Why is my pH low?

[Damsel13]

It's steady at about 8.0. Any suggestions please. Also I need a calcium test. Am using purple up as directed but need to test for calc. I know. The pH seems to remain constant throughout the day and night. Do have small fuge with cheato that is lit at night. There is lots of water turbulance from overflow to sump area. Thought would help.

Any ideas? Thank you,
Debbie

 

[mmkeeper]

Is your house closed up these days? I live in Elk Grove and I am dripping kalwasser nightly to keep mine up. Co2 from your appliances and people in your house can drop ph. How long have your lights been on when you test?

 

[DonW]

Low ph is usually high co2 or excess nutrients. Personally, if my tank were to stay 8.0 around the clock I would'nt worry about it.

Don

 

[Damsel13]

Is your house closed up these days? I live in Elk Grove and I am dripping kalwasser nightly to keep mine up. Co2 from your appliances and people in your house can drop ph.

How long have your lights been on when you test?

fuge lights on about 4hrs.

Debbie

 

[Krish]

I agree on the excess CO2 possibly being the culprit. If you ran the photoperiod over your fuge for more hours a day, it should bring it up some

 

[DonW]

fuge lights on about 4hrs.

Debbie

Doesnt matter how long your lights are on. Since there is no swing, lighting shouldnt be a issue.

Don

 

[Krish]

BTW, what test kit are you using? I remembered you are running a sand bed and some types of sand will/should automatically adjust and maintain proper ph around 8.3 for you so depending on the type of sand you are using from my understanding, your ph should be in check so it may be the test kit. Just a thought...

 

[4251cpd]

I'd lay off the purple up . If you want to dose calcium do it with a two part solution like B-ionic or C-balance. I know I'm gonna get flammed here but get yourself an AP test for KH/GH while your at it so we could also get a look your alkalinity situation. AP tests have been pretty accurate for me, the saliferts while accurate are extremely pricely and if your like me and need to take your socks off to count to twenty then you'll appreciate them. Wait till you test for your Ca levels.

If you want to test to see if CO2 is a problem, when you make up your sw for a water change test the pH after awhile its been mixing. Take two small cups of the mixed water put one outside and the other leave near the tank. Wait an hour and compare.

The best solution is test and do regular WC's. This will keep everything in balance.

 

[DonW]

I know I'm gonna get flammed here

Why would anyone flame you.

AP tests have been pretty accurate for me

Could you clarify how you determined the accuracy?

the saliferts while accurate are extremely pricely

You get what you pay for.

The best solution is test and do regular WC's. This will keep everything in balance

Keep in mind the salt needs to be balanced, most are not.


Don

 

[Sherman]

Another Californian here (central valley). My first thought was also CO2. The other potential culprit could be Calcium/Alkalinity/Magnesium. You desperately need to test for these, especially alkalinity. Without a test, you're shooting blind. I pay less than $12 for Salifert test kits, and I don't consider that expensive at all. They have a reputation for being the easiest, as well as the most accurate. This isn't an area I'm willing to cut corners.

Now back to the CO2. It's winter, heaters are kicking on, there's more home cooking, there's more time spent in the house. All of these things deplete oxygen and increase CO2. How old is your house? I live in a 4 year old house, and here in CA, they've perfected making homes hermetically sealed, it seems. I run a calcium reactor and dose 100% top off through a kalk reactor. I keep all levels as high as I dare, and I still have a problem with low pH (peaks around 8.02, and drops to 7.65 at night). However, if I brave the chilly air, and open up the slider that's right next to the tank, I've seen pH jump to 8.40 in one day! Now I run an air pump outside that's plumbed inside into the skimmer. It helps a little, but still can't make up for all the tank's surface agitation in the air tight house.

 

[Damsel13]

Thanks everyone

So if I am understanding correctly if there is more CO2 in the air that makes pH drop in the water? Why is this?

I live in a town house that was built in the '70's and it is definitly not airtight. In other words it's drafty and we keep some windows open as the temp. doesn't get lower than 48F at night. I am very new at testing water parameters and don't really understand the chemical complexites between the different things people test for.

I only have a salifert test kit for nitrates. Have been using a 5 in one test strip by (gulp) Jungle to test pH, Nitrite and Alkalinity. According to the test strips the alkalinity is ((ideal) according to the wording on the test) around 200 ppm. pH ((acceptable) again according to the wording) is aprox. 8.
Nitrites 0. Nitrates according to both salifert and test strip 30ppm. YES I KNOW IT'S HIGH .

Krish I do have a sand bed is a SSB now used to be DSB but was like 10 years old and I sucked most of it out. that along with adding refugium, macro algae new "live" live rock is how I got nitrates down from over 100ppm! Still only have 50lbs live rock but am getting more for Christmas. Found a place with really, really good rock and am looking foward to bringing that poundage up. I am using a small piece filter media to catch large stuff in water column and I change that every few days. There's some carbon I need to get out and change. Other than that biological filtration.

Oh and everybody I am using natural seawater trucked in from Scripps Institute of Oceanography to lfs at this time. Tested it and pH is higher than in tank?!

 

[DonW]

Based on the above I would just concentrate on getting a accurate way to measure ph before being concerned.

Don

 

[4251cpd]

DW, anywhere from 35-50 dollars out here for a salifert test. The standard for the AP is an upscale lfs in my area who if you buy a single snail will test all the parameters for nothing. They are using La Motte, if I remember correctly.

Sherm, beautiful photography.

Damsel, what I really am concerned with is adding more rock if you haven't cured it yet. If you have any livestock in the tank you run a risk of cycling the tank all over again, probably killing everything in the process. You can cure it in a seperate bucket with no lighting, just a small powerhead and small heater doing small water changes daily and let if safely cycle. JMHO.

 

[DonW]

DW, anywhere from 35-50 dollars out here for a salifert test.

Alot of them here are that high to. Most of us dont pay near that much over the internet. Premium Aquatics is a good dealer at not even close to that price.

Don

 

[Damsel13]

Good info 4215 and Don. Yes, the rock is really fresh when it comes in however they have a very good setup for curing with different 'ponds' for different lengths of time rock has been there. I watch when they get what I want in and let them cure it in the store for a couple of weeks at least. Only drawback is I sometimes can't get the exact pieces I want. So I may do as you suggest and cure at home.


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[NaH2O]

Sorry to butt in so late, but I didn't see this article linked: Low pH: Causes and Cures by Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[krisfal]

IMO and IME I would get a Salifert test kit for ph before stressing too much on the low ph. I bought a both Salifert ph and nitrate test kits about a month ago and got different results than I was getting with the AP test kit I originally had. I had been trying to solve low ph (8.0) and resting easy with nitrates testing at 0 using the AP kit. However when I switched to Salifert my ph tested at 8.3 and my nitrates in one tank were over 50. The AP test had shown all three tanks were at 0 nitrates but the Salifert showed over 50 in one, 10 in another, and 0 in the other. While I have nothing other than the experience and opinions of others on this forum to back up the accuracy of the Salifert kits I feel they are easier to read and use. When I started to do weekly water changes along with a turkey baster to blast the gunk out of the live rock I could see that the tank that tested high for nitrates had an eccesive amount of waste material and I have since reduced the feeding to try to control this problem.