I'm a rookie, I need help.

[JakefromRi]

I'm curious as to how you all manage pH without using a buffer and in turn raising alkalinity. My main concern is the water I replace for evaporation and when I do water changes. Should I be concerned about the pH of this water or does the tank straighten it out?. I have a 72 gallon with a 20 gallon sump, and a Red Sea protein skimmer, i don't use any type of reactors as of yet, I dose everything by hand.

 

[zesty]

Simple answer: Don't manage pH, it manages you.

I would make sure you have a good gas exchange, open air lids for your tank. Running an opposite light schedule on your sump vs DT and having an outside source of air for your skimmer air intake.

Those would be my non-chemical routes of making sure I have a good gas exchange in my tank.

I do not and have not worried about the pH of my top-off water.

 

[glb]

Simple answer: Don't manage pH, it manages you.

I would make sure you have a good gas exchange, open air lids for your tank. Running an opposite light schedule on your sump vs DT and having an outside source of air for your skimmer air intake.

Those would be my non-chemical routes of making sure I have a good gas exchange in my tank.

I do not and have not worried about the pH of my top-off water.

Agreed. The more you try to get a specific number for pH the more likely you are to knock the tank out of balance. Alk, ca and mg all work together to keep the water stable. If you start adding stuff to raise the ph you'll mess up this balance. My tank usually runs at 7.8 without a problem because of excess co2 in my house. A stable ph is much more important than a specific number, within reason.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The pH of top off and water change water is never a cause of low pH. It comes from elevated CO2, and that can be felt with via fresher air, CO2 scrubbers, macroalgae consuming CO2, or limewater.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I never mess with PH numbers.

 

[deerhunter06]

Simple answer: Don't manage pH, it manages you.

I would make sure you have a good gas exchange, open air lids for your tank. Running an opposite light schedule on your sump vs DT and having an outside source of air for your skimmer air intake.

Those would be my non-chemical routes of making sure I have a good gas exchange in my tank.

I do not and have not worried about the pH of my top-off water.

be careful running outside air source to the skimmer if your town sprays pesticides. I have been dealing with my ph dropping to 7.7 and even 7.6 one night, I have since corrected it with the use of limewater in my ATO. I did everything else like opening every window in the house creating crazy amounts of surface agitation and it didnt help. The limewater is doing the trick though.

 

[JakefromRi]

Thank you for the info everyone, greatly appreciated. I'm using Brightwell Aquatics reef builder right now which doses calcium, magnesium, strontium and alkalinity, which seems to do a good job of keeping those parameters in line, but obviously my alkalinity creeps up after adding buffered top off water. Time for a new approach.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This has more on pH, and my new article on pH at reef Edition should come out any day now:

Low pH: Causes and Cures by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

The “How To†Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 3: pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[glb]

This has more on pH, and my new article on pH at reef Edition should come out any day now:

Low pH: Causes and Cures by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

The “How To†Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 3: pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Randy is the expert on ph!

 

[JakefromRi]

Great article, incredibly informative. Thanks so much for sharing

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks.
Happy Reefing!

 

[Omegareefer0]

So much late night chemistry...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So much late night chemistry...

Isn't it fun!

 

[glb]

Isn't it fun!

It is fun in a mad chemist kind of way. [emoji6]

 

[Omegareefer0]

Isn't it fun!

It sure is! I love chemistry![emoji7] [emoji7] [emoji7]

 

[Mearle]

Im also new but when I first started my ph was at like 7 so I had to raise it I used balance by aquavitro it didn't mess with anything else but I had to continuously dose it at start i was doing 6 cap fills per day for my 120g eventually oh raised to 8 then i continued to do one cap full u till I was out and now oh is stable between 8.1and 8.2 so im good with that also use the inner cap not the whole cap hope this help

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Balance by Aquavitro is an alkalinity additive (despite what they claim) in the same sense that limewater is: both add hydroxide. The drawback is that it doesn't add a balanced amount of calcium, as limewater does do.