Low ish PH??

[ReelRednekReefer]

 

[leemajors]

wow ,, after reading this post i was worried about low ph. my ph was about 8.1 before i closed all the windows to run the a/c
been running for 3 weeks and it dropped to 7.7

after i read the post i cut the air off and opened all the windows on a 88 degree day .
my ph is still rising now its at 7.97 after 2 hours of windows being opened...

 

[mcarroll]

Then why is 8.1 - 8.3 "optimal" in everything I've ever read? You are a household name in every forum and site regarding reef chemistry that I've seen so I'll take your word for it but all other info seems to be to the contrary. My goal for this tank is to keep softies and some LPS but I've lost both acan frags I got 2 weeks ago, while a frogspawn and duncan seem to be fine. In every tank I've had PH has been low and i haven't seen the growth that others see with similar parameters despite feeding. PH has been the only metric I have been unable to move the needle on to get spot on. Reef Crystals and WC's has always kept other parameters dead on. Kinda an OCD thing I guess... my Eleanor: lol

I guess you have to decide if you want growth "like others" , or instead have great-looking, healthy corals.

But seriously, unless you are trying to farm these corals (selling a frag or two is not farming) growth should be a distant priority. Maybe even just a curiosity...or even a distraction. It's definitely at the other end of the spectrum from "keeping your Acans alive". Stony corals in general are really tough and will grow well in a pretty wide range of tank water conditions (they've survived for hundreds of millions of years somehow right?), albeit slower in lower pH scenarios since skeleton secretion is slowed down.

Please also consider that pH values you have read for natural seawater are averages in most cases. Actual pH in seawater can range from 7.5 to 8.4+. Unless your tank trends towards those pH extremes, I wouldn't take any action.

And BTW, Acans are touchy IME compared to a lot of corals. If you trust the source (or can find another) and are sure you have a lock on your alkalinity stability (et al), I'd try again.

wow ,, after reading this post i was worried about low ph. my ph was about 8.1 before i closed all the windows to run the a/c
been running for 3 weeks and it dropped to 7.7

after i read the post i cut the air off and opened all the windows on a 88 degree day .
my ph is still rising now its at 7.97 after 2 hours of windows being opened...

Unless you were seeing your animals respond negatively (or you just want the windows open) I wouldn't worry so much. Tanks with calcium reactors run at about that pH all the time and you don't have to look hard to find good looking coral grown in such tanks! Somewhat slower growth might be the only side effect...and it might not even be noticeable to you.