ph levels & Scolymia help???

[deep water]

i am looking for a way to raise my tanks ph without adding phosphate to the water. i have been told that all ph up products are phoaphate based to spite what the labels say. is thaere any safe way to raise ph?????

[Debs]

What is your ph. Mine consistantly stays around 8. Don't let the recommended number of 8.3 cause you to want to raise it.

[deep water]

i have had 2 now on my 3rd piece in 5 years. this one is 2 months old in my tank. i bought him he looked real nice about a 7 inch circle now he doesnt open much at all. i don't know what i am doing wrong but my ph is low at 7.7 my phosphate is high at .05 and i can't controll it just found out my r/o water from my lfs was my phos problem calcium is 440 and my magnesium is 1260 nitrates don't exist nor amonia. torches and frog spawn as well as mushrooms and start polyps seem to do well. i need help with the scolymia. it is to cool not to have

[deep water]

mine is at 7.7 now and i think it is why my scolymia is not well??

[Debs]

How are you testing the ph?

[Fly Guy]

first of all, you need to identify why your ph is low to begin with

its either

1. low alk
2. poor surface agitation and gas exchange in your water
3 . high co2 levels in your house

after identifying that your alk is at a reasonable level do this little drill

1. measure the tanks ph

2 take a glass of tank water and stir it violently for a minute in the same room as the tank. measure its ph when done

3. take a glass of tankwater outside and stir it violently for a minute...then measure the ph

this will identify for you if its a water circulation issue or simply a issue of not enough fresh air inside your house

in the wintertime when we all have our houses closed up this can be an issue for many. it is for me. I solve it by plumbing my skimmers air intake to my garage. (which I dont keep cars and fumes in)

[deep water]

i have just pulled out a sample from the tank and use a ph test kit. old one from tetra. i am a novice to reef tanks and now know that there are much better test kits like i am replacing all of mine with saliferts now but i am still a novice to this world.

[crvz]

measuring pH with any hobby level test kit is a poor story, at best. unless you're measuring with a relatively new and calibrated probe, I would not trust the information youre getting.

[deep water]

i see that i still have a lot to learn however i feel my scolymia coral is suffering from my ignorance mainly in the ph is all i can c. is there anything i can use to bring in up in household materials?? i thought i was told once about baking soda or powder but i am not sure.

[crvz]

Originally Posted by deep water

i see that i still have a lot to learn however i feel my scolymia coral is suffering from my ignorance mainly in the ph is all i can c. is there anything i can use to bring in up in household materials?? i thought i was told once about baking soda or powder but i am not sure.

I'm not sure that pH would be the problem for the coral. What are your other tank parameters? Nitrate levels, nitrite or ammonia presense? Calcium, alkalinity, etc...

[deep water]

magnesium 1260 calcium 440 nitrite is almost non existant as well as amonia my phospahte level is between .25 and .5 which i found was coming from ro water i was buying from my lfs ironicly for a phos problem as a way to reduce them from my tap water. i am in the process of getting my own r/o water maker to elimanate them.i honestly never have tested for alk i don't even think i have a test for it. acording to the chart with the hobby kit from tetra the co2 level should be at 5 mg/l with a kh of 9

[crvz]

Get an alk test... it could be part of the reason your pH is depleted. If you have very low levels of alk, raising it may be the first step in solving the problem.

[deep water]

i will get that started tomorrow. thank you

[Elegance Coral]

Originally Posted by deep water

i see that i still have a lot to learn however i feel my scolymia coral is suffering from my ignorance mainly in the ph is all i can c. is there anything i can use to bring in up in household materials?? i thought i was told once about baking soda or powder but i am not sure.

It sounds like your main concern is the health of your scolymia, as it should be. Because you have low PH and a sick coral, my first reaction would be a large water change. This should help the PH problem if the cause is from inside the tank and reduce any other problems you may have. Then we need to know a little more about your system. How long has it been set up? Are you having any algae issues? Can you post a pic of the tank? Flow? Fans? Filtration?

[deep water]

yes elegance this all started with the scolymia and trying to save it. i just made a 20 gal water change in a 90 gal tank. this tank is a retro from a 55 gal tank. the 55 gal was up and running as a reef for 2 years with little problems mainly phos. i moved it into a new 90 gal for 30 days now. i am running a coral life protein skimmer. a wet/dry filter moving 900 gph i have 2 250 watt m/h lights and a chiller to bring the temps back down from the light. 2 tunze 6025's for flow in the tank. fish look and are doing very well. frog spawn, green torches, red mushrooms, and cabbage doing fine. scolymia and goniporium are both sick and dying without help. i have 2 anemonies for my clowns both doing well and hermit crabs and cerith snails and turbo snails doing fine. i have an algae bloom right now i would atribute to the retro from 55 to 90? oh yea almost forgot about the clam doing fine right now.