pH And The Reef Aquarium

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

PH And The Reef Aquarium

For many aquarists, pH is not something that they have much experience with aside from their aquarium. For many, pH is almost a black box measurement: something to be considered, but whose physical meaning makes little sense to them. This article will describe pH in an intuitive way (as opposed to a more rigorous, mathematical way that I have used in previous articles). While plenty of chemical...

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[Jason2.5]

Good Day Randy

Absolutely love your articles the help me so much thank you.

I got a bit confused with where you start talking about how to reduce high ph by more aeration... “The most benign way to reduce high pH is to aerate the water more.”

Am I correct if you ment aeration with Co2 so that it can turn into carbonic acid?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Hi randy, great article as usual

i see the one study on ph and corals involves porites. Was this study also conducted with other corals. I only ask as porites biologically is a little different than many hard corals; where it is able to maintain an internal ph higher than the surrounding waters. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160804135434.htm

Do the same observations over the studied ph levels occur with acropora or pocilopora that make up the bulk of normal seawater ph reefs?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Good Day Randy

Absolutely love your articles the help me so much thank you.

I got a bit confused with where you start talking about how to reduce high ph by more aeration... “The most benign way to reduce high pH is to aerate the water more.”

Am I correct if you ment aeration with Co2 so that it can turn into carbonic acid?

I meant with normal air that contains at least a normal, if not elevated amount of CO2. The pH will drop back to normal levels for the alkalinity.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi randy, great article as usual

i see the one study on ph and corals involves porites. Was this study also conducted with other corals. I only ask as porites biologically is a little different than many hard corals; where it is able to maintain an internal ph higher than the surrounding waters. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160804135434.htm

Do the same observations over the studied ph levels occur with acropora or pocilopora that make up the bulk of normal seawater ph reefs?

I wrote this article a long time ago and at theat time I mentioned all studies I was aware of. Since that time there have been more studies with more corals and more complicated analyses, such as the pH minimum vs the average etc. I think the sum of all of these studies suggests that corals can calcify faster at higher pH, but perhaps to pH does not need to be higher 24/7. I do not recall which exact species have been studied.

 

[ShaggyRS6]

I agree I have been reading a lot of Randy’s stuff lately and has really been helpful.

 

[Jason2.5]

I meant with normal air that contains at least a normal, if not elevated amount of CO2. The pH will drop back to normal levels for the alkalinity.

Awesome, thank you.

Happy holidays

 

[Cory]

In your article, you state that aeration of an aquariums water outside with outside air to determine if high Co2 is a cause, that we need to watch out for a change in temperature of 5C as it can lower ph. How is this?

 

[VegasReefer]

In your article, you state that aeration of an aquariums water outside with outside air to determine if high Co2 is a cause, that we need to watch out for a change in temperature of 5C as it can lower ph. How is this?

Hi Cory, I believe this is in relation to the amount of dissolved oxygen changes with temperature. As temperature increases, dissolved O2 typically drops. As weather permits in Vegas, opening windows helps with the Co2, however temp can rise fast. Its a juggling act for sure