PH Levels after a Water Change

eashton123 · Sep 9, 2015

How do fellow reefers keep their PH levels up in the 8.1 range after a water change?

I use Kalk got it up to 8.1 - 8.2 now after a water change back down to 7.9 - 8.0 range

DeniseAndy · Sep 9, 2015

What is your new water pH prior to changing water? Could be the salt mix. Could be a lot of factors. How often are you checking pH? Do you run a monitor of some sort? Apex, ReefKeeper?

Tahoe61 · Sep 9, 2015

Not ideal but not bad.

Are you testing the same time each day, right before lights go off for the highest value and before the lights come on for the lowest value?

I use kalk too and that is about were I am at.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 9, 2015

Aquarium pH is determined by the level of CO2 in the water and the alkalinity (nothing else).

If you mix your water in a location where the CO2 in the air is high, it might have lower pH than your aquarium.

In general, the pH won't change much with a water change unless you are changing a very large amount of water. A 10% change will be hardly noticeable.

FWIW, as folks have said, generally pH 7.8 to 8.5 is fine.