About ready to give up my "pH doesn't matter" mantra

[-Logzor]

So I'm thinking about more closely examining the pH in my aquarium. My first two aquarium were in my apartment, the windows in that place were barely enough to keep the rain out, in the winter, the inside would freeze over with 1/2" of ice. Needless to say, there was lots of fresh air always coming in.

It got to the point to where I just pulled my pH probe, my tanks there always did very well. I began to think that the pH didn't matter at all.

Now I'm in a house and the aquarium is in the basement, it's all much better sealed up than the apartment, the windows appear to be double-pane. Also keep in mind the furnace, water heater, and dryer (all GAS) are down there. That definitely has to have an impact.

Still I have no pH meter running, but that's going to change soon I think...

Stuff in my tank is doing OK but it's not thriving, some corals I'm having the hardest time coloring up. Pretty much all things are the same since the days back in the apartment, most of the same equipment, just a bigger tank (same parameters, bulb combo, light cycle, feeding, fish, amount of flow, etc). I used to have insanely good color and big juicy polyps on all the corals and pH is the last element that I haven't explored that could be different.

I have a 5g bucket of kalkwasser waiting, that will be added to my top off if my pH turns out to be really low.

Has anyone else had this problem where they move tanks to an area that caused a drastic drop in ph?

 

[Troylee]

You could hook your skimmer to a c02 scrubber it would help greatly.... I have always topped off with kalk and still can't keep my tank above 7.8 it's just where it runs... The only time I could get it up to 8.1 was when I used a buffer and it got expensive and I didn't notice any difference... Also didn't like adding all powder to my tank.. I dose enough crap...

 

[-Logzor]

You could hook your skimmer to a c02 scrubber it would help greatly.... I have always topped off with kalk and still can't keep my tank above 7.8 it's just where it runs... The only time I could get it up to 8.1 was when I used a buffer and it got expensive and I didn't notice any difference... Also didn't like adding all powder to my tank.. I dose enough crap...

The CO2 scrubber is a good idea, I'll first try kalk and then resort to that potentially. Throwing kalk in the topoff is easy enough. I remember just dumping a ton in and never measuring, as the water can only become so saturated...

I think the pH in the apt. got up high to the 8.6-8.7 range...

 

[maharsreef]

Buffer your top off water to 8.3 with Seachem. There is a thread on here somewhere about that.

 

[STL]

How much air does your skimmer inject? I couldn't get my pH consistently over 8 until recently - I upgraded to a new 180g system with a Hurricone Cat 2 skimmer. This tank has consistent 8.3 day / 8.1 night pH. The older tank still struggles to break 8 in the same room.

Other than water volume, the major differences that could contribute to pH between the two tanks is the 180g has that massive skimmer and a refugium (on opposite lighting schedule).

I'll note it's Florida "winter" here, so the house gets aired out just about every morning, so I expect I won't see the mythical 8.3 in the summer when opening the windows is not really an option.

Another idea might be to run an airline down to your skimmer from outside (or a better ventilated part of the house)

 

[-Logzor]

Not sure, I've never measured the air injection rate. Very interested that your skimmer made such a difference.

 

[-Logzor]

I also notice that my alkalinity 2-part solution always precipitates when it hits the water, is this a sign of low pH?

 

[SteveT]

I think if it is precipitating you have low mag. The precipitate being the Alk bonding to the Calc

 

[ksc]

ph

I haven't checked my ph in over 2 years. It is what it is. When the Kalk topoff couldn't keep my alk/ca up, I switched to 2 part using soda ash. PH was always above 8.

 

[-Logzor]

I think if it is precipitating you have low mag. The precipitate being the Alk bonding to the Calc

That's funny because my Mg keeps testing above 1300, when I have never dosed it in the new tank. I always had to dose Mg on a monthly basis, maybe my kit is bad?

 

[dakotasreef]

I'm with Troylee. My ph stays in the 7.8 range even dosing kalk and with my ca reactor. Now I did build a diy co2 scrubber and it brought my ph up to 8.1. I was never able to tell a difference in livestock so I stopped using it.

 

[-Logzor]

Shortly after starting this thread I began adding kalk to my top-off water (fully saturated). I got in my new pH meter about a week later. Calibrated using the 7 and 10 solutions from pinpoint. I think I might end up testing the probe with borax or another element to determine if it is indeed properly calibrated.

My tank pH ranges from 8.06 to 8.20 with the addition of kalk. I kind of wish I hadn't added kalk before the pH meter arrived, now I don't know what it was to begin with. Alkalinity went up from 165 (9.2 dkh) to 180 (10.08 dkh) using hanna meter, with the addition. Calcium seemed to be sable for the most part, showing a small drop.

So far I have noticed that some corals which had receding bases are now recovering lost territory. Most of my corals have had good growth on the tips and body, but the bases of the majority of them never grew, or they receded. Overall color and grow showing slight improvement, not enough that I would considered significant just yet. Coraline algae growth has taken off, while before it was almost non-existent.

Still a mystery it my forest-fire digi (all other montis show decent color/growth). Much of the coral is white with light colors polyps, all except for a small portion with exhibits great color and polyp extension. This has always been my 'canary in the coal mine' coral, usually indicating improper salinity or low magnesium, both of which appears to be on the money. I am suspecting the my Mg test kit is bad (salifert). In all my past aquariums, adding Mg on a regular basis was an absolute must, on this tank I haven't had to add it a single time, as it always consumes the entire Salifert syringe.

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

I was told by a few people in my reef club that if you take some air line and connect it to the airline on your skimmer and run the other end outside it will help with the ph becsuse the skimmer will be pulling the fresh air from outside instead of your basement air. Might be worth a try. I am gonna try this also because my 220g is also in my basement.

 

[-Logzor]

I was told by a few people in my reef club that if you take some air line and connect it to the airline on your skimmer and run the other end outside it will help with the ph becsuse the skimmer will be pulling the fresh air from outside instead of your basement air. Might be worth a try. I am gonna try this also because my 220g is also in my basement.

I could do this, but I'm concerned about what might be in the outside air. My driveway is right outside where the tank is, if a car were sitting there exhaust could get sucked directly into the water of my aquarium.