LOW PH IN NEW TANK

[Digicop]

I have a Red Sea Reefer 350 that is about two months old but everything in it but the sand bed came from established tanks. My PH stays around 7.4. My All is 8.5. I ruled out CO2 issue and other tank in same room maintains an 8 -8.1. Any suggestions to try?

 

[Timfish]

I would add an air pump for a day or so just to see what it does to the pH. You may just have a lot of CO2 being generated while it's maturing and not enough air excahnge to disapate it. If the air pump does raise the pH you'll need to figure out how to increase gas exchange in that system.

 

[Digicop]

Will try. I am using Kalc in my top off water and have my air all the way up on my Octo skimmer. So I shouldn’t raise the Alk?

 

[arking_mark]

A 7.4 measurement is extremely low and would make me question the test/measurement or suspect something else is going on.

However, I think you should do an aeration test...

Take a cup of your tank water and aerate it for 30 minutes with an airstone next to the tank and then measure pH.

Then take this same cup of tank water and aerate it outdoors for 30 minutes and measure pH.

If indoor cup pH is higher than tank pH your tank needs more aeration (unlikely if you are using a skimmer).

If outdoor cup pH is higher than tank your house CO2 is high and likely the cause of the low pH.

If your outdoor pH is less than 8.1 you have a measurement/testing problem somewhere.

 

[Timfish]

. . . So I shouldn’t raise the Alk?

"IF" the reason the pH is low is because there's just a lot of CO2 being generated in your system and you raise alkalinity then your ssytem shifts so less CO2 is produce your alkalinity can rise more. I'd run an air pump and monitor the pH or do a aeration test as mentioned by arking_mark then decide on whether on not to dose alklinity.

 

[GuppyHJD]

A 7.4 measurement is extremely low and would make me question the test/measurement or suspect something else is going on.

However, I think you should do an aeration test...

Take a cup of your tank water and aerate it for 30 minutes with an airstone next to the tank and then measure pH.

Then take this same cup of tank water and aerate it outdoors for 30 minutes and measure pH.

If indoor cup pH is higher than tank pH your tank needs more aeration (unlikely if you are using a skimmer).

If outdoor cup pH is higher than tank your house CO2 is high and likely the cause of the low pH.

If your outdoor pH is less than 8.1 you have a measurement/testing problem somewhere.

Hello,
What PH test do you recommend? I believe my pH is 7.8 and it moved to 7.9-8.0 with your outdoor air test.
Thank you

 

[arking_mark]

Hello,
What PH test do you recommend? I believe my pH is 7.8 and it moved to 7.9-8.0 with your outdoor air test.
Thank you

What pH Tester are you using?

So tank pH is still 7.4
Aeration next to tank was 7.8
Aeration Test outside was 7.9 - 8.0

Is that what you measured?

 

[mermaid_life]

i had the same issue for a long time and could never figure it out. i believed that it was the water coming out of the faucet. I just fixed it once i started to dose. I use the seachem reef buffer to raise alkalinity and ph together