Ph Low

[kennygater]

Hi I have a juwel lido and have have had it set up for about 2years now, everything is fine fish corals ect but the ph is really low, should I be concerned and what can you do to bring it up. Thanks

 

[ben1987]

What salt do you use?

Have you got a.powerhead breaking the waters surface?

 

[kennygater]

What salt do you use?

Have you got a.powerhead breaking the waters surface?

Its dd h2ocean and there is a small power head and a return pump from the filter

 

[kj23502]

stat #?

 

[ben1987]

try pointing that powerhead upwards a little to break the waters surface, this will increase the gaseous exchange and hopefully up your ph a little.

dont suppose your using a sump are you?

what is your ph reading actually at?

 

[kennygater]

try pointing that powerhead upwards a little to break the waters surface, this will increase the gaseous exchange and hopefully up your ph a little.

dont suppose your using a sump are you?

what is your ph reading actually at?

No not really enough room for a sump, just a filter with phos remover and other bits but no sponges. Its not really showing any of the colours just a greyish when it should be dark green

 

[kj23502]

do you do weekly water changes? When you do, try this:

Use a powerhead to pump out the water. Point it upside down a bit below the surface of the water so it's sucking some off the surface. I just attached flexible tubing to my pump.

Before:

After:

Do you have a hang on skimmer? If so, see if there's a attachment to buy for surface skimming. This really helped out a lot.

And have you done any other tests? Calc, Alk, mag?

 

[kennygater]

Hi I have got a skimmer but don't use it as it didn't seem to do anything. Everything else is ok just cal is a bit high. The water is clear at like your second pic and I do a 10% water change every week
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[spadge]

As far as im aware it is no uncommon for ph to drop this time of year as gaeous exchange slows down, c02 builds up indoors as their is little ventilation due to most people having windows and doors shut, what are you kh levels like? i too had this problem recently and was advised told as i have mentioned by a guy at my not so local LFS, he recomended good ventilation, powerheads at surface and maintain kh around 10/12 to act as a buffer for the ph hope this helps.

 

[kj23502]

what would you guess the greyish reading to be? What test kit are you using? 7.8-8.4 are just fine.

 

[kennygater]

what would you guess the greyish reading to be? What test kit are you using? 7.8-8.4 are just fine.

I'm not sure its below 7 I think, I might get another test kit and try it again

 

[kj23502]

if it were that low, I would think at least some corals would begin to pout!