PH reading 8.6

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JonD79

JonD79

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So I am not sure what is going on.
Controller is only a month old X3.
Before my tank was having issues keeping between 7.8-7.9
I got a small skimmer that would fit in my AIO to add aeration to try and bring it up. Over the past week it was up to like 8.1-8.2
tonight I tested my Alk and was at 7.3 so I added my BRS alk to boost it to 8. ever since then it has been climbing and keeps going.
When it got to 8.4 I recalibrated my probe twice in 4,7,10 and they all read within .01 of the solution. So i assumed the reading is correct in the tank.
Not sure if the probe has gone bad on me or what. Kinda bummed being only a month old and the probe isnt reliable if thats the case.
Not sure what to think is going on
 
I just did another calibration to see
after I calibrated all 4,7,10 where within .02 and the tank is reading 8.54 still
Is this a bad probe as it seems that it would be pretty hard to get the PH to that and hold it without serious buffering
 
Was it baked baking soda that was used to raise the alkalinity. If so that could be the reason. You might want to recheck the alkalinity also. At this point there is not much you can do because changing anything quickly may be worse than doing nothing. Mine takes about 12hrs to settle after adding KH buffer but I have never had a very big change since my KH Carer calculates the amount needed and dispenses it over time. I have a 42 gallon tank and below is a screenshot of my limits per test that it can add. It spreads it out at 2.5ml per dose 30 minutes apart but does not exceed 12ml. I have it testing every 12 hours. I am not sure how big your tank is or how much you added. I use Randy's recipe from R2R for the alkalinity buffer.

E67302FA-6B25-4C24-B2CF-01D7F3FEA016.png
 
It was the liquid pharma soda ash from BRS. I have been using this stuff for a long time on all my other tanks i had in the past and never had this issue before.
this was a manual add just to get the KH up as i only have a couple corals and its not ready to actually setup the doser pump yet to keep it in check. I also have never had a swing in PH like this before on this tank when I had it setup last year and dosed this in it many times the same way to correct lower PH.
 
I think that is the same as baked baking soda. That is what I started using but it is twice as potent as what I was using and it does raise the pH. Regular baking soda does the opposite and lowers the ph some but not as much as soda ash would raise it. It does look like it is starting to drop some on your last post. If the probe is reading correctly in the calibration solutions then it should be ok. How long has it been since you added it to your tank?
 
probably about 9hrs ago i added it to the tank
I am going to do a 4.5g water change here shortly to see if that does anything
its only a 21g tank
 
JonD79 said:
probably about 9hrs ago i added it to the tank
I am going to do a 4.5g water change here shortly to see if that does anything
its only a 21g tank
Click to expand...
Before you do can you place the pH probe in a glass or cup of the water you are going to use and see what it reads? That may give you an answer also.
 
i am doing that with an airstone from what Randy said to try.
it is going down with the air stone in the cup.
Odd thing is I have the skimmer on the tank. the return pump and 2 AI Nero3 in the tank that gives alot of surface agitation so not sure why i would have an aeration issue
 
JonD79 said:
i am doing that with an airstone from what Randy said to try.
it is going down with the air stone in the cup.
Odd thing is I have the skimmer on the tank. the return pump and 2 AI Nero3 in the tank that gives alot of surface agitation so not sure why i would have an aeration issue
Click to expand...
It may not be. The CO2 in the house air will drop pH. What was the reading for the water you are going to use in the water change?Is that what you are putting the air stone in?
 
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i already did the waterchange.
I only mixed it for about 2hrs till it was clear and up to temp. I did it in the garage which should have little to no CO2 since its not sealed as well as the house and no people down there.
PH is still 8.52
Hopefully it comes down overnight
I have alot of surface agitation in the tank. only 4 people in the house and I am only the one who has been in the game room today and its a bigger house.
 
My KH Carer and dosed 2.5ml twice and the pH went up .02 My tank is twice as big as yours so I would guess that 2.5ml might make a change of .04 on your tank. I am not sure how much you added. 2.5ml is a small amount.

Edit: this is nighttime also when it would normally be dropping and not going up.
 
i did 8ml from the BRS calc. But I have added that much in the past and never had this issue. not sure what happened.
It seems things are coming down. I will test the alk tomorrow and see what is going on
 
This is what my KH carer calculated to get mine from a 8.14 DKH to 8.5. It calculated 10.1ml. That will probably get a little over 8.5 though. So that would be about 5.05ml for your tank. Not sure how much you were trying to bump it up. It may have been more than that. The Carer dispense that at 2.5ml every 30 minutes.

3C42A7B4-E633-4856-A005-7EE4D09253B2.png
 
That sounds right then. When I used Nyos reef cement to rearrange the rock work that would increase the pH by a lot. It was temporary though. It never caused an issue with any inhabitants, but the first time it did make me nervous.
 
yea it was back to 8.15 this morning
Although it did raise back to 8.4 through the day and I did nothing but feed today
its at 8.2 right now.

I am wondering if the ugly stage of the tank starting and the algae rapidly growing is causing som sort of PH spike.
I am going to run the tank with no lights tomorrow and see what it does
 
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