mangroves and pH?

[thisoldfish]

Hey all,

I have a 65 gallon mixed reef, 30G sump. my dKh has always been around 7-8 with pH around 8 to 8.1 and Calcium around 450 with regular water changes weekly.

I added a few mangrove pods to the sump a few months back and they're now growing with bunch of leaves. I've noticed that my pH is around 7.8 and dkh has dropped to around 6. Calcium unchanged. Same salt mix/frequency of changes.

Question: Do mangroves affect the chemistry much? I assumed if anything they'd absorb CO2 and cause a rise in pH- but maybe they just take the gas from air not from the water?

Thanks in advance.

Brad

 

[tdileo]

The alk drop means your corals are consuming it and you need to dose it now
In my opinion pH is something that doesn’t need to be watched that much. Of course if there is a major spike or dip it could be very important to know about, but it’s not something I really worry about. Like is normally around 8.2 but I’ve seen it dip to 7.7 and sometimes spike to 8.9 after dosing accidents.