what do you use to raise your PH without raising ALK

If you can, increase the top agitation with a stronger pump or an additional pump, it really helps! Oh ok, i only do it in the summer over here, but my pH tends to stay at 8.0 - 8.1.

 

People can knock all they want but my params are solid and my corals and clams are growing rapidly. I've been dosing the same stuff over a year now from aquavitro and it works great in my tank.

 

I wasn't knocking. just asking

And I'm glad your DT is doing well

 

There is no reason to chemically alter your pH level. It is a result of other factors that need to be maintained. Please listen to Evolved's advice.

 

I've recently noticed my pH start to climb with no dosing to my tank whatsoever.

I do weekly water changes as normal.

The one change I made was adding an ATO system. For some reason this seemed to keep the pH at a nice level. I've gone from 7.8 to 8.2 and it's been gradual over the past two weeks.

On other thing that I heard is that the CO2 in your sump area might be some what high, not allowing for enough O2 to get in the water column. In an effort to raise the O2 you can run a piece of tubing to outside to get more fresh air. This seems drastic to me and fraught with issues, but it might work.

 

Just the thought of not having enough oxygen in my residence, that actually alters the Ph in my system, really astounds me, and makes me a liilte nervous too!

I guess if you live in a small, well insulated apartment?

My sump room in my basement, is basically in air that is easily mixed throughout my whole basement, and I no longer have a door on the steps to my basement, so it actually mixes with my house air. The DT is in the family room, 18ft high ceilings, etc.

I rarely, and I mean rarely, test my Ph. But that's just me.

 

It's a very real effect for me; when we're out of the house for a vacation the pH rises 0.2-0.3. And we're talking about a 1500 sq ft house built in 2006; only two of us (plus a 40lb dog) living inside. I run a CO2 scrubber on the skimmer intake to help keep it more stable and diminish this effect; makes a sizable difference if I keep the media fresh.

 

The scrubber is a great idea, I was about to buy one until I switched to Warner Marine 2 Part Solution. I find it doesn't spike my ALK and keeps my Ph up longer compared to BRS 2 Part.

 

couple things..

1) I did a PH test on my water that was going to be used for water change today and PH was between 8.0 and 8.1 so guess my wife tank is inline with that(RO-DI with instant ocean). Would expect to see KH drop after 10GAL water change (30GL tank). Will be testing lvls again tomorrow. KH was still 13 before water change today and PH was 8.0 to 8.1 (thinking I may need to go get a new PH test kit also to make sure that reading is correct).

2) After PH test tomorrow will adjust powerhead to create more top water agitation(Want to see what effect this will have on it's own so did not move it today).

3) Did some more reading and looked into Aquavitro balance SSDeniss had mentioned and found someone who had run some tests on it. They had a normal range of 8.1 and only did a small sampling as they did not want to increase to much so used dose to increase ph to 8.2,and did this over couple week test. They did say that it did increase the level to 8.2 without effecting calcium or ALK. However after they stopped using balance within 2 weeks they were back at 8.1. So conclusion was consistent dosing needed. It is food for thought but will try to see if there is a cause for my lower PH.

4) As others kind of eluded to there must be some other ionic imbalance within her tank causing the issue.

 

Liquid test kits for Ph are not the best. Personally, I wouldn't base any decisions on pH without testing with a probe or a controller. Also, liquid test kits only give you one point in time, and that's not what pH monitoring is all about. Here's a screen shot of my last weeks pH readings. It's much more important to watch the trends than it is any one point in time. I didn't really understand this until I got a controller.

(lame screen shot)