agitation and/or an air stone can only do so much due to the CO2 concentration of the room the tank is in.

Thanks I'm setting up a line now to the outside of the house.

 

[Captain Quint]

Hello to everyone. I have recently taken a 2 week trip and my wife has been adding RODI water to top off the evaporated water. I just tested my PH and it's at 7.4 I've got an airstone in the water now and I hope it will test higher tomorrow. I suspect that adding RODI water with a lower PH has lowered the PH of my tank. Am I correct in my suspension?

Will addigg Kent nano A and B be sufficient to raise Ph over next few days?

Tank details 20gal(74L) and a 10gal(37L) sump. I have run a skimmer too.

First I extend a welcome aboard here at R2R.

Most of us do not add buffered RODI fresh water for top off.

Your pH is low, not total acidic either so that's a little relief. Please do not raise the pH from 7.4 to 8.4 in all at once as it can induce pH shock in almost any saltwater fish as well as invertebrates and could resolve in shock/death.

Raise in increments a little slower with things such as bicarbonate of soda which is baking soda is a 'quick fix' or commercial pH products such as Seachem Reef Buffer or a like product. But do it slowly, please.

It gets more involved to the whys and whats but this would help for know. I cannot stress the importance of going slowly. *Mix in RODI fresh, not in salt water.*

A nice water change would probably be in order as well.

Many I ask if you run a FOWLR, mixed, or reef?

Please let us know what you do.

 

[Decopod]

First I extend a welcome aboard here at R2R.

Most of us do not add buffered RODI fresh water for top off.

Your pH is low, not total acidic either so that's a little relief. Please do not raise the pH from 7.4 to 8.4 in all at once as it can induce pH shock in almost any saltwater fish as well as invertebrates and could resolve in shock/death.

Raise in increments a little slower with things such as bicarbonate of soda which is baking soda is a 'quick fix' or commercial pH products such as Seachem Reef Buffer or a like product. But do it slowly, please.

It gets more involved to the whys and whats but this would help for know. I cannot stress the importance of going slowly. *Mix in RODI fresh, not in salt water.*

A nice water change would probably be in order as well.

Many I ask if you run a FOWLR, mixed, or reef?

Please let us know what you do.

Thanks for the advice I received my electronic PH meter tonight and got a shock. I'm busy making some soda Ash and will only raise ph 0.2 a day. We'll try to atleast. Until it gets to 8. I'm doing a water change tomorrow.

 

[Decopod]

Thanks for the advice I received my electronic PH meter tonight and got a shock. I'm busy making some soda Ash and will only raise ph 0.2 a day. We'll try to atleast. Until it gets to 8. I'm doing a water change tomorrow.

Mixed reef.

 

[Captain Quint]

Thanks for the advice I received my electronic PH meter tonight and got a shock. I'm busy making some soda Ash and will only raise ph 0.2 a day. We'll try to atleast. Until it gets to 8. I'm doing a water change tomorrow.

That water change will be awesome.

Since you're making a fairly big adjustment, you could also take the same approach as doing it slowly as you would when acclimating new arrivals to your tank.

Hate you got a shock. argh.

 

[RobZilla04]

Thanks for the advice I received my electronic PH meter tonight and got a shock. I'm busy making some soda Ash and will only raise ph 0.2 a day. We'll try to atleast. Until it gets to 8. I'm doing a water change tomorrow.

The air line from the outside should slowly raise pH to a more preferred level. Doubt you'll need to use soda ash (or anything else for that matter).

 

[Captain Quint]

The air line from the outside should slowly raise pH to a more preferred level. Doubt you'll need to use soda ash (or anything else for that matter).

An airline is good especially with water change tomorrow. I'd hate to have the window open here today with it at 28 degrees though. lol

 

[Jdavison911]

What size tank to do you have? Do you have a auto top off or just adding RODI? The reason I ask is I love adding kalk to my ATO section and it gives me just enough boost to keep my ph around 8.0 at night. The added benefit to Kalk is it helps with ALK and CA as well. Ph is an ongoing fight with our tanks and there is a ton of stuff to do to help out. Just keep it simple and move slowly as mentioned above.

 

[Decopod]

Update: I did a water change about 15-20%. PH went up to 7.4. I've been dripping Kalkwasser 1tsp for 1 gallon, with my ATO for the day, PH unchanged. Going to increase the kalk to 2 tsp.

My worry is that the CA and Alk with go way up. Is there a way to calculate the rise? Or should I just test CA and Alk daily?

 

[beaslbob]

use baking soda or soda ash to increase the alk to 10dkh but not above that level.

measure pH just before lights out.

If it is still low then add macro algaes like chaeto in a refugium shich can be just a somple tank partition.

The macros will balance out and stabilize operation by consuming ammonia firs then nitrates, plus phosphates plus co2 while returning oxygen and fish food.

my .02

 

[PacsAdmin77]

Hi Everyone,

I’m also having low pH issues in my mostly-FOWLR setup (only inverts are few snails and a couple of SPS). Current setup is 90-gal with lid (need lid since I have an eel and wrasse), EShopp S-300 skimmer, and WavePuck 2 (which seems to be creating a lot of air bubbles at surface). My pH has been consistently 7.7 for several months since I had my lid and my fishes have been tolerating that pH level pretty well. Yesterday, however, pH dropped to 7.4 (tested in the late P.M.) and I don’t why know. I’m concerned about a possible downward trend in pH. I’m thinking about creating more water surface agitation (pointing return spout upwards so more air bubbles, running a longer air intake tube from skimmer to behind the tank, and/or using a pH-raising agent. Does anyone have any pointers regarding using longer air tube and pH-raising agent? Any advice is greatly welcomed. Thanks in advance!

 

[beaslbob]

Hi Everyone,

I’m also having low pH issues in my mostly-FOWLR setup (only inverts are few snails and a couple of SPS). Current setup is 90-gal with lid (need lid since I have an eel and wrasse), EShopp S-300 skimmer, and WavePuck 2 (which seems to be creating a lot of air bubbles at surface). My pH has been consistently 7.7 for several months since I had my lid and my fishes have been tolerating that pH level pretty well. Yesterday, however, pH dropped to 7.4 (tested in the late P.M.) and I don’t why know. I’m concerned about a possible downward trend in pH. I’m thinking about creating more water surface agitation (pointing return spout upwards so more air bubbles, running a longer air intake tube from skimmer to behind the tank, and/or using a pH-raising agent. Does anyone have any pointers regarding using longer air tube and pH-raising agent? Any advice is greatly welcomed. Thanks in advance!

Low ph with normal alk (8-10dkh) is because of co2. using macro or other algae to consume that co2 will raise the ph. (as measured just before lights out). So as I stated before, use baking soda to get kH up, if necessary, then add and get macro algae thriving. the pH can't do anything else but rise.

my .02

 

[PacsAdmin77]

OK, how much baking soda should I add if my current alkalinity is 8.6? I recall my alkalinity being 10.x in early January 2019 but my pH stayed at 7.7. So I don’t know if increasing alkalinity would help?

And it sounds like I need more chaeto in my refugium

 

[beaslbob]

OK, how much baking soda should I add if my current alkalinity is 8.6? I recall my alkalinity being 10.x in early January 2019 but my pH stayed at 7.7. So I don’t know if increasing alkalinity would help?

And it sounds like I need more chaeto in my refugium

Not much.

according to: http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

you need:

22.7 grams, approx 4.8 tsp, or 0.8 oz

of baking soda to increase a 100g tank from 8dkh to 10dkh.

Yes you need more chaeto in your refugium.

my .02

 

[beaslbob]

Or at least to get the chaeto you have growing faster.

 

[lakai]

Thanks for the advice I received my electronic PH meter tonight and got a shock. I'm busy making some soda Ash and will only raise ph 0.2 a day. We'll try to atleast. Until it gets to 8. I'm doing a water change tomorrow.

You should really try and verify and/or calibrate the pH meter before doing anything. At minimum a cheap api high ph test kit will be accurate enough to tell you if your pH meter is reading incorrect.