Best way to raise PH to 8.4-8.6
- Thread starter jmp21677
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There really isnt one. Having your lights on is what keeps your PH high. Dosing alkalinity and kalkawasser will raise PH temporaly, but if you keep adding them youll throw your tank into chemical imbalance as you begin to far exceed the amount being used by your tank. All PH "buffers" work by boosting ALK, and they are all only temporary, as far as I know.
Not sure if you should even attempt to boost your pH that far. Also, I've not read anything about high ph helping to combat algae issues, though I have read about raising Alk or Mg helping to combat algae issues.
roscoe
Well-known member
Man Joe that sucks man! You got one problem after another. Wish I have some answers for ya. I'm sure those that knows all about this hobby will help.
I'm pretty sure this has been an ongoing thing. I don't even know what has started it. No new rock, I didn't remove any sandbeds. The only thing I did was move into a different tank and I used about 75% of my old water. I'm glad you have the corals for me that you do because I have lost about all my sps. LPS seem to be doing fine as are my clams.
The same thing happened to me =( I lost about 90% of my SPS, all of my snails, all of my shrimp, and my grazing fish were begging to succumb to some sort of poison associated with consuming the dinflagelettes. Both my mandarin goby and my helfrichi firefish began swimming around upsidedown in an erradict fashion. I moved both of them to my fuge where there was much fewer dino's, and the mandarin managed to survive, but the helfrichi died. The stuff is poison, you want it out of your tank.
The Apprentice
Well-known member
Joe do some testing
Good morning Joe I don't know a whole lot about your tank but if your dealing with allot of Algae its is probably due to a elevated level of phosphate, How big is your tank? How many fish do you have in it? How frequent do feed them? How often do you preform 20% water changes every 14 days? When was the last time you changed out your light bulbs for newer ones? How good of a protein skimmer do you have?
I hope this will help you get jump started on thinking on how this could be happening. Good luck it seem once this stuff starts its real tough to kick.
Good morning Joe I don't know a whole lot about your tank but if your dealing with allot of Algae its is probably due to a elevated level of phosphate, How big is your tank? How many fish do you have in it? How frequent do feed them? How often do you preform 20% water changes every 14 days? When was the last time you changed out your light bulbs for newer ones? How good of a protein skimmer do you have?
I hope this will help you get jump started on thinking on how this could be happening. Good luck it seem once this stuff starts its real tough to kick.
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
I really never bother measuring PH. Many coral farmer friends of mine say the same, that they monitor Alk, Ca , Mg, and temp. Be that as it may, the easiest way without just dosing it up is with Kalk/
As to algae, it has to have food and grow faster than consumed by grazers. You probably have a nutrient reserve built up and too small of a cleaner crew. I have 10 emerald crabs in my little tank besides the other algae eaters.
As to algae, it has to have food and grow faster than consumed by grazers. You probably have a nutrient reserve built up and too small of a cleaner crew. I have 10 emerald crabs in my little tank besides the other algae eaters.
IT's a 40 gallon breeder, Deltec mc600 protein skimmer, Lights were changed out about 5 months ago (both mh and t-5) I do water changes atleast every 2 weeks. My RO unit recently broke but I was haveing problems before that. Like I said I never had problems with the same bio load until I moved into a slightly bigger tank. I have about 30 or snails and about 50-100 hermits. One emerald crab
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Sand in the tank?
How many pounds of rock?
How many pounds of rock?
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
Oh crap, that gooey stuff sucks! Been there, 5-10 years back. It thrives on nutrients, and if having trouble keeping the PH up, probably your basic problem. The only success I had was to scrub with a brush, rinse, followed by back into the tank with a refugium. It eventually died off and never came back. PH and Mg treatments are fairly hit and miss.
If you want to try keeping the PH higher, set up a Kalk drip. See what happens
If you want to try keeping the PH higher, set up a Kalk drip. See what happens
Is it snotty looking stuff that seems to die off at night? In the morning, it looks much better and after several hours of light, it's worse? Have you had snails dieing off lately, or appearing lethargic? If so, it's probably Dinoflagellates. If it is, it's a SCURGE!!! However, your original question about raising pH now seems justified, as raising pH IS the most successful way of combating this. I believe I have it in my 40 breeder frag tank as well. Here's a link that you might find useful.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
If it is dinos and starting to sound like it, Kalk is your best plan. Works better than about anything due to simplicity and stability. Watch out for any alk spike if have SPS or clams in there
Herefishyfishy
Smart Bass
You can always add a fan
Look into using a Kalk Slurry instead. Then you Kalk dosing isn't dependent on your evap rate.
