NEED TO RAISE PH?

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How do you know you have a PH problem just curious. Usually just go off the fish

Fish are not the concern.

 

[Spare time]

i have an apex.

Maybe try and run the skimmer air intake out a window?

 

[TheSheff]

No, I read that coral growth is slow until PH gets in the higher ranges (8.2-8.3). Is that not so?

Coral growth increases exponentially as PH rises. PH is on a logarithmic scale, so the difference between 8.2 and 8.3 can be up to 10 times. Most people notice their corals drastically increase the amount of alkalinity and calcium consumed at higher PH.

 

[pledosophy]

After battling with pH for a long time, and doing all of the recommended things (airline outside, skimmer, refugium, c02 scrubber, house plants, higher water movement, etc) what finally worked was dosing kalk at night. I dose about what I evaporate in a day, but through a doser. My pH was bottoming out at 7.8 and in the last 24 hours it bottomed at 8.1 with an 8.2 average.

I am new to doing this on my display, but so far, this is the only thing in the last three years that has helped.

I know that running an airline outside really fixes the issue for most people, but I think, and this is my opinion, that some of our environments just don't have the best outside air. I live pretty close to a very large freeway and a mile away from a power station. The outside air just wasn't helping.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

After battling with pH for a long time, and doing all of the recommended things (airline outside, skimmer, refugium, c02 scrubber, house plants, higher water movement, etc) what finally worked was dosing kalk at night. I dose about what I evaporate in a day, but through a doser. My pH was bottoming out at 7.8 and in the last 24 hours it bottomed at 8.1 with an 8.2 average.

I am new to doing this on my display, but so far, this is the only thing in the last three years that has helped.

I know that running an airline outside really fixes the issue for most people, but I think, and this is my opinion, that some of our environments just don't have the best outside air. I live pretty close to a very large freeway and a mile away from a power station. The outside air just wasn't helping.

The complexity of comparing pH raising methods is that every scenario has different degrees of elevated indoor CO2 and different degrees of tank top aeration relative to skimmer aeration. Thus, no one method will be best for all, IMO.