PH & ALK Problems

[CHEMCHEF]

Every couple of months when everything seems to be going fine.... Kabloooie!!!! Something goes wrong with my params.
I recently purchased, calibrated and hooked up a PH monitor.
Testing my ph with a test kit was begining to get old, and didnt seem accurate. It always, by color, seemed to be in range.
When I hooked up a ph monitor it read 7.5. I tested my alk and it was 10.5
I then started messing with 2 part figuring if I added alk and cal I could raise the ph without getting the alk out of control. Well i was wrong. By the time i got the ph up to 8.0 my alk was 13.
I changed 25 out of 44 gallons yesterday to try and get things in line.
So I guess what I need to know is how to get my ph to 8.3 without raising my alk.
Params as of now using the new red sea kits
PH 8.0
Alk 9.5
Cal 470
Mg. 1450
N03 1-2
Phosphates ??? dont really care. They seem to be in check by the frequency that I clean the glass.. Once every two weeks or so.
I also had cheato dying in my fuge from lack of light... Will this have an effect on corals?

 

[DrAsTiC]

Is there anyway you can take the air intake of your skimmer and run it out side?

 

[Arati]

increase the surface agitation and airflow over the water surface. take off the glass top.

keep the sump lite on when the tank lite if off.

or what i do with is drip brightwell 8.3 instead or dosing alk. it raises alk but buffers ph at 8.3. how do you dose now?

here is thing if you are doing PH just for the sake of PH you will go mad. just let ph be its not worth testing. . unless you are doing to avoid overdosing or to monitor a calc reactor.


disolved organics are not good for coral.


how often do you do wc? it a 44gallon? sorry im not sure your system?

 

[CHEMCHEF]

Is there anyway you can take the air intake of your skimmer and run it out side?

I did this Monday evening.
No change yet.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

increase the surface agitation and airflow over the water surface. take off the glass top.
Running a vortech mp10 60% It's an open top tank

keep the sump lite on when the tank lite if off.
I do this inconsistently

or what i do with is drip brightwell 8.3 instead or dosing alk. it raises alk but buffers ph at 8.3. how do you dose now?
I was topping off with kalk. I stopped this week to try and get everything stable. Will probably go back with a lower dose

here is thing if you are doing PH just for the sake of PH you will go mad. just let ph be its not worth testing. . unless you are doing to avoid overdosing or to monitor a calc reactor.
Yea I'm a little focused on the 8.3 maybe too much so


disolved organics are not good for coral.
I took all the cheato out today


how often do you do wc? it a 44gallon? sorry im not sure your system?

It's 44 gallons total water volume. I usually change 5 gal a week. I did 25 just to try and level things out.

 

[garys reef]

it will take a few days by running the airline outside i agree that not to worry so much about ph mine rises and lowers and i have tried everything the only thing that has helped is dosing kalk but my corals and fish are all doing great i and alot of other guys try to make things to perfect DONT WORRY

 

[Arati]

i doubt you need to dose much to keep the balance if you do 5g a week. still dripping some kind of alk helps. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rhf/feature/index.php

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/5/chemistry

http://web.archive.org/web/20030618...twork.com/fish2/aqfm/1999/aug/bio/default.asp


http://web.archive.org/web/20030418...twork.com/fish2/aqfm/1999/oct/bio/default.asp

 

[duke62]

All your par seem fine. Dont worry about 8.0 . Keeping it stable is all that matters. 7.8 to 8.3 is fine bro

 

[Boomer]

Chem

I then started messing with 2 part figuring if I added alk and cal I could raise the ph without getting the alk out of control. Well i was wrong. By the time i got the ph up to 8.0 my alk was 13.

Yup, when CO2 enters the system it makes no difference what the Alk is the CO2 will drop the pH. The only way to correct CO2 issues, other than venting out the CO2 air in the room, is to use kalk or sodium hydroxide drip. I will add there is one other CO2 issue that can do this. That is things breaking down in the tank producing CO2. When this is the case just good surface agitation will cure it. And if said surface agitation doe not then it is high room air CO2. And opening windows and using a fan to blow out room air will raise the pH. Based on this >

Alk 9.5, your pH should be = ~ 8.34

Good advice by Arati

 

[CHEMCHEF]

Thank you for all advice and reference links.
Ph seems to be stable for the past 3 days at 8.1 without supplement of any kind.
I hope running the skimmer airline outside has helped.
I also have a feeling that my coral problems may have been also due to a coral beauty picking. I caught it going to town on an acan today.

 

[mbg75]

Damn buddy. Hang in there. Don't make yourself crazy chasing "ideal" numbers Once you get it all dialed in try not to change to many things at once.

 

[Bikeboss11]

The airline tube should do you jus fine if not open the windows in the house and ventilate to room..... I feel you in the coral beauty, my flame angel has a sweet tooth for my Acans also.... Good luck

 

[ducati335i]

Check your phosphates just in case.. They def prevent corals from growing .. No idea on the changes though

 

[Jakef150]

For PH:

Sodalime!!!!! It works awesome for me.

I hooked skimmer airline to Top of gatorado bottle . Just drilled 1/8 holes bottom of gatorado with half of soda lime.

It will sucking air from bottom thru sodalime to skimmer

It raises ph , not much.. Maybe .6 - .8

Jake

 

[Boomer]

Yup, granular kalk, what soda lime is, works great for that as long as the cost doesn't get out of hand. There are a few reef companies that sell it now, like thefilterguys and TLF. Many local dive shops have it also o or online from other places.