okay stumped

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swjunkie

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
331
Location
Rockford, IL.
alright I am trying to raise my ph. I premixed 2 gal. of water last night got evrything including ph where it needs to be. this morning got up and checked it and the ph has dropped again. I found a article on the net that said too much aeration can cause ph to drop. I had a powerhead in the bucket could that have caused it to drop?
 
no....ph is always lower in the morning after the lights have been off. Lack of surface agitation can cause it to drop. too much is not going to cause it to drop.
 
alright how can I get my ph up in my tank no matter what I do I will get it right and the 24 hours later it drops back down to 7.8. any ideas?
 
how much surface agitation is there? how well does the water move/churn at the top?
What are the rest of your test readings, especially the alk?
 
I have alot of surface movement I have a powerhead that I point upward and then the filter. the surface is always churning. I went and bought an alk. test yesterday and it took me 10 drops = to 5.0 meg/L. calcium I tested yesterday said 410 ppm.
 
I would suggest taking ph readings a few nights in a row, without any additives, and see what readings you get.
 
I had tested for about 5 days and no change. friday I added a little super buffer and it brought it up to 8.0 and then the next day it was back down again. I premixed some saltwater in a bucket and got all my levels where I need them to be and the same thing happened everything else stayed the same but ph dropped. confusing me royally
 
What salt are you using? Maybe the new SW is lowering your PH? I've heard people having low PH problem w/ some specific brand of salt
 
IME it depends on the lid you have. If you have a covered tank, there is not enough gas exchange. You could have all the surface agitation but not enough gas exchange. I used to have a lid and could not get my pH above 7.6/8. I removed the lid (when I upgraded my lights) and the pH jumped to around 8.2ish (I have trouble reading my pH test).
 
I am currently using IO. remember I switched to Oceanic for a while but I didnt see any difference and I didnt like the way it mixed. I have tried taking my hood completely off for about 4 days and tried another powerhead and nothinhg.
 
Hmmmm, can you get a pic of the whole tank?
 
okay I think I might have figured something out kind of silly but, when I take the tube and put it up against the card it shows 7.8 but when I take the tube and stand it up on the card and look down it shows 8.2 so I am gonna go by that reading. The fish and corals look great everything is exactly the same as when I posted a pic in the nano forum. I am not sure what the turnover rate is. How do I find that out? All other readings are great just where I need them. I just did a 20% water change I usually only do 10% but I did 20% today. As I said everything looks good shrooms are growing well. I did notice my cabbage leather perk up when I raised the calcium level to 410 from 380. I did that over about 5 days. I just wish they had a better color chart for PH because I think I might be a little color blind. LOL
 
That is what I wante to do today but something came up so now its on my to do list for tomorrow. I will let you know what they say.
 
I am not sure what the turnover rate is. How do I find that out?
Add up the water output of all your equipment -ie. power heads, filters, etc. in GPH and divide that by your tanks size in gallons. That will give you the turnover rate per hour for your tank.
 
went to lfs and they said that my ph was 8.1 so not as bad as what I thought. I will try to find out what the turnover is but I cant remember what the filter is. I know the powerhead is a 600.
 
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