High pH at regular alkalinity

I perform another weekly water test and kind of surprised to see the pH jumped up to 8.6 from last week of 8.2, while the alkalinity dropped down from 3.2 to 3 mEq/L. I don't have kit to check calcium yet.

I've been using B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System (2 parts) to try to raise up and maintain alkalinity and calcium. I was under the impression that at pH 8.6, my alkalinity should go over the chart. Just impression, I don't know for sure. I'm concerned if I continue dosing B-Ionic, the pH will go even higher. But I was shooting to get 3.5 mEq/L. I don't know if this matters, but my tank is pretty well covered to minimize evaporation. Gas exchange may be quite poor.

Should I be concerned? Should I lower the pH with acidic buffer? If so, any recommendation for specific brand I should use?

Thanks.

 

PH is not necessarily directly related to alkalinity. Poor gas exchange would give you low PH. I would suspect your PH reading is wrong. Dose your chems to keep calcium and alkalinity where you want... PH is not that big of a concern, just large swings are.

Do you have DIY rock in the tank? It would be pretty hard to have a PH of 8.6 with normal Ca/Alk if something else is not raising it.

 

I've fully cured live rocks which has been running stable in the past 3 months. I personally don't like the "color matching" water test kit. I'll get a digital pH meter from my lab tomorrow. I also need to get a kit to test calcium, as you indicated, since it's a more important parameter.

If the pH is true reading, do I need to get some thing such as "pH down" to buffer it?


Thanks.

 

id recommend against using a chemical to raise/lower pH.

do you have a sump/fuge? what kind of powerheads? are any pointing towards the surface of the water for good air exchange?

 

I only have a Rena XP3 canister filter. No sump/fuge yet and thinking about building one soon.

I have my tank 90 to 95% covered to reduce evaporation. Is it a good idea? The power head is Rio+ 800 and no it's not pointing towards the surface now. What's the best way to set it up? Such as how many inches should the discharge below the water surface?

What will happen if I were to remove all the cover on the tank and position the powerhead as you suggested, will the pH go down quite a bit?

Man, I've learned more stuff at this forum for three days than the past three months. Thanks a lot, guys.

 

You just want to get surface agitation, so you can't see the tank clearly from above, if you go with his advice.

But that's not what's wrong. pH would go down with a buildup of carbon dioxide, not up. You can't have too much oxygen in the tank, either, so I wouldn't recommend doing anything for the surface agitation at the moment.

Personally, I'd double check the test with a LFS (NOT PETCO. They use dip strips, which are super inaccurate. A real LFS would do a drip-n-shake test, or the Seachem kind.) . I have a feeling your kit is wrong.

 

It's definetly best to have the top open and have good surface agitation for gas exchange (o2 in co2 out). As Blackraven pointed out a side effect of this usually helps to increase PH. +1 on getting your water tested using better method.

I also noticed you are B-Ionic to raise the alk. B-Ionic uses sodium carbonate (soda ash) which will make the PH rise pretty significantly. One reason why I switched to sodium bicarbonate which has only a slight lowering effect on the PH. Try to decrease the amount your dosing and see if that helps reduces the PH some. Dose less more times.

Most of all get your water tested.

TJ

 

I tested the pH again (I've been using Instant Ocean test kit) and the pH turned out to be 8.0, which is more believable. But I still don't know what happened to the test I did yesterday.

I just ordered a calcium test kit so I should be able to get more clearer picture from now on.

TJ, is there any specific brand of sodium bicarbonate you would recommend?

Thanks.

 

Lots of people use the stuff from bulkreefsupply.com. It's cheap compared to bottled supplements.

 

Word to the wise....if you think you get a suspect reading for any test done, re-test from another place in the aquarium.