Anaerobic Bacteria

[tarheel96]

He probably has coral or shills or bones some sort of buffer in there. Or maybe the fancy denitrator bacteria raise the ph instead of lowering it.

Actually, denitrifying bacteria do raise pH by increasing alkalinity. In nitrification, for every 1 mg of ammonia oxidized 7-8 mg alkalinity (as CaCO3) is removed from the water. In denitrication the opposite happens but not to the same extent. But I don't think that's the reason J jaws7777 tap pH is lower than his tank pH.

I have very soft water so why the high PH I'm not sure ... Mine comes in 9.0 and settles at 7.5, on that note I need an ageing barrel

My water is similar. It exits the tap around 8.6 and settles around 7.45 after aging.

The pH of water will rise or fall after aging/aerating in a cup, bucket or aging tank for ~24 hours. This is because CO2 levels differ between water underground or in distribution pipes and between water at the surface. Water with excess CO2 will exit the tap at a lower pH and rise to higher pH after ~24 hours aging/aerating for ~24 hours. Water with relative lack of CO2 will exit the tap at a higher pH and fall to a lower pH after aging/aerating for ~24 hours.

This is separate from what happens in a tank. In a tank, changes in pH are due to alkalinity, typically KH. Acids from driftwood, leaves, nitrification, etc. erode KH; pH falls. Coral, aragonite, limestone, bicarbonate increase KH; pH falls.

Do you know you KH Hendre ?

 

[BIG-G]

Shouldn't the increase in carbonate hardness increase Ph?

 

[tarheel96]

Shouldn't the increase in carbonate hardness increase Ph?

Yes. Thank you. KH increases; pH rises.

 

[BIG-G]

I have relatively hard water and my Ph comes out at 7.8 and settles in at 7.6 after aging I assume it drops as the water is able to gain a bit of Co2.
I keep several tanks some are planted and I add Co2 . I try to aim for 1 point drop in Ph to 6.6 I find that this is the sweet spot for optimal plant growth.
I never fully understood how Co2 affected Ph till I started adding it. Or how fast Ph can rise once Co2 is driven out of the water.
I used to stress of Ph and Kh and Gh,
along with alkalinity when I was doing saltwater.
So I learned how hard it is to try to manipulate Ph and try to maintain stability.
Stability is the key, I never worry about Ph anymore as long as the Ph doesn't rise or fall to suddenly is all that concern me.
I have some tanks that are 8 and some that are 6 some are 7. The tanks settle there on their own and are stable.

 

[Hendre]

Do you know you KH Hendre ?

Carbonate hardness right? There's 2 types of hardness but I haven't looked into them much

 

[Hendre]

Went to a SW shop today to look around and saw their reactor, a sulfur model, and discussed it with him a bit. He said it's a good piece of kit and this model was very good with an automatic hydrogen gas discharge valve.

Main concerns for sulfur systems that he mentioned is that when flow rate is too high and it isn't fully cycled it can leach sulfur and there is nothing to consume it which can be harmful to fish. Also without good discharge or aeration hydrogen can also poison your fish which is a big concern.

However once cycled it can quickly eat up nitrate, like water leaves at 0 nitrate, and once that is gone it consumes phosphates. Less algae anyone?

 

[tarheel96]

Carbonate hardness right? There's 2 types of hardness but I haven't looked into them much

Right, KH is carbonate hardness. The other is GH or general hardness.

 

[markstrimaran]

Did I ever show you a picture of my denitrator? Four of the towers are in parallel with their outputs going into the 5th tower. The nylon screws on top can be used for bleeding and to verify the flowrates thru the parallel towers are the same. They were originally supposed to be used with tubing for carbon dosing but I forgot the flow thru each tower is from the bottom to the top. So the valves were useless for that and I had to add the airline in the cpvc for dosing which is sealed off with golf tees in the photo.

View attachment 1267389

I've been testing it using very low flowrates. I've used 0.5 - 1 gpH thru each of the 4 parallel towers (this equates to 4 gpH thru the 5th denitrifying tower or 96 gpD).

It also requires a carbon source for bacterial respiration/synthesis. I can't get it to work without carbon. Based on my experiements, it takes 6-8 mg ethanol to remove 50-70 mg/L nitrate/100 Liters.

I haven't tried it with higher flowrates. I'm going to try that next keeping everything else the same and report the results.

That thing just looks Awsome.

 

[tarheel96]

Thanks Mark! Good to hear from you. Connecting them in parallel/series was worth the extra trouble.

 

[J. H.]

Funny, I remember my tap water being pretty much the same before and after aging. I think I will check.

Also without good discharge or aeration hydrogen can also poison your fish which is a big concern.

no worries about hydrogen in the air? I'm thinking of the Hindenburg, hydrogen is not your friend.