raising pH

[DevilBoy]

is limewater/kalk the only way to raise pH. my pH is around 7.91 and last time i checked my dKH was 4.5 meq/l with that alk level shouldnt my pH be higher?

[Kevin1000]

There isn't anything wrong with that level of PH. Ph tends to range from 7.8 - 8.5 with the low point being in the morning right before your lights come on and the high point being right when the lights go off.

So long as you have a reasonable level of alkalinity (2.5-4.0 meg/l) combined with reasonable aeration (surface water turbulence is sufficient) PH will manage itself.

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by Kevin1000

So long as you have a reasonable level of alkalinity (2.5-4.0 meg/l) combined with reasonable aeration (surface water turbulence is sufficient) PH will manage itself.

agree


But if you really want to know why yours wont hardly go above 8 even in the middle of the day, its most likely either not enough surface agitation to promote good gas exchange or its simply the air in your house itself.

Do this drill. Its super easy with a PH monitor but just takes a couple extra tests without one

1. Measure the PH of your tank water

2. Take a glass of tankwater and stir it violently for a minute in the same room as the tank and then test the PH

3. Take another glass of tankwater outside, stir it violently for a minute and then test the ph.

the results will isolate your issue to surface exchange, your air inside your house or a combination of both

[DevilBoy]

i will try this tomorrow Fly and let you know the outcome. then trouble shoot from there

[tdwyatt]

Just curious, how do you measure the pH in your system?

How about posting the values every 4 hours for a 24 hour cycle?

[DevilBoy]

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

Just curious, how do you measure the pH in your system?

How about posting the values every 4 hours for a 24 hour cycle?

American Marine pinpoint pH monitor

[DevilBoy]

Fly,

I did your test here are the results:

Inside : 8.05
Outside: 8.08

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by DevilBoy

American Marine pinpoint pH monitor

Have you done the 20 mule team borax test for the pH meter?

[DevilBoy]

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

Have you done the 20 mule team borax test for the pH meter?

whats that?

[DevilBoy]

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

Have you done the 20 mule team borax test for the pH meter?

Tom,
I read one of your posts on how to do this test. Do you use RO/DI water for the test?

What is equivialant to 374 ml ?

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by DevilBoy

Tom,
I read one of your posts on how to do this test. Do you use RO/DI water for the test?

What is equivialant to 374 ml ?

Yes on RO/DI, or distilled water either one to make up the test solution.

374ml? what is this for? you should be making up about a cup (about 250 ml) or pint (500ml=2 cups= 1pint) of sodium metaborate (borax) solution...

Use a pint of distilled or RO/DI water (500 ml is close enough to 473ml) and add a half teaspoon (1/2 level tsp.) of the Borax to make a resultant pH standard solution with 2 gm of sodium metaborate per 473 ml or 4.3 grams of sodium metborate/litre. Mix well. Although using this method to make the standard will only result in an accuracy of about plus or minus 10% of the lab standard sodium metaborate pH calibration solution, there is such a weak dependence of pH on concentration of the solute buffer here that it is close enough for our purposes.

Many measuring cups will have the metric volume measure equivalents on them as well, should not be too big an issue.


HTH

[DevilBoy]

so i use 1/2 teaspoon of borax and mix it with 2 cups of ro/di water?

i think the 374ml i meant 473ml i just mixed the numbers up

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by DevilBoy

so i use 1/2 teaspoon of borax and mix it with 2 cups of ro/di water?

i think the 374ml i meant 473ml i just mixed the numbers up

Should be close enough, the meter will read 9.18 + 0.02 if the probe is good, clean and correctly calibrated. A failure to meet these criteria means clean the probe, recalibrate it and check that you have a new battery in the meter, then borax test again: a second failure at this point means you need a new probe.


BTW, some electronic ballast and misc other electronic devices may generate enough RF that they will skew result or cause jumpy readings, make sure that if you experience this to turn off the suspected devices (especially lights) and test again.


HTH