Opening windows to rise ph not working

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My salinity is at 1.023. It was slightly higher before at around 1.024-25. I haven’t used the marine buffer yet, but will use it to raise my ph.

uh, very bad idea. Did someone here suggest marine buffer was a good idea for raising pH?

Seriously, it's about as bad of a choice as you can make to raise pH. It will raise alk and do little for pH.

If it was an lfs suggestion, stop taking advice from them.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

uh, very bad idea. Did someone here suggest marine buffer was a good idea for raising pH?

Seriously, it's about as bad of a choice as you can make to raise pH. It will raise alk and do little for pH.

If it was an lfs suggestion, stop taking advice from them.

I haven’t used it yet. I got it only as a last resort as water changes didn’t help with raising the ph.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I haven’t used it yet. I got it only as a last resort as water changes didn’t help with raising the ph.

There are far better additives to boost pH, if that is the route you want to go. They are not expensive. Sodium carbonate (diy= baked baking soda) is much better, and sodium hydroxide is much better than that.

bear in mind that all additives to boost pH raise alkalinity.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

There are far better additives to boost pH, if that is the route you want to go. They are not expensive. Sodium carbonate (diy= baked baking soda) is much better, and sodium hydroxide is much better than that.

bear in mind that all additives to boost pH raise alkalinity.

Thanks! How do you raise ph with baking soda? And how much baking soda do I need to raise my ph in my 33 gallon?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks! How do you raise ph with baking soda? And how much baking soda do I need to raise my ph in my 33 gallon?

You should not dose ANY material based on an amount to boost pH a specific amount for several reasons, including you will likely raise alkalinity too high, and that the effect of any pH boosting additive is temporary until the tank pulls in more CO2 from your air.

What you can do is add a high pH alk additive when you need alkalinity, and accept whatever pH boost you get from it.

What is your current alkalinity?

 

[Oiseaufeu]

You should not dose ANY material based on an amount to boost pH a specific amount for several reasons, including you will likely raise alkalinity too high, and that the effect of any pH boosting additive is temporary until the tank pulls in more CO2 from your air.

What you can do is add a high pH alk additive when you need alkalinity, and accept whatever pH boost you get from it.

What is your current alkalinity?

Thanks! I try not to dose anything if I don't need to. I tested it 3 days ago and my alk is at 7. Not sure if it's too low or not. I also haven't dose anything at all since starting my saltwater tank as I don't wanna nuke my whole tank. I can retest my alk. Some parts of my rocks have started whitening a bit, so I plan on doing a water change this week. My salinity is at 1.023 at the moment.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You should first read up and select a target alkalinity. Everyone has their own preference. I recommend 7-11 dKH and 7 dKH is fine without any dosing. But if you want it higher, you can boost it as needed.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

You should first read up and select a target alkalinity. Everyone has their own preference. I recommend 7-11 dKH and 7 dKH is fine without any dosing. But if you want it higher, you can boost it as needed.

Thanks! I'll keep it at this level for now.

 

[jda]

There is almost no chance that the pH in your tank is not going to be higher with lower co2. Do you know what your indoor co2 level is? If the co2 level is below 500/600, then you have testing issues.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

There is almost no chance that the pH in your tank is not going to be higher with lower co2. Do you know what your indoor co2 level is? If the co2 level is below 500/600, then you have testing issues.

I do not know my c02 level. How can I test for that?

 

[jda]

You have to get a meter off of Amazon or somewhere. Make sure that it has a NDIR sensor in it. These are good for more than the tank - let you know when the house does need aired out and you can plan ahead. We have 4-5 days of -10 to -22F here in Colorado, so I aired out before this.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

You have to get a meter off of Amazon or somewhere. Make sure that it has a NDIR sensor in it. These are good for more than the tank - let you know when the house does need aired out and you can plan ahead. We have 4-5 days of -10 to -22F here in Colorado, so I aired out before this.

Thanks! I’ll look for one.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

There is almost no chance that the pH in your tank is not going to be higher with lower co2. Do you know what your indoor co2 level is? If the co2 level is below 500/600, then you have testing issues.

Update : my ph has risen by 0.2 because I left one of my 3 windows open and it’s now at 7.8. Today is pretty mild temperature, so I might leave my window open all day.

 

[nickng]

Yeah, I don’t know how to install something like that without leaving a window open 24/7 in winter.

With the recirculating CO2 scrubber, there's no need to open the windows. That's why I am using it during the winter months. It keeps my pH between 8.18 and 8.25 without any dosing of kalkwasser. Only need to add 1-2ml of alk every other day for the corals i keep in the tank

 

[nickng]

Update : my ph has risen by 0.2 because I left one of my 3 windows open and it’s now at 7.8. Today is pretty mild temperature, so I might leave my window open all day.

Here’s how I setup the recirculating CO2 scrubber. The white tubing coming out the top of the skimmer cap goes to the intake of the scrubber cylinder with the ball valve and the unrestricted output of the scrubber goes to the air intake of the skimmer. A controllable skimmer with a DC controlled pump is indispensable in such a setup. I either drain out the condensate from the bottom of the co2 scrubber every other day or just detach the scrubber intake from the skimmer cup to suck in dry air from the room. The reason for the recirculating system is to keep my co2 scrubbing media last longer.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

With the recirculating CO2 scrubber, there's no need to open the windows. That's why I am using it during the winter months. It keeps my pH between 8.18 and 8.25 without any dosing of kalkwasser. Only need to add 1-2ml of alk every other day for the corals i keep in the tank

Thanks! I’ll see what I can do. I’ve never done a c02 system in my freshwater tank because my plants didn’t need it. I opened my window a tiny bit since it’s my ceiling window (best ones to aerate my room).

 

[Oiseaufeu]

Here’s how I setup the recirculating CO2 scrubber. The white tubing coming out the top of the skimmer cap goes to the intake of the scrubber cylinder with the ball valve and the unrestricted output of the scrubber goes to the air intake of the skimmer. A controllable skimmer with a DC controlled pump is indispensable in such a setup. I either drain out the condensate from the bottom of the co2 scrubber every other day or just detach the scrubber intake from the skimmer cup to suck in dry air from the room. The reason for the recirculating system is to keep my co2 scrubbing media last longer.

I don’t have a skimmer. So this will be hard to do.

 

[nickng]

here's a nice video on youtube of how the system is setup

 

[Oiseaufeu]

here's a nice video on youtube of how the system is setup

Well, it’s gonna be hard to this without a sump and a skimmer.

 

[nickng]

I don’t have a skimmer. So this will be hard to do.

There's an alternative to using a co2 scrubber that will also bump your pH up by around 0.2 to 0.3 depending on how aggressive you have the settings. I run a refugium with chaeto mostly for growing copepods for my Mandarin fish and also as a 24/7 food source for the fishes since I feed the fishes every other day.
I noticed that with a chaeto refugium if I have my light settings at the maximum intensity, I get a bump in pH of about 0.3. It drops within an hour or so as soon as I turn the lights off.

Now the other observation is when I first started up the refugium and did not have enough chaeto, I had a lot of green turf algae and that was even more effective ie gave a pH bump of 0.3+ Maybe something like a green algae turf scrubber will work. It's will probably be very effcient in removing all the phosphate and nitrate from teh tank.

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