PH low 7.95 high 8.07

Bruce Burnett · Oct 23, 2016

Since I moved to Lake Havasu City, Az the PH in my 300 gallon system has been running lower than I am used to. For a big portion of the year it is too hot to open the house up. I do run a calcium reactor but leaving it off for 24 hours did not make a difference in the PH neither did turning off the skimmer for 24 hours. I put an air stone in a cup of water in the same room as the tank and PH did not change. If I poke a hole through the wall behind the tank it goes into the garage, so I tried the air stone in a cup of tank water in the garage and the PH went down even lower. When I did it outside in the open air in two hours it went to 8.26 so I figure the tank is at equilibrium with the co2 levels in the house. I read in Randy's article and others that a PH around 8.0 should be fine. Alk is 8.6 dkh, calcium is 450, magnesium is around 1350. My question is would it be worth the work to run the skimmer airlines outside? I know it would help to bring up the PH but it still would not bring it up to the same as open air to the outside as the co2 within the house would still be getting into the tank water. I could run the airlines for the skimmer pumps temporarily through a window to see how much difference it makes but how much time will it take on a 300 gallon system with a large skimmer for it to reach the maximum increase I will see?

Waterjockey · Oct 23, 2016

Bruce Burnett said:
Since I moved to Lake Havasu City, Az the PH in my 300 gallon system has been running lower than I am used to. For a big portion of the year it is too hot to open the house up. I do run a calcium reactor but leaving it off for 24 hours did not make a difference in the PH neither did turning off the skimmer for 24 hours. I put an air stone in a cup of water in the same room as the tank and PH did not change. If I poke a hole through the wall behind the tank it goes into the garage, so I tried the air stone in a cup of tank water in the garage and the PH went down even lower. When I did it outside in the open air in two hours it went to 8.26 so I figure the tank is at equilibrium with the co2 levels in the house. I read in Randy's article and others that a PH around 8.0 should be fine. Alk is 8.6 dkh, calcium is 450, magnesium is around 1350. My question is would it be worth the work to run the skimmer airlines outside? I know it would help to bring up the PH but it still would not bring it up to the same as open air to the outside as the co2 within the house would still be getting into the tank water. I could run the airlines for the skimmer pumps temporarily through a window to see how much difference it makes but how much time will it take on a 300 gallon system with a large skimmer for it to reach the maximum increase I will see?

I just ran a line from my skimmer to the outside this summer. It took maybe a week to 10 days for the pH to slowly rise and stabilize at the new level, about 0.2 or so units up from where it was...just under 8 to about 8.2

Bruce Burnett · Oct 23, 2016

Waterjockey said:
I just ran a line from my skimmer to the outside this summer. It took maybe a week to 10 days for the pH to slowly rise and stabilize at the new level, about 0.2 or so units up from where it was...just under 8 to about 8.2

Thanks

aaron23 · Oct 23, 2016

You can dose kalk to help and increase pH when lights are off. Do you have a refugium?

tomtom2245 · Oct 23, 2016

Have you noticed any negative impacts on your tank running at that pH range? If not, then what is the reasoning for wanting it higher?

Bruce Burnett · Oct 23, 2016

aaron23 said:
You can dose kalk to help and increase pH when lights are off. Do you have a refugium?

No refugium, thought about an ATS or a Chaeto reactor. Money is currently in short supply. The kalk will help with the swing but I would have to add a separate dosing pump or controller as I don't have an Apex.

Bruce Burnett · Oct 23, 2016

Bruce Burnett said:
No refugium, thought about an ATS or a Chaeto reactor. Money is currently in short supply. The kalk will help with the swing but I would have to add a separate dosing pump or controller as I don't have an Apex.

just a little slower growth rate on some acros

tomtom2245 · Oct 23, 2016

Bruce Burnett said:
just a little slower growth rate on some acros

Gotcha, I would try running the air line for the skimmer out the window for a little while to see if that helps any. Cheap to test out and see if it helps you out at all.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 24, 2016

I wouldn't be overly concerned with tha pH range. Where I get concerned is when the pH drops below 7.8.

Bruce Burnett · Oct 24, 2016

Thanks Randy

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 24, 2016

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.

Aceone · Oct 25, 2016

I ran tubing for a day and didn't see any difference. Want to see if leaving it out longer would do it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 25, 2016

Aceone said:
I ran tubing for a day and didn't see any difference. Want to see if leaving it out longer would do it.

If the tubing diameter is too small, it will greatly restrict flow to the skimmer inlet.

jsker · Oct 25, 2016

Aceone said:
I ran tubing for a day and didn't see any difference. Want to see if leaving it out longer would do it.

Like myself if the house is closed up all the time , I put this together also with @Randy Holmes-Farley article about PH

stevo01 · Oct 25, 2016

What ph is considered too high for a reef tank? Is it when precipitation occurs, guessing about 8.6? Thanks!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 25, 2016

stevo01 said:
What ph is considered too high for a reef tank? Is it when precipitation occurs, guessing about 8.6? Thanks!

That is where I'd begin to be more concerned, but there's no specific point where that begins. It happens even at pH 8.2, but faster and faster as pH rises.

leemosh · Oct 25, 2016

I wouldn't be overly concerned about chasing the pH, but if you want, you could always try a CO2 scrubber on the inlet to your skimmer, which is basically doing what running the airline outside is doing, but you have to keep changing the scrubbing media. I think BRS said they'd be doing a video on it sometime soon.

Aceone · Oct 26, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If the tubing diameter is too small, it will greatly restrict flow to the skimmer inlet.

I was using the same diameter tubing that came from the skimmer. Should i increase the diameter little by little? I have a Reef Octopus 110 if i remember correctly.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 26, 2016

Aceone said:
I was using the same diameter tubing that came from the skimmer. Should i increase the diameter little by little? I have a Reef Octopus 110 if i remember correctly.

If the tubing is now longer, larger diameter may be needed.

stevo01 · Oct 26, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That is where I'd begin to be more concerned, but there's no specific point where that begins. It happens even at pH 8.2, but faster and faster as pH rises.

Thanks Randy.