PH help!

[Mcdy]

Alright guys and gals-- I have had my tank for a couple of months now and no real growth. All water parameters appear to be within RedSea standards for a mixed reef but my PH is always 7.94. I really want to get that up to 8.3 to 8.4. Last night I installed a CO2 scrubber and absolutely no improvement. Any ideas besides adding additives to it. I would like to keep it as natural as possible.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Don't expect much growth in a tank that is only 2 months old. Tanks need to be 'mature' to really be stable and show good growth (which is still quite slow!). A mature tank can take 6 to 12 months to evolve. Don't rush it, you're doing just fine.

Secondly, don't chase pH! Your pH at 7.94 is perfectly OK and pushing it up artificially really won't help much at all. Your pH is higher than mine (7.85) and I never worry about it at all (see photo of my tank below). Unless pH gets WAY out of hand, don't worry about it.

The parameters you need to stay on top of are:
temperature: usually easy, but if it gets out of hand it can be deadly
ammonia: again, pretty easy, unless something big dies in the tank and you don't notice
alk: if you have stony corals, this one is critical
Ca: not as much as alk, but still very important
salinity: again, pretty easy but harmful if it gets too far out of line
Mg: really easy but essential for skeleton building
pH: super easy, I never even test for it. Only an issue if you have really high CO2 in your house

There are a few more, but you get the idea.

This was from about a year ago. My pH never changes much (7.8 to 8.0). And not that orange digi near the middle bottom is easily twice as big. And my RFA's have had 2 rounds of babies. You can see the small (18 months old) and tiny (6 months old) ones. So the pH hasn't been an issue.

 

[motortrendz]

One of the easiest things tou can do to try and raise ph is replace the air inlet on the skimmer with a longer hose. Get the line out of your stand to some fresh air, mine went up significantly when I just got it out of my sump area. (7.4-7.9) then when I actually moved the line down through my floor to my basement near the outside wall it jumped again(7.9-8.4) and it's been stable ever since.

But as previously mentioned 7.9 isnt bad. But maybe give this a shot and see. Cant hurt and you'll know if it worked in 24hours.

 

[Crossfire]

Don't expect much growth in a tank that is only 2 months old. Tanks need to be 'mature' to really be stable and show good growth (which is still quite slow!). A mature tank can take 6 to 12 months to evolve. Don't rush it, you're doing just fine.

Secondly, don't chase pH! Your pH at 7.94 is perfectly OK and pushing it up artificially really won't help much at all. Your pH is higher than mine (7.85) and I never worry about it at all (see photo of my tank below). Unless pH gets WAY out of hand, don't worry about it.

This! If you chase a ph of 8.4 by adding PH buffers you'll end up with a nightmare of alkalinity and calcium problems.

Best way to raise your ph is to open a window, run your skimmer's airline outside, add an air stone to get oxygen in the tank from outside the room, or make sure you have good water movement on the top of the water with no lid for better gas exchange.

Coral growth is slow. Even "fast growing corals" like green star polyp, zoanthids, motipora, or acropora take many months to see change.

7.9 is just fine. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree with the others.

How are you supplementing alkalinity? What is it now? Using a higher pH alkalinity additive than you are now (if any) would not seem any more unnatural.

 

[Mrreefercanada]

I Agree with others about not chasing ph. I had this issue years ago with low ph and fresh air to the skimmer inlet solved it right away. Where I live this is common in the winter due to the fact that your home air does not get exchanged with fresh air as much. This causes built up of carbon dioxide. My ph is always around the 8 mark with great success. I have heard of people having great success adjusting ph and also having great disasters?? So caution advised.

 

[Mcdy]

Don't expect much growth in a tank that is only 2 months old. Tanks need to be 'mature' to really be stable and show good growth (which is still quite slow!). A mature tank can take 6 to 12 months to evolve. Don't rush it, you're doing just fine.

Secondly, don't chase pH! Your pH at 7.94 is perfectly OK and pushing it up artificially really won't help much at all. Your pH is higher than mine (7.85) and I never worry about it at all (see photo of my tank below). Unless pH gets WAY out of hand, don't worry about it.

The parameters you need to stay on top of are:
temperature: usually easy, but if it gets out of hand it can be deadly
ammonia: again, pretty easy, unless something big dies in the tank and you don't notice
alk: if you have stony corals, this one is critical
Ca: not as much as alk, but still very important
salinity: again, pretty easy but harmful if it gets too far out of line
Mg: really easy but essential for skeleton building
pH: super easy, I never even test for it. Only an issue if you have really high CO2 in your house

There are a few more, but you get the idea.

This was from about a year ago. My pH never changes much (7.8 to 8.0). And not that orange digi near the middle bottom is easily twice as big. And my RFA's have had 2 rounds of babies. You can see the small (18 months old) and tiny (6 months old) ones. So the pH hasn't been an issue.

Ron, Thank you for taking the time to respond. Sorry I am late reading, had a reserve duty all weekend. Your tank is absolutely awesome. I love the rock corals but I have the hardest time getting them to stay in place, the last two I got died.

On the PH, I am a little OCD and would like to have the PH in the 8.3-8.4 range just because I have become fixated on it. LOL Once I get started on a problem, I almost have to solve it. The only thing that I can think of is that the bag the "media" came in was left open. I did not buy a fresh bag, the LFS filled the container the first time. I am going to run a hose out the window next and see what happens.

 

[Mcdy]

I Agree with others about not chasing ph. I had this issue years ago with low ph and fresh air to the skimmer inlet solved it right away. Where I live this is common in the winter due to the fact that your home air does not get exchanged with fresh air as much. This causes built up of carbon dioxide. My ph is always around the 8 mark with great success. I have heard of people having great success adjusting ph and also having great disasters?? So caution advised.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to post. Yes, I have heard the same thing. I am going to chase it, just because it is bothering me and my OCD, but I get the dangers involved also. Thank you so much for providing some input on this topic.

 

[Mcdy]

I agree with the others.

How are you supplementing alkalinity? What is it now? Using a higher pH alkalinity additive than you are now (if any) would not seem any more unnatural.

Currently, my alk is @ 12 and Calcium is at 450.

I DOS RedSea Alkalinity and Calcium and use the blue bag of RedSea 50lb salt mixed with RODI water. Is there a higher based PH Alk supplement out there?

 

[Ron Reefman]

As for keeping the Rock Flower Anemones to stay in one place, the solution is to use PVC pipe end caps. Take a stroll thru this thread and you read about how people are using the end caps and probably learn a bit more about them as well.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ron-reefmans-rock-flower-experience.409436/

If you have any questions about them, don't hesitate to ask me in a PM or in that thread. I've been keeping the shallow water RFA's for 10+ years. The new er Ultra colored RFA's for about 5 and I've had several rounds of babies. I don't claim to be an expert on RFA's, but I do have a fair amount of experience and have had some success keeping them. And I'm happy to help anybody who wants to keep them.

 

[Mcdy]

As for keeping the Rock Flower Anemones to stay in one place, the solution is to use PVC pipe end caps.

Yes, I think you sent me an article on that a couple of weeks ago. I did it and she kept pushing out of the 3/4" cap, so I moved her to a 1" cap,...she couldn't get out,...but she died also. BMH against the wall to keep those things alive. They are beautiful animals.