Raising pH

I need to raise my pH and I am not sure how.

My alkalinity is 3.5 meq/l or 10 dKH.

My pH is reading 7.61 this morning (7.53 last night). It has been this low for 3-4 weeks and all of my SPS have slowly faded to their death. These readings were measured by a laboratory grade multi-thousand dollar YSI unit calibrated with 3 standard solutions.

I believe this happened when sheetrock fell into my tank while I was switching from halides and hanging LEDs.

 

Hmm.
What is your method of adding alk/Calcium?

If using baking soda switch to Soda Ash. ( or bake the baking soda)

Some things that pop in my head:
Small room that needs more oxygen in Winter?
If temperature allows open a window and get some fresh air in the room.

Calcium reactor may lower PH.
Is your refugium on reverse lighting schedule?

 

Not adding anything right now. Haven't been for a month plus since everything began to STN.

It is a small room, but wasn't an issue before the sheetrock dust fell in.

No calcium reactor.

I may just need to do water changes to reduce the hydrogen ions.

 

Poor gas exchange at the surface of the water.
Needs better surface agitation and/or less CO2 laden air at the surface.

 

Go grab some balance by aquavitro, it's designed to raise ph without affecting the other 3 params. I've been using the entire line for years and love it.

 

Like I said, that wasn't an issue before. My SPS were thriving in that same room before the sheet rock dust fell in.

 

I'll have to give this a try if my water change doesn't help.

 

I'm not sure on this Kevin, but isn't sheet rock basically calcium carbonate (chalk). Can you test Ph of the sheet rock?

 

I believe it's made with gypsum (CaSO4), which is often used to lower pH in soil by gardeners/farmers.

 

Sheet rock is gypsum. You probably should do multiple water changes to get the gypsum out of your water. I think the Aquavitro product could be a good way to go with doing the water changes to hopefully help neutralize the gypsum's effect.