high ph...

[Joel A]

so came home today from the beach, and my PH was way high. 8.56 to be exact...

double u- tee- eff mate?

normally my ph is on the high side to begin with, because i dose two part and don't use a CA reactor, but my dosing of 2 part is very consistent, and i didn't over dose. It was 88ml dosed evenly over the course of 24 hours.. every 65 minutes and 32 seconds the alkalinity part is dosed to be exact...

so i came home today and saw that level and was a bit alarmed. My system lighting has been off for about an hour now as well, so for all i know it could have creeped even a little bit higher than 8.56..

so my question is why? I checked my alk and it was actually a bit low (still checking it on a weekly basis as my tank is taking off growth wise and asking for more and more) alk checked out at about 6.5-7, and i usually like to keep it 7.5-8.. so a couple minutes ago i actually set my profilux doser to dose 100 ml of alkalinity daily instead of 88... but that sure as hell won't help my PH issue at all..

i guess i can switch to the 2 part that doesn't raise your PH, but i never though i would ever have an issue and have to use that?

I'm kind of lost on this one.. i don't know why all the sudden it got so high.. usually it swings between 8.3 and 8.45 or so throughout the course of a whole day..

now i know 8.56 can't be good... but how detrimental is it exactly?



oh by the way i don't dose kalk, so don't even go there..

 

[stingythingy45]

7.8-8.5 ph is fine.
Just don't dose any kalkwasser tonight.

 

[Joel A]

you think? I've always thought 8.4 do be on the high end, not high enough to do any damage... but really as high as you would want it...

also, it was in the upper 8.5's, not like it just touched 8.5 it was 8.56 when i saw it, and probably even a bit higher an hour before i saw it..

 

[dcforester1]

Mine is always at 8.4, I didnt know any better so I thought it was fine. If its to high, how do you lower it? I know they sell stuff to raise it, but how/should you lower it?? Sorry Joel I didnt mean to hijack your thread, but now I am concerned, what are some of the symptoms of high PH?
TIA Derek

 

[MikeG]

Silly question, but have you double checked by calibrating your pH probe?

 

[Joel A]

Silly question, but have you double checked by calibrating your pH probe?

well no . Guess it's not so silly..

but i calibrated it not long ago.. maybe 2 months ago. I'll calibrate it again and see if i get the same reading..

 

[Joel A]

FWIW i still get a decent swing now that i've been monitoring my PH closely today... woke up to a PH of 8.06 (not bad for lowest point of PH i guess...) then as the main system lighting just shut off an hour ago my PH is 8.51 ... pretty significant swing??

I'm not that concerned about it, but i think my corals might appreciate it if i can limit that a bit? What might be some good ideas?

I thought about adding a fuge and running it on a reverse lighting schedule... but i'm going to be going ULNS, and you're really not supposed to run a fuge with those...?

 

[JohnK]

Where's the alk today?

IIRC it being low will allow the PH to swing more (lack of "buffer").

 

[Joel A]

Where's the alk today?

IIRC it being low will allow the PH to swing more (lack of "buffer").

possibly, i'll check alk again and update. Maybe that was my only issue?