Having trouble keeping PH above 7.8

T

Terrapin

New member
I have a 28G nano cube. I do 5G water changes once a week. I make my own salt water currently with Reef Crystals. I have used Tropic Marin in the past and had the same results. I have an RO/DI filter and I get the water to 0 PPM. I mix the salt in a 20G Brute with a heater and a circulation pump. I generally go for 1.023 for the salinity. After about 24 hours I will test the PH (I have a Hanna digital meter) and it is at 7.8. I then add Seachem marine buffer and bring the PH up to 8.3. The water will stay at 8.3 for only about a day for so then it lowers back to 7.8. This is before I do the water change on my tank. Usually I do the water change when the mix water is at a PH of 8.3. It seems no matter how much buffer I use in my mix water eventually it lowers to a PH of 7.8. I've dealt with this for about a year now. So, on average my tank stays at a PH of 7.8. Everything is doing great in the tank other then a bit a red cyano which I think is due to the lower PH? Any thoughts, comments, ideas???? Thanks!
 
If you have your windows closed constantly in your house, that will cause PH to remain low. Keeping the windows closed causes co2 in your house to rise and that is what keeps PH low. Crack a window and test again after a few hours. I bet the ph rises.
 
Had the same problem but my PH would not go over 8 and drop to 7.6 at night and this was with a hose sucking air from the outside to my skimmer. Now my ph is a little higher due to dosing alk which rises my ph a bit so I'm at an average 8.05. I had this problem for like 3 years with all of my tanks.
 
If you are running a skimmer, you can also add a CO2 scrubber to the air intake on the skimmer which will help your PH.
 
cdx media on the skimmer intake does wonders, i've never personally had an issue with it being low, is your alk high enough to buffer well?
 
Make sure your testing your alk. Ive tryed chasing my ph before by adding the kent dkh buffer and it crashed my tank from to high of alk.
 
If you are using an ATO, try putting a little kalk in the top off container. I will help increase/ stabilize the PH. 1 TSP for 4 gal of ATO water to start unless you are dosing 2 part for kdh and Cal currently. Then you could increase the kalk slowly and potentially reduce the 2 part. Read read read on Kalk dosing first though.
 
Siebo said:
If you are using an ATO, try putting a little kalk in the top off container. I will help increase/ stabilize the PH. 1 TSP for 4 gal to start unless you are dosing 2 part for kdh and Cal currently. Then you could increase the kalk slowly and potentially reduce the 2 part. Read read read on Kalk dosing first though.
Click to expand...

and dont mistake teaspoon for table spoon:D
 
Ive heard alot of people with ph of 7.8 i honestly dont test mine i just keep alk and calcium stabile and tank runs fine. I dose soda ash for alk and been told that helps the ph . But again i havent test ph in years. Sometimes a little low but stabile is better then the swings up and down from trying to raise . The swings maybe causeing some of your issues . But maybe im wrong also good luck man i know its harder to keep smaller tanks stabile then it is larger
 
Siebo said:
If you are using an ATO, try putting a little kalk in the top off container. I will help increase/ stabilize the PH. 1 TSP for 4 gal to start unless you are dosing 2 part for kdh and Cal currently. Then you could increase the kalk slowly and potentially reduce the 2 part. Read read read on Kalk dosing first though.
Click to expand...

1tsp for 4 gal of ATO water or per 4 gal of system water?


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I don't test my pH either. if your alk/mag/cal are fine, then your pH should technically be fine, unless you need more oxygen in your house. In which case, just crack open a window by the tank.
Some people have crashed their tank trying to chase the pH. if your tank looks fine and parameters are fine, don't worry about it. pH 7.8 isn't bad.
 
don't worry about ph unless its high. your just wasting you time and money chasing 8.3. I got a brand new bag of soda lime for you if you want to try. ill trade for coral.
 
Experiencing the same thing here, since closed window season hit.
I don't let it bother me.
I use pickling lime to keep things stable here.
 
Thanks for the info! I think you all pointed me in the right direction. I think I'm going to try messing with kalk dosing or play with some pickling lime.
 
I use cooked baking soda insted of kalk it is cheap to make a gallon and you can always find baking soda
 
my ph runs 7.7 to 7.8 in the winter if mg, ca, and all are in line don't worry, really anything from 7-10 is good, if ph is high its harder to keep alk in line on my setup. I use kalkreactor and calcium reactor, I'm old and the 2 parts didn't exist when i started reefing so thats what I'm accustomed to ... but really don't worry your ph is fine...
 
kalk will replenish both alk, cal, and mag. while dosing just baking soda will only raise the alk. you need to supplement the cal, mag once in a while.
 
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