pH and surface agitation

[KaitCorals]

Hey Loves!

Does anybody have a quantifiable experience with altering pH solely through surface agitation? Does this only really happen with very significant turbulence? Would switching the direction of pump to the surface cause a significant difference?

- Kait!

 

[dvgyfresh]

My ph is pretty consistently 8.3, I think enough surface agitation to not allow any surface film to build up along with skimmer helps a ton. I also run a refugium opposite of my light cycle to maintain the PH. Hard to tell but all my water is moving at the top

 

[Sean Clark]

Generally surface aeration can have a positive effect. This is provided that your co2 in the room is not too high in which case the pH can actually be suppressed by additional air exchange but that would be a rare situation.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hey Loves!

Does anybody have a quantifiable experience with altering pH solely through surface agitation? Does this only really happen with very significant turbulence? Would switching the direction of pump to the surface cause a significant difference?

- Kait!

What are you trying to accomplish?

Any aeration of the aquarium will tend to drive the tank toward CO2 equilibration with the air in the room (or other air used for aeration if not from the room).

That effect can raise or lower pH, depending on the relative amounts of CO2 in the water and in the air.

 

[KaitCorals]

What are you trying to accomplish?

Any aeration of the aquarium will tend to drive the tank toward CO2 equilibration with the air in the room (or other air used for aeration if not from the room).

That effect can raise or lower pH, depending on the relative amounts of CO2 in the water and in the air.

The pH in the tank is 7.9 with a dKH of 9.4-9.4 and I think ideally I would like pH at 8.0 for a little more room from the bottom. It's been a long time since my chemistry class days but thank you, that makes a lot of sense that it's a balance of reactions rather than a unidirectional one.

- Love Kait!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The pH in the tank is 7.9 with a dKH of 9.4-9.4 and I think ideally I would like pH at 8.0 for a little more room from the bottom. It's been a long time since my chemistry class days but thank you, that makes a lot of sense that it's a balance of reactions rather than a unidirectional one.

- Love Kait!

What time of day was that measured?

pH is typically lower at night to early AM and peaks late afternoon.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Hey Loves!

Does anybody have a quantifiable experience with altering pH solely through surface agitation? Does this only really happen with very significant turbulence? Would switching the direction of pump to the surface cause a significant difference?

- Kait!

if you have a decent amount of surface agitation, more will be a diminishing return PH wise. PH issues are usually caused by high indoor co2, rotting material in the tank and low alk.

 

[KaitCorals]

What time of day was that measured?

pH is typically lower at night to early AM and peaks late afternoon.

Thanks for adding nuance to my thought process. I often end up testing around 11 pm after tank lights or off. What it sounds like is that I need to create a case study about my tank. Thank you for reminding me that success isn't always an easy answer but a result of thoughtful process.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

What are you trying to accomplish?

Any aeration of the aquarium will tend to drive the tank toward CO2 equilibration with the air in the room (or other air used for aeration if not from the room).

That effect can raise or lower pH, depending on the relative amounts of CO2 in the water and in the air.

I have been hearing that surface agitation is the key to air exchange. I was blindly going through the thought that I must have surface agitation to drop CO2 and increase PH. It finally dawned on me that in my enclosed office space, surface agitation is actually a bad thing because the air has high levels of CO2...most likely higher than the water. I have been fighting low PH even with an outside airline going into my skimmer and overflow but still cant get my PH up when I am in the office. You can see the dip for when I got back from traveling.

As such, i am going to be reducing the surface agitation and see if that makes sense and helps with excess CO2 from my respiration from affecting the PH levels in my tank.

 

[OrlandoReef]

I have been hearing that surface agitation is the key to air exchange. I was blindly going through the thought that I must have surface agitation to drop CO2 and increase PH. It finally dawned on me that in my enclosed office space, surface agitation is actually a bad thing because the air has high levels of CO2...most likely higher than the water. I have been fighting low PH even with an outside airline going into my skimmer and overflow but still cant get my PH up when I am in the office. You can see the dip for when I got back from traveling.

As such, i am going to be reducing the surface agitation and see if that makes sense and helps with excess CO2 from my respiration from affecting the PH levels in my tank.

How did this work

 

[armandoarturo]

I have been hearing that surface agitation is the key to air exchange. I was blindly going through the thought that I must have surface agitation to drop CO2 and increase PH. It finally dawned on me that in my enclosed office space, surface agitation is actually a bad thing because the air has high levels of CO2...most likely higher than the water. I have been fighting low PH even with an outside airline going into my skimmer and overflow but still cant get my PH up when I am in the office. You can see the dip for when I got back from traveling.

As such, i am going to be reducing the surface agitation and see if that makes sense and helps with excess CO2 from my respiration from affecting the PH levels in my tank.

Seems like Im having the same issue. How did it work?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Seems like Im having the same issue. How did it work?

I’d personally recommend one of the other ways to raise pH, if that’s a goal, rather than reducing aeration.

 

[Rappa]

I recently installed a CO2 scrubber on the intake to my skimmer, and my PH went from 8.0-8.2 to 8.2-8.5+! Some days I would go down to my fish room and bypass the scrubber when it climbed up past 8.4. Recently I have changed the alarm on my Apex to only notify me if the PH is above 8.5 because it was so consistently @8.4+ during the afternoon hours. I have been leaving it alone lately and not bypassing the scrubber and everything is doing just fine, so I don't think I will run down to bypass the scrubber anymore... FYI - I am also recirculating the scrubber air/ suction airline into my skimmer cup to save on the scrubber media. It was a super easy modification to do. I am a month into the latest CO2 Scrubber media change and right now at 9:46am before my lights come on, my PH is @ 8.22. My system volume is approx 300 gallons with display and sump.