Trying not to chase PH but concerned

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My alk is about 10 dKh. I will test again tonight but all my parameters have been quite stable. I do see some growth but slow. I have more sps than lps. I’ve gone through the article and still not really sure what to do, not really doing anything at the moment just watching it. I have an old house and it’s just me and my two dogs. Maybe I’ll get some more house plants, lol. Have chaeto in the sump. Any other macro algae good at co2 removal?

Yours isn’t low enough to be a big issue and the decline over days may be measurement calibration drift. More fresh air to the tank is often the best solution.

 

[MrObscura]

You base that general advice on what? If the pH hit 7.5 at the nightly low, you’d think that is ok? I wouldn’t. Your coral skeletons will be slowly dissolving.

Don't the vast majority of tanks naturally stay above that? I thought it requires very specific circumstances for Ph to actually drop that low.

I'm a noob and don't know much but it seems most people have no reason reason to concern themselves over Ph.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Don't the vast majority of tanks naturally stay above that? I thought it requires very specific circumstances for Ph to actually drop that low.

I'm a noob and don't know much but it seems most people have no reason reason to concern themselves over Ph.

Most do. A few do not, and that happens when CO2 in the home air is very high.

 

[Cory]

How low is too low? I'm questioning my Apex probe though, even though its only a few months old and i've calibrated it several times.

Thats why i like a liquid ph test to double check. Stray current and voltage (electricity) can interfere with them.

 

[Ernie C]

I recalibrated with Neptune solutions as Instructed but no change. I temporarily ran some flexible tubing from the skimmer out a window to see the effect over a few days. The tubing is narrow but the skimmer is working normally so I’m hoping it’s actually getting the air from the outside. If that makes a significant difference I have thoughts of a possible way to run outside air permanently. (Challenging but possible) How soon should I notice a difference? I’m also going to see about getting larger tubing just in case this tubing is restrictive. Regarding the liquid test, the salifert seems to indicate slightly higher ph than the probe but I feel the color thing is a bit difficult to interpret and it’s more of a guess.

 

[ckalupa]

When I change my media in my co2 reactor I notice a change back upwards in about 12 hours.

 

[Mical]

Have you checked for an ammonia spike? Over feeding (rotting food), fish waste or fish die off will send PH low. I don't normally chase PH but when I see a drop below 7.9 something (as mentioned above) CO, etc is triggering.

 

[Ernie C]

So after about 24 hours with outside air the ph is a bit higher than the high of last two days. Went from 7.8 to 8. I’m still questioning the probe. I tried my salifert ph and an API test and both show it as higher. Could the probe be off even if it read the calibration solution of 10 correctly? I’m still going to start planning a permanent solution to use outside air into the skimmer though as that seems like a good long term solution in any case.

 

[beaslbob]

By the way - an add-on to anyone reading this that's new to Apex pH probe calibration (or pH probe calibration in general). It's never a bad idea to check your calibration by putting it back into the temp-equilibrated pH 10 buffer after your finish the calibration. Kind of obviously, it should read 10 +/- 0.02. If not, your probe may need cleaning, or replacing (I personally clean my probes in 0.1N HCl, but there are other cleaning solutions sold for the purpose). In the laboratory, pH meters generally report something called a "slope", which is the change in millivolt readings for a given pH change. Most meters will report this as a percentage of the theoretical value, and a "good" slope percentage is generally taken as 100% +/- 5%.

I've never tried it, but I assume that the millivolt reading that the Apex reports for a particular calibration buffer could be written down, and a slope calculated and compared to the theoretical value. Anyone ever tried this?

FWIW the +- 2% or 5% or whatever is always from full scale reading. For instance, if your volt meter is 2% accurate and the max voltage reading in 100v. The measurement is +-2v. Which is kinda useless when checking out your 1.5v battery. And why you have to use the 2000 mv scale.


What 2% of a pH meter is only confuses me. especially with pH being a log.

my .02

 

[BeejReef]

So after about 24 hours with outside air the ph is a bit higher than the high of last two days. Went from 7.8 to 8. I’m still questioning the probe. I tried my salifert ph and an API test and both show it as higher. Could the probe be off even if it read the calibration solution of 10 correctly? I’m still going to start planning a permanent solution to use outside air into the skimmer though as that seems like a good long term solution in any case.

8.1876.... obviously

 

[Dkeller_nc]

FWIW the +- 2% or 5% or whatever is always from full scale reading. For instance, if your volt meter is 2% accurate and the max voltage reading in 100v. The measurement is +-2v. Which is kinda useless when checking out your 1.5v battery. And why you have to use the 2000 mv scale.


What 2% of a pH meter is only confuses me. especially with pH being a log.

my .02

"Slope", when referencing pH meters, means something a bit different than what you're talking about. In the case of pH measurement, there's a theoretical value of change-in-millivolts across a specific kind of junction for a given pH change (or more accurately, a given hydrogen ion change). The "percent slope" value from a typical pH meter is reporting whether the millivolt change per pH change matches the theoretical value, given in percent. So if your particular probe, meter and calibration buffer set yields a value of 95, that means that your setup is yielding a slope of 95% of the theoretical value. So it's not quite right to interpret that as your measured pH has an accuracy of +/- 5%; it could, in fact, be extremely accurate at one of the pH buffer points (well under +/- 5%).

 

[Ernie C]

So was able to run permanent tubing from outside into the skimmer. Don’t see a crazy difference in ph while I was testing it out but figured it was worth the trouble. Ph now doesn’t go below 7.9 overnight. Before it was going down to 7.7/7.6 at its lowest.

 

[Ernie C]

Update. now that i have the skimmer with air intake from outside, still only see minimal increase. Max is 8.09 and min is 7.9 if i dose kalk through out the night and 7.75 if i don't.

 

[Ernie C]

Most all water parameters are stable, 8 dKh, cal 430 mag at 1400, but Ph is staying between 7.9 and 8.0. Still not looking to do anything drastic to raise PH but not sure why it doesn’t climb any higher closer to 8.3?

I am currently dosing kalk during lights off to maintain alk and calcium and to help keep ph at 7.9 and above. Would dosing 2 part (b-ionic) have a greater impact on ph? I bought some but have never used it.

 

[Hitman]

Most all water parameters are stable, 8 dKh, cal 430 mag at 1400, but Ph is staying between 7.9 and 8.0. Still not looking to do anything drastic to raise PH but not sure why it doesn’t climb any higher closer to 8.3?

I am currently dosing kalk during lights off to maintain alk and calcium and to help keep ph at 7.9 and above. Would dosing 2 part (b-ionic) have a greater impact on ph? I bought some but have never used it.

I love b-ionic and use it myself. It’s one of the strongest out there. You will dose half as much as most other brands and about 1/3 as much as the BRS stuff. What are you dosing now for Alk Soda Ash or Bicarbonate? B-ionic is soda ash and will raise the ph so be careful switching over to b-ionic

 

[Ernie C]

I love b-ionic and use it myself. It’s one of the strongest out there. You will dose half as much as most other brands and about 1/3 as much as the BRS stuff. What are you dosing now for Alk Soda Ash or Bicarbonate? B-ionic is soda ash and will raise the ph so be careful switching over to b-ionic

I’m just dosing kalk overnight hourly to keep my alk at 8kdh and cal at around 430.

 

[Ernie C]

I love b-ionic and use it myself. It’s one of the strongest out there. You will dose half as much as most other brands and about 1/3 as much as the BRS stuff. What are you dosing now for Alk Soda Ash or Bicarbonate? B-ionic is soda ash and will raise the ph so be careful switching over to b-ionic

Based on b-ionic dosing instructions I would dose 20 ml a day based on my water volume. Would I do that in one shot staggering each part over 30 minutes? I could stop the kalk and try doing the b-ionic for a week and see how the ph reacts I guess but don’t see how one dose of 20 ml would raise ph over the course of the entire day or will it?

I have 93 gallon system with small mixed corals mostly sps frags and a few lps. Not sure what my demand is but so far the kalk keeps the alk and cal stable.

 

[Hitman]

B-ionic is 1ml per 6 gallons to start a baseline dose. I dose 48ml of each daily split up over 24 hours ( 2ml per hour ) in a heavily stocked mix reef 240 display with a 90 gallon sump. To me 20ml in your 98 gallon system seems pretty darn close if heavily stocked with corals. I would split the 20 ml up over 2 doses approximately 4 hours apart just to prevent a spike and a hour after the first 10 ml dose do a test just to double check your levels. Then set your doser accordingly.