Need ph help and suggestions

satttheman · Nov 6, 2018

Hello Everyone

I'm having low ph issues and I'm going crazy trying to fix it. Ran a co2 scrubber which worked good for a while. I even made the chamber thingy to prolong the media. The chamber helped for a little while but my ph is low again media did last a little longer. My system is a red sea 250 mostly sps frags. My system with good ph and a swing between 7.8-8.2 throughout the day will consumes about .5-.6dkh. But my ph often drops to ~7.5 and struggles to get to up to 7.8 which cuts my element consumption by almost half. Yesterday I ran a line from my skimmer silencer to outside my ph was 7.68-8.06(biggest swing I have measured) throughout the day with an average of 7.83.

Reason I'm chasing is because when my ph is steady my consumption is steady. My nutrients are 5 no3 and .04 po4. I'm running gfo and biopellets. Previously had Skimz algae reactor but it didn't do much for the systems nutrients. Removed it and now my sump is pack with marinepure so it can't go back in.

What I need help/sugguestion/my question is should I hookup my turf scrubber to attempt to boost or stabilize the ph in my system? Or will it be another wasted effort. Looking for a long term fix. My thought is that if I could keep my ph higher at night through photosynthesis it will be higher during the day or at least more stable.

This scrubber was on this system once but I never monitored ph so I'm not sure if it will help or how much. I ended up taking it off because it took up too much space in the cabinet. Now I'm thinking about just sitting it on the outside. If I do setup the scrubber eventually I will remove the other nutrient exports.

Scrubber_steve · Nov 6, 2018

I have a heavy fish stock. pH always 8.2 no matter when i measure it. I only run an algae scrubber, GAC for filtration

satttheman · Nov 6, 2018

Scrubber_steve said:
I have a heavy fish stock. pH always 8.2 no matter when i measure it. I only run an algae scrubber, GAC for filtration

Do you run your scrubber 24/7? Or reverse schedule. I don't run and carbon. Watched some BRS videos over the weekend and I may start running it. Only for a few days a month. Not sure on that yet.

Scrubber_steve · Nov 6, 2018

satttheman said:
Do you run your scrubber 24/7? Or reverse schedule. I don't run and carbon. Watched some BRS videos over the weekend and I may start running it. Only for a few days a month. Not sure on that yet.

No. Leave light out during daytime so corals can utilize the nutrients instead

Seminoles76 · Nov 6, 2018

My PH numbers were about the same as yours and I did about the exact same thing with CO2 scrubber, pellets, etc.

What I did when I was in your position.......

1. Ran the skimmer line outside.
2. Put Kalk on a apex dose or any doser you prefer....this had the best and most positive impact on PH. This is the first time I have run Kalk in 12 years of reefing. I highly doubt there will ever be a time in the future that I don't run Kalk on dosers and then just use 2 part or reactor to make up the difference when Kalk can no longer keep up. The stability and Ph kick from it is outstanding.
3. Took the pellets off line. Took them off because I was worried the carbon coming from the pellets was pulling PH down. This may or may not have been true but I was doing everything I could think of to raise and keep PH up.
4. I ran a refugium as well and just recently took it off. Now that my refugium is back off line I am seeing .5 lower PH at night and basically throughout the day which I am willing to live with if it means I don't have to mess with a refugium.

My numbers now......When refugium was online I was 8.15-8.3. After refugium being shut down. 8.1 - 8.25. Again, my numbers were identical to yours and I was running through CO2 media faster than I could imagine. I would get about 6 days at best.

One thing I noticed with running a skimmer line to the outside is if you have a mass amount of surface agitation it may not be as beneficial as you have that gas exchange at the surface with the CO2 laden inside air. If you slow some of that agitation down you may see a little more benefit of running the line outside.

Cheers

satttheman · Nov 6, 2018

Thanks for the input. Yeah I'm trying to stay away from kalk to my ato. Maybe I'm working against myself. I only get 8.1-8.2 with fresh media. Then it falls and I may be a day or two when my ph is higher but its consistently under 7.9 average and often falls below 7.6 at night and early morning.

Seminoles76 · Nov 6, 2018

Yeah...I completely agree with not running the Kalk in the ATO. Thats why I put it on a separate doser. My ATO then picks up the little bit of evap that is not handled by the Kalk. I'm sure many folks have success with it in the ATO, I just find it much better when it's on it's own dosing system.

I hated the scrubber for the same reason you just mentioned. I would put fresh media in and Alk consumption would go way up....change alk dosing rate to dose more, etc. Then after two or three days the media starts going down and PH goes down along with Alk consumption...change media and dosing rate of Alk, etc. etc. With Kalk on dosing system the PH has been steady as can be 24/7.

Hope you find something that works for you.

satttheman · Nov 6, 2018

Seminoles76 said:
Yeah...I completely agree with not running the Kalk in the ATO. Thats why I put it on a separate doser. My ATO then picks up the little bit of evap that is not handled by the Kalk. I'm sure many folks have success with it in the ATO, I just find it much better when it's on it's own dosing system.

I hated the scrubber for the same reason you just mentioned. I would put fresh media in and Alk consumption would go way up....change alk dosing rate to dose more, etc. Then after two or three days the media starts going down and PH goes down along with Alk consumption...change media and dosing rate of Alk, etc. etc. With Kalk on dosing system the PH has been steady as can be 24/7.

Hope you find something that works for you.

Man you have me ready to go buy some kalk today. Lol. I dose Aquaforest Components though. Will I have to stop dosing alk and ca from the aq components in order to get the benefits of the kalk? Guess I should have mentioned that I'm dosing a three part system.

Seminoles76 · Nov 6, 2018

Lol. Yeah. I have done Triton, then was on ESV B Ionic. Gotta say that when I switched to Kalk everything got so much better. I'm guessing it got way better because of the PH bump and the consistent PH and Alk. The Kalk obviously won't give you the extra elements that AF is, but there are other ways to get those with water change, red sea colors, etc. I only mentioned Kalk to you because I was in your exact same position and it helped me out a lot. The cost efficiency of it over the CO2 scrubber has me wondering why anyone is running a scrubber vs. Kalk. That is just my experience though and as with anything else in the hobby, what is good for one may not be good for another.

Seminoles76 · Nov 6, 2018

I forgot to add that if you have any other questions on the way I am setup feel free to ask.

declanisadog · Nov 6, 2018

I'm with seminole. I struggled with low PH since my tank was setup, and kalk brought me from the 7.6-7.8 range up to 8.0-8.3. I have it in my ATO for now, but plan to put it on a doser in the near future.