Raising PH

[mogurnda]

Yep, sounds right. I think in terms of mEq/l so I have to convert.

Two 301's ahould give good circulation, so don't use the venturis. Plus, air will just give you salt creep.

I am still mystified about the pH, though. With that level of alkalinity, and proper air exchange, the pH should be above 8.0.

Has the pH always been like this? Something that occasionally happens is that a room has high CO2 (low circulation, a lot of people, or gas range, etc), which will lead to higher than normal CO2 in the water and low pH. Aerating a sample in another room and testing the pH will tell you if this is the case.

 

[VDub90]

The PH has always been about that. The older Hagen test kit I had ran out, but it was hard to read anyway. I have a new SeaChem kit, and it's really easy to read. I have the 301's set pretty low, should I bump them up?

 

[mogurnda]

Yes, I would have them running full blast, or close to it.

 

[VDub90]

Ok, they were running about 2/5, now I got them on 4/5. I'm pretty sure there are 5 indents on the adjustment.

Actually I just checked there's 6 indents, so now they are on 4/6.

 

[mogurnda]

Let's see what happens

 

[VDub90]

So after a day of running the powerheads at almost full blast w/no air intake, he PH is still at about 7.9, maybe 7.95. The test looks slightly darker, and the Seachem kit has a good slide rule color gauge. I am trying an expirement tonight by adding an airstone(to heck with salt creep anyway,lol) in the tank over night.

Actually now that I'm thinking about it I usually turn off one powerhead at night. Should I leave them both on at night? I just thought the fish would like the reduced flow at nighttime.

 

[Gealcath]

Consideirng the ocean is constantly moving day or night, i dont think they care if you turn a powerhead on or off at night

 

[mogurnda]

I agree. The fish normally settle into places where the current won't bat them around. If they have to swim hard all night, you might want to rearrange the flow.

 

[VDub90]

Well last night before I added the airstone both the clowns were breathing heavy, with the sick one a little harder than the other. This morning the breathing on the the one is back to normal and the sick one's breathing has slowed considerably. I dont' know if this is from the airstone or the fact it's day 4 of adding melafix/pimafix.

PH is still 7.9, so tonight I'm going to leave the airstone in as well as leave both powerheads running.

 

[VDub90]

Well the other day I lost one of the clowns. The 2 remaining fish (Firefish, Clown). Are still healthy. I continued the Pima Fix/Mela fix to the recommended 7 day mark even though the clown died at day 5, just to make sure everything else was safe.

My PH is still rock solid at about 7.9-7.95. Yesterday I received 15lbs of real nice Fiji rock, which will bring my total up to 25lbs for the 29G. I also received a Prism deluxe skimmer, which is currently breaking in on the curing rock. So far after a day it seems to be skimming quite well. I also put some ROWAphos in the filter to calm the algae that seems to have taken over.

As discussed previously, when adding the skimmer to the main tank will this maybe help my PH with increased circulation, and aireation(sp).