Parameters PH

[tonyga]

So a 40 gallon tank. Everything has been perfect. It's been over a month now. Cycled with Dr Tim's.

Fish are: small lightning clown, small dejanaris sail fin, bow tie chromi and a Midas blemi. Great cuc including a cleaner shrimp.

Reffmat500, curve 5 skimmer and reef90 lights running mostly Blues with 15-25% whites.

MISC Corals that are thriving and doing wonderful. I feed AB+ 2ml every other day. I also dose daily 2ml of cal/mag/kh. PH is my concern, it just spiked and was usually at 8.4

I've been away for quite awhile

Salinity 1.025
Alk 8.9
Temp 78.1
Calcium 482
Phosphate 0
PH 8.6 WHICH WHY THE POST

Would you monitor or change anything NOW?

 

[jvb89]

How are you testing the PH?

 

[tonyga]

I'll do it over. Hannahs

 

[tonyga]

Retested. 8.6

 

[tonyga]

Oh. Ammonia 0 also

 

[matticus1181]

Have you recently done a water change with water that may have had a higher pH? pH changes throughout the day. Typically, as the lights come up and photosynthesis starts, the pH starts creeping up throughout the day. Mine goes from probably 8 up to 8.4 during the day just from photosynthesis.

It's possible that one of your additives has a pH raising effect. Especially, depending on what you're using to dose dKh. I use the lye mixture and that can skyrocket pH if you're not careful.

You could always mix up some new salt water and do a water change to try and lower it, but you definitely need to figure out the cause.

 

[jcook54]

I would test the pH of the salt mix. I have had that issue once and it was super high on freshly mixed saltwater. Second, I would lower the alk by a tad and see if that helps. Personally I like to run my Alk at 8.0 and have had best results at that level on my frag system.

 

[tonyga]

I have not done a change. I will monitor through tomorrow then if no change do a 10% change

 

[hiimsean]

You might need some more oxygen in the tank or a co2 scrubber if it keeps climbing. Mine typically peeks about 8.4 but around 7pm.

 

[project1004]

I highly doubt your tank pH is 8.4 while cycling, and pH of 8.6 isn’t even harmful to your tank and you should even consider running at that value if possible.

I personally think all the pH tester are not very accurate. So I watch the trend on Apex.

Adding oxygen (by things like skimmer and algae reactor), or adding co2 scrubber will even raise higher which is why we run co2 scrubber and high oxygen tanks!

Higher pH is better for corals. Unless it is so high. And that number varies but 8.6 is very safe pH number to aim for!

 

[siege]

Just echoing what @jcook54 and @matticus1181 already touched on - could the salt mix itself be running a bit hot on the pH side? Apparently that can happen with some high-alk mixes when freshly mixed and not fully offgassed. Might be worth checking a fresh batch with your Hanna just to rule that out.

Also wondering: are you running any macroalgae in the system? I’ve heard of some tanks hitting higher-than-expected peaks when chaeto is thriving and lighting is strong, especially if there’s already minimal CO₂ in the room. And with an efficient skimmer like the Curve 5 in a relatively young tank, maybe it’s pulling out more than expected? I think that's a fairly low bioload, in a young tank, and it could be bottoming your nutrients out, for one thing: phosphate shouldn't be 0, nor should nitrate. Are you running a CO2 scrubber on the intake from the skimmer? If so, you might remove it for a while, and see what changes.

Not saying it’s bad, necessarily - sounds like everything’s doing well, which is the main thing, and we all know stability and consistency are and But I’d be curious to know if this is an all-day high, or more of a late-afternoon spike from photosynthesis. That might help pin it down a bit further.

If you make changes, do them sloooooooooooooooooooooowly. Slowly, slowly catchee fishy.

 

[tonyga]

No co2 scrubber and no microalgae. I may just be overreacting and not a concern. Just looking to be more proactive.

I've been running coralife marine salt for reef tanks.

Ran all my tests early this morning.

I truly appreciate the input. I'll check it later this evening and stop the little dosing I do for a few days and see what happens. Like I said, everything looks good.

 

[LPTJ]

+1 on salt mix and possibly additives for your two part. Soda Ash for Alk will raise your ph.

What salt are you using? RSCP mixes at a solid 8.5 for me.

 

[tonyga]

+1 on salt mix and possibly additives for your two part. Soda Ash for Alk will raise your ph.

What salt are you using? RSCP mixes at a solid 8.5 for me.

I use coralife reef salt

 

[tonyga]

Uodate: I waited and stopped dosing for a week recheck and ph was still 8.6. This morning I did a 10% water change and it dropped to 8.3. I'll do another next weekend and I should be back to where I'm more comfortable.

Thanks you all for the input it was much appreciated. Tank is coming along

 

[siege]

Just make sure you keep phosphate and nitrate above 0, or you'll be starving your corals AND spurring on algae or dinos, etc., that are much more efficient at taking up extremely low levels of nutrients than your corals are.

The days of "Ultra Low Nutrient Systems" are a thing of the past.