[digital_dragon]

My PH Level has been hanging around 8.20 and 8.28 and this evening just before the lights went off it was at 8.40. Is this normal or is something going on to drive it up and if so what could be the factor for driving it up. My morning reading was 7.94 before the lights came on. I have been dosing my B-Ionic daily the same amount for months and now all of a sudden this increase in PH. I did a 15 percent water change last week and I think I a will do another 10 percent this week if this is not a good thing. If anyone knows what could be causing this please let me know. Also if what should I look for that would drive up the PH.

Earl

 

[mojoreef]

YOu should really do an Alk test, before you dose to much more bionic. Once your dose Bionic the ph goes a little crasy to. How far after the dose did you do a ph test.


Mike

 

[digital_dragon]

I have a PH Meter and I have been dosing my tank for 6 months at the reccomended starting dosage as on the bottle. It has been only this week that the PH started going up to 8.4.

Earl

 

[Reefer Addict]

The coral book I have says that a PH of 8.1-8.6 is acceptable to corals, but the ideal range is 8.3-8.4
I think you may be alright, but if it's just changed recently you may want to keep an eye on it so that it doesn't climb higher.

 

[Spanky]

Earl,

How old is your tank? are organics building up? looking a little greener?

You might have increased algae driving it.

 

[finaddictfred]

I'd pay big bucks for my PH to be that high..last nights tests came out with a Ph of 7.7 for me.

 

[digital_dragon]

Jerel good to hear from you. The tank is now 7 months old and I have been dosing for 6 of the 7 months. All my corals and zoos have been flourishing and I have 6 peperment shrimp and 3 cleaner shrimp and a bunch nassarius and turbo snail that are healthy as can be. Like I said this just started happening about a week or two and I haven't changed my dosing amount that I started with 6 months ago. I will monitor it. This morning I woke up and my PH was at 7.98 and the lights don't come on for another 2 hours. This is before I do my dosing. As a tank matures does the PH become more stable?

Earl

 

[Spanky]

Morning

Closed systems can become more unstable as they 'mature'. Organics will drive that. It's just up to you to adjust for it.

What's your alk reading?

 

[digital_dragon]

I will have to check that today and get back to you on it. What would cause a increase in ALK if it is high?

Earl

 

[tdwyatt]

I have a PH Meter and I have been dosing my tank for 6 months ...

Before you make any rash or abrupt changes in your husbandry protocols...

CLEAN YER PROBE

The info you'll need to perform the cleaning is found at this link to the Archives . Sudden changes in pH readings are often errors introduced by the meter or the probe, as the norm for established closed systems would be gradual change. I am much more suspect of your meter than I am of your biotope unless you have personally made some recent changes or had other events occur.

Yet another reason to keep a tank log for each tank.

Clean and recalibrate the meter, then observe and log you readings (and time of day) for a few weeks and re-evalutate. If the critters don't look the worse for these apparent changes, then I would speculate that there are not any real issues at this time.

JMO

 

[FISH]

A clean PROBE does make a difference.
I clean mine every few weeks or so .

As far as the tank goes ,
my ph is about 8.10 am to 8.47 pm.
I use a Ca reactor and drip pickling lime 24/7.

 

[mojoreef]

Earl You dose alk (in the form of B-ionic) your tank uses it. the use of the alk in your tank can change. As things grow or die, so your need ammount will change. The reason you have a decline is usually becasue of Algae respiration. So what we need to know is what is your Alk level, it could be as simple as that your alk level is just high, thus driving up your PH. AND as Tom says Probes will get deposits and skew the measure, or simple go out of calibration.
So buddy you got to clean the probe, make sure its calibrated correct and then get a measure on that alk.


Mike

 

[digital_dragon]

After careful inspection of my probe it had crap all over it. I had Coraline algea and some other crap. I am soaking it in white vinegar as we speak. I will let you know after I calbrate it and see if there is anthing else going. I am going to pull my PH test kit out and test the the water. I will let you know.

Earl

 

[Spanky]

CLEAN YER PROBE

Good catch Tom!