PH conroll

[hickscg]

hey everyone i am new to the hobby amd i have a couple question that im sure some of you will have some answers. it seems that i am having a tuff time regulating my phwhat is the best method for raising and lowering ph in a safe manor i dont want to shock the fish or corals. right now im at about 8.0 or 7.9 how should i go about lowering it?

 

[roka64]

Stability is better than perfect. If it swings that low you should be good.
How old is your tank?
What kind of top/lid/canopy do you have?
Keep in mind pH will swing, being higher during the lighting hours and lower during the dark hours. Try to take your readings the same time each day.

 

[hickscg]

ph controll

i just have plexiglass top with about a 3 inh gap i the front and on top of that a 6bulb t5 fixture no canopy really how much does the ph usually fluctuate what is bad and what is good

 

[roka64]

You don't want it to fluctuate any more than 2 or higher.
How old is your tank?

 

[hickscg]

its been going for about 8 9 months now

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

.... right now im at about 8.0 or 7.9 how should i go about lowering it?

You don't want it lower. You want it between 8.0 and 8.4 roughly. A 0.2 swing in pH is fairly typically between morning and evening.

 

[blindskate]

i have this stuff called "perfect ph" you simply open a package and pour it in your tank and in about 2 hours..it made my ph perfect and it has been perfect ever since. you could try that. its in a pink and yellow package

 

[roka64]

I tried the buffering thing but, for me, it got to be a pain. Mine was too low, so I adjusted my ph to make more surface ripple and it stays balanced out. That plexiglass is probably causing your pH to be lower. I used to have a lid but could not get my pH up, so I took off the hood and did the ph adjustment, and all is well. I know there are folks that use the pH buffereing stuff with great success, but I am not a big fan of adding things to my tank.....I kinda take the all natural approach.

 

[pitt420dude]

Almost every single time I see PH mentioned in a thread, people say not to do a thing with it.

From what I've heard, KH and PH are related, and so long as your kH is stable, you can pretty much ignore pH. Trying to alter it could result in more trouble, hassle, and cost than the benefit of having it where you want would be worth.

So to repeat what others have said: Don't mess with it!

In other words: "Love the (ph) you're with!"

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Almost every single time I see PH mentioned in a thread, people say not to do a thing with it.

From what I've heard, KH and PH are related, and so long as your kH is stable, you can pretty much ignore pH. ..

I wouldn't say that at all. It may be true with freshwater, but I don't do fw so I don't have a clue there.

Stable alkalinity is good, but it can be too high or too low. Just because your alkalinity is stable doesn't mean it's good. If you have a alkalinity between 8-12 dKh, then you should have stable pH... regardless of what the number is. While not accurate, you can think of alkalinity as a pH 'reserve'... more alkalinity will allow your pH to resist its normal tendency to drop.

But if your pH is below 7.8 or so (even if you alkalinity is stable), you might want to figure out why that is. If you're not seeing any ill effects, then it's probably better to just leave it alone. But there's an underlying reason why it's low, and if you CAN fix it, you probably should.

 

[pitt420dude]

I wouldn't say that at all. It may be true with freshwater, but I don't do fw so I don't have a clue there.

Stable alkalinity is good, but it can be too high or too low. Just because your alkalinity is stable doesn't mean it's good. If you have a alkalinity between 8-12 dKh, then you should have stable pH... regardless of what the number is. While not accurate, you can think of alkalinity as a pH 'reserve'... more alkalinity will allow your pH to resist its normal tendency to drop.

But if your pH is below 7.8 or so (even if you alkalinity is stable), you might want to figure out why that is. If you're not seeing any ill effects, then it's probably better to just leave it alone. But there's an underlying reason why it's low, and if you CAN fix it, you probably should.

I don't want to de-rail the thread, but since it's asking about pH I suppose it is on topic and useful to the OP as well.

I do have a FW tank. I have a kh and gH test kit. The way they work is you keep adding drops until you see a color change, and then multiply the number of drops by 20 or 10, I forget which is for which.

Either way, I usually see the color on the first or second drop of kH, which means it is VERY low, and I usually have a gH (which is also alkalinity right?) of around 280-300 which is VERY Hard.

From what I understand, if your kH is high it means you have a high buffering capacity (whatever that means) and you won't see pH shifts, even from CO2 injection (which is supposed to bring your CO2 down by 1 point). However, at the same time, I've also learned that shifts of pH from CO2 don't affect your fish, and that you don't need to worry about shifts in pH, but rather it is swings in kH that can be harmful.

Needless to say I'm very confused here.

I've asked if I should add baking soda to raise my kH but most said no, and that a very low kH is fine, it's just swings in kH that will harm the fish. Well what causes kH to swing? If it's adding baking soda then I definitely want to avoid it. So I'm really asking here, for someone like myself, (FW, planted tank, w/ CO2 injection) is an almost non-existent kH okay, or should I add baking soda to get it up higher?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I have no idea.

This is the saltwater forum. Totally different beasts.

 

[melosu58]

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com