Will an air pump increase PH

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you have the ability to get house plants? Sounds crazy I know, and some will say you need a ton for it to work. But I did some research on best plants to remove CO2 and snake plants Winn by a mile. So I have 5 in the room with my tank, no scrubber ( I have one, just no need to hook it up so far) and my skimmer pulls from the house not from outside. My PH is now staying steady at 8.3

Yes, you need a ton and a few will be insignificant.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I am just now having a similar issue. 75 gallon FOWLR with Chaeto in the display tank, two filter socks. No powerheads. Right now all I have is an API test kit, believe me I know the issues with that. I am purchasing two Hanna testers on the 11th along with a skimmer. Anyway my PH seems to be between a 7.8 and 7.9 where as since I established this tank 3 months ago, so yes still new, I have not had any issues with my ph. Only thing that has changed is I added 3 new fish( a bonded pair of clowns, and a single clown who is tiny),5 nassarius snails, and 4 small hermits on the 4th. Original occupants consist of 1 clown, 1 damsel, 1 chromis, 7 turbos, 1 halloween hermit, 1 emerald crab. I can open my front door into the entry where my tank is and also create a cross breeze by opening my back door which is directly across from the front door. So I can get fresh air. So that being said should I place my return jets to create more turbulence on the water or make less turbulence?

You cannot know if the nightly low oh will come up with more aeration without somehow testing it in the tank, with an aeration test in a cup of tank water, or with an accurate CO2 meter and pH reading.

More aeration may also lower the daily pH high.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’ve tested ph once in the last 10 years and probably 3 times in the last 20+ years. Is this setting that people pay attention to because it’s causing a noticeable issue?

Maybe I’m just in environments where things naturally are fine and I never needed to worry about it. My algae scrubber also causes a natural ph increase so maybe that’s keeping me in the safe zone

Many people and tests suggests corals grow faster at higher pH.

If your corals would grow twice as fast at higher pH, you’d never know it without trying it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have often thought that increasing aeration when the air is full of C02 would have an additional negative effect on pH as more C02 is injected into the water but I have no idea if that would be the case.

It is.

 

[danimal1211]

Just curious how many lbs. of live rock and sand are in the OPs tank?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Just curious how many lbs. of live rock and sand are in the OPs tank?

Does that relate to the pH issues, or are you asking for another reason?

 

[danimal1211]

PH possibly, especially in a younger unestablished system where photosynthesis might not yet counter the buffering of aragonite, could that have a lowering effect on PH?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

PH possibly, especially in a younger unestablished system where photosynthesis might not yet counter the buffering of aragonite, could that have a lowering effect on PH?

Aragonite cannot dissolve in seawater to provide any buffering unless the pH is below about 7.7, but when it does dissolve, the effect is to raise the pH (and add alkalinity).