Raising PH with Limewater

Cory · Apr 11, 2020

Huskymaniac said:
I think it may. I guess the more I can de-gas the effluent the higher the PH will be. A larger skimmer with higher output technically would be pulling in more air and more turnover. I am curious to see if the this is the best improvement I can get or if it will get better over a few days.

Im also thinking slower flow through the skimmer would work. Keeping it in longer.

sarcophytonIndy · Apr 11, 2020

Huskymaniac said:
@Randy Holmes-Farley what would cause PH values to not change when dosing fully saturated kalk via a doser over a 24 hour period. Trying to solve a low night PH issue as its been going down into the 7.6 range and even hit 7.58 the other day. Am I better off dripping it at night instead? Right now at I am using a cal reactor which I think is the reason for the low PH. Cal is 500 and alk is 8.8DKH and PH is 8 at peak and 7.6ish at low.

A good way to balance ph swings is to use strong lighting on your fuge/sump on a schedule opposite to your display tank, so when your display tank lighting is off, your fuge lighting is on.

Huskymaniac · Apr 11, 2020

Cory said:
Im also thinking slower flow through the skimmer would work. Keeping it in longer.

It may be counter productive since it would be pulling in less water also.

Cory · Apr 11, 2020

Huskymaniac said:
It may be counter productive since it would be pulling in less water also.

Yes i agree. Not sure what to do in this case. Maybe make a reaction chamber that bubbles the effluent before entering the skimmer, then exits into the skimmer as a final polishing. Or just a bigger skimmer would likely work. Id be curious to see what your daytime ph get to now.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 11, 2020

Trial and error of different aeration schemes is a good plan. Luckily, pH gives good feedback.

Huskymaniac · Apr 11, 2020

Cory said:
Yes i agree. Not sure what to do in this case. Maybe make a reaction chamber that bubbles the effluent before entering the skimmer, then exits into the skimmer as a final polishing. Or just a bigger skimmer would likely work. Id be curious to see what your daytime ph get to now.

PH topped off at at 8.18 instead of 8. Let's see what happens overnight.

Huskymaniac · Apr 12, 2020

Something I didn't account for was the increase in PH and alk demand. Although I got the ph up my ALK dropped to 7.8 which is fine but I may need to tune up the reactor a tad to keep the level stable. Its like a yoyo.

drawman · Apr 12, 2020

Huskymaniac said:
Something I didn't account for was the increase in PH and alk demand. Although I got the ph up my ALK dropped to 7.8 which is fine but I may need to tune up the reactor a tad to keep the level stable. Its like a yoyo.

Better problem to have for sure. So the only thing you've done differently is have your skimmer offgas your effluent? I'm just curious because I'm following for a low pH as well but don't run a CaRx.

Huskymaniac · Apr 12, 2020

drawman said:
Better problem to have for sure. So the only thing you've done differently is have your skimmer offgas your effluent? I'm just curious because I'm following for a low pH as well but don't run a CaRx.

Yea. Just dropped the effluent line in the protein skimmer to offgas the co2.