pH toooooo low!

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So come to find out my salinity was sky high... around 40ppt.
I got it down to 1.0256 and now my ph has shot up to 8.3 as a high.
A far cry from a high of around 7.9-8.
So was it the high salt levels that was making it drop so low???

Stupid calibration fluid!

Maybe. I showed recently that diluting tank water with fresh raises the pH above either solution before mixing , and one expects the reverse with higher salinity, although I don’t think the the effect is dramatic.

 

[bubblemytip]

I'm not sure if it has been suggested, but I have found that reducing my effluent rate as well as reducing the effluent pH to maintain the same KH level in the tank means less CO2 is passed from the CaRx into the tank, so the pH drop is less for the same KH output.

I also have the effluent discharge directly into my algae bed, and I run a CO2 scrubber (can buy the media directly from Drager very cheaply - accidentally bought 24kg of the stuff - thought I was getting 3 bottles but it was 3 cases... lol). My house is very small, and I run the bathroom extraction fan 24/7 to vent the place. If the fan is turned off, despite window being open, the pH of the tank will drop by 0.2 very quickly, even more if we have guests.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not sure if it has been suggested, but I have found that reducing my effluent rate as well as reducing the effluent pH to maintain the same KH level in the tank means less CO2 is passed from the CaRx into the tank, so the pH drop is less for the same KH output.
.

Yes, I think that is the most efficient way to use CO2.

 

[d2mini]

I'm not sure if it has been suggested, but I have found that reducing my effluent rate as well as reducing the effluent pH to maintain the same KH level in the tank means less CO2 is passed from the CaRx into the tank, so the pH drop is less for the same KH output.

I also have the effluent discharge directly into my algae bed, and I run a CO2 scrubber (can buy the media directly from Drager very cheaply - accidentally bought 24kg of the stuff - thought I was getting 3 bottles but it was 3 cases... lol). My house is very small, and I run the bathroom extraction fan 24/7 to vent the place. If the fan is turned off, despite window being open, the pH of the tank will drop by 0.2 very quickly, even more if we have guests.

Yes, as stated a few posts back that is what I did. But without using something like a masterflex pump, one is limited to how slow the effluent flow can be and remain stable.

 

[bubblemytip]

Yes, as stated a few posts back that is what I did. But without using something like a masterflex pump, one is limited to how slow the effluent flow can be and remain stable.

Ah, sorry. I really should read the whole thread. [emoji28]

I thought I remembered seeing you running a masterflex from following your build.

I use an IKS vario Blue 2 to control my effluent. Much cheaper than a masterflex but does the job. German made, continuous duty. KZ in Germany sells them on its website. Adjustable from 420ml to 4.2L per hour.

So I have my effluent on my 26-gallon nano at pH of 6.3 and 7ml/minute. Effluent dKH is approx 34. This maintains the tank at 8dKH.

I have another IKS for dosing kalkwasser from a 5-gallon bottle. Drips 1.5L over about 15 hours.

 

[d2mini]

Ah, sorry. I really should read the whole thread. [emoji28]

I thought I remembered seeing you running a masterflex from following your build.

I use an IKS vario Blue 2 to control my effluent. Much cheaper than a masterflex but does the job. German made, continuous duty. KZ in Germany sells them on its website. Adjustable from 420ml to 4.2L per hour.

So I have my effluent on my 26-gallon nano at pH of 6.3 and 7ml/minute. Effluent dKH is approx 34. This maintains the tank at 8dKH.

I have another IKS for dosing kalkwasser from a 5-gallon bottle. Drips 1.5L over about 15 hours.

yeah... that was my old build. Been avoiding it on this build because I don't really have the space for it in my stand. lol

I wonder if I can get one of those IKS pumps here in the states... you run it continuously?

 

[bubblemytip]

yeah... that was my old build. Been avoiding it on this build because I don't really have the space for it in my stand. lol

I wonder if I can get one of those IKS pumps here in the states... you run it continuously?

Yeah, continuously. They’re used successfully by several high-end zeovit tanks, including G. Alexander’s last one.

They are 230v, but if you can get around that, it should work. I am in New Zealand so didn’t have to worry about 230v. I think the motors inside them come in a 110v option from the manufacturer so you could potentially look into that. Photo of the motor below.

 

[Glassfish]

I was having problems with low ph due to my calcium reactor as well. To solve the problem I ran a 1/2" tube out my window and directly to the skimmer. Bit of mesh of the end to stop bug from crawling in. I also reset my calrx by turning the co2 off and letting it all dissipate then turning the co2 back on and slowly lowered the ph back down to 6.7ish. I run a slow drip rate with a gate value to prevent clogs. I think dropping the ph slowly and having a low effluent helps with the equilibrium in the reactor and you use less co2 so less is going in the tank. Just guessing though! With these simple and cheap steps my ph has gone up by at least .2

Hope this helps

 

[bubbaque]

How has the ph been, Dennis?

 

[d2mini]

How has the ph been, Dennis?

Doing well

 

[Clownfishy]

After installing my nice new Apex last night and calibrating the pH probe, I was shocked to learn my pH was sitting at 7.74 at 5:30pm. I had no idea my pH was so low. Worse still, it dropped to a low of 7.66 during the night but managed to increase 7.84 during the day. Needless to say, I have read all the posts in this thread and I a following along. I have opened my window slightly to see how this improves things. I did see the a lower temp "helps" pH comment but I already run my temp at a low of 24.4c (75.2f).
Looking at ways of routing my skimmer intake outside. Anyone routed their into their loft?

 

[Clownfishy]

After installing my nice new Apex last night and calibrating the pH probe, I was shocked to learn my pH was sitting at 7.74 at 5:30pm. I had no idea my pH was so low. Worse still, it dropped to a low of 7.66 during the night but managed to increase 7.84 during the day. Needless to say, I have read all the posts in this thread and I a following along. I have opened my window slightly to see how this improves things. I did see the a lower temp "helps" pH comment but I already run my temp at a low of 24.4c (75.2f).
Looking at ways of routing my skimmer intake outside. Anyone routed their into their loft?

Wow, opening the window makes a MASSIVE difference. As mentioned in my previous post, my night time pH drops to 7.66 and that I would test a night with the windows slightly open. Last night, with the windows slightly open, my pH rose to 7.96 which was higher than it reached during the previous day! The aquarium is in a small room and as the door into this room was closed all night, opening the window just slightly will let in quite a bit of air into a small space. What is interesting is in the morning, I opened the door to go in and feed the fish and left it open. Within 1 hour, the pH dropped to 7.92 as the C02 level from the rest of the house started to find its way in with the door left open. I am going to leave it like this for today and monitor the pH and then tomorrow, I am going to keep the door into the room closed and compare the pH levels. From what I have seen so far, I think I will end up leaving the door closed with the windows slightly open. This will be fine during the spring/summer month but before autumn/winter arrives here in the UK, I may look into running an airline from the skimmer into the loft. Why the loft? Well the house I live in is over 200 years old and the walls are 3 foot of solid stone so drilling through the walls is not really an option! Alternatively, I may have to drill through the window frame but the wife is not too happy about that!

In summary, I can confirm something we all know, letting in fresh air certainly lowers C02 levels.

 

[Clownfishy]

Here is a graphical view of the pH rise as soon as I closed the door to the room with the aquarium in it and the window open

 

[d2mini]

Well the house I live in is over 200 years old and the walls are 3 foot of solid stone

ok, that's just cool.
Houston, TX is barely half that old. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Well the house I live in is over 200 years old and the walls are 3 foot of solid stone so drilling through the walls is not really an option!

When your house was designed, they were more worried about barbarians at the wall than suffocating in your own carbon dioxide. lol

 

[Clownfishy]

When your house was designed, they were more worried about barbarians at the wall than suffocating in your own carbon dioxide. lol

I wish I could say my house was a 1/10th the size of that!!!! Actually, it is true that houses in them days were built to "breath" with ill fitting windows that let the air flow in and with an inglenook fireplace raging keeping the house warm and moving the air back out of the ill fitting windows and through the lime plaster and the lime pointing between the stone. I guess we have all sealed up our houses over the years trapping in the C02!

@d2mini, the US may not have the history the UK has but boy, you are blessed with some of the world's most stunning landscapes. Also, living in the world's most powerful country can't be that bad either!

By the way, if you think my house is old then you should consider our village church dates back to the 13th century and that the first church in this parish was built about AD 904!

 

[Clownfishy]

Getting back on topic! Yesterday was a windy day however today is not and I am not seeing a dramatic rise in pH that I did yesterday. Therefore I need to run some air tube up into the loft so I can continually pull the air into the skimmer. Is there a limit on the length of air tubing you can run before the skimmers performance is affected or does everyone run an oversized tube outside and then seal the air tubing from the skimmer to this?

By the way, this is the church today!

 

[Glassfish]

Getting back on topic! Yesterday was a windy day however today is not and I am not seeing a dramatic rise in pH that I did yesterday. Therefore I need to run some air tube up into the loft so I can continually pull the air into the skimmer. Is there a limit on the length of air tubing you can run before the skimmers performance is affected or does everyone run an oversized tube outside and then seal the air tubing from the skimmer to this?

By the way, this is the church today!

Yes I run a 1/2" line out my window so that the skimmer doesn't have any trouble drawing air. Seems to have solved my ph problem. I live in Canada so we have similar weather to the UK and the cracked window hasn't made my house cold.

 

[Clownfishy]

@Glassfish , many thanks i will order some wider airline tube today as I definitely need the skimmer drawing air directly from outside. I worked from home today in the same room as my aquarium and even with the window open slightly, my pH dropped. I did try not breathing while in the room but that did not work out too well!!!

 

[d2mini]

So I finally got the C02 scrubber installed. Tee'd into my skimmer venturi line, just sucking air from inside the stand.
It immediately raised my pH by more than 0.1, so my low has gone from 7.71 to 7.86 and my high has gone from 7.98 to 8.08.

I'll post pics later.