Ph drop .2-.3 in one day, no changes to alk

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

Hey Randy,

My ph has been at 8.3-8.4 and then suddenly today 8.1-8.2 max, and it's actually lower at the end of the day today then it was this morning. My alk has actually gone up because since my ph was lower there was less calcification/precipitation in the last 24 hours. I have accurate alkalinity tests as well as an alkalinity monitor. I am very confused.

I do run a co2 scrubber but the media is not exhausted and it's working fine. Besides low alk and high co2 (not sure how the co2 could have changed so drastically and even so the co2 scrubber should handle that) what could cause this? I will recalibrate my ph probe tomorrow if there is no change but I wouldn't expect a sudden drop like that in 24 hrs.

I'm not concerned as much about the pH level as I am the drop/what's causing it.

All fish are accounted for. Only change to the system was a tuxedo urchin and 2 fighting conch yesterday and all are alive.

AC has been on for the first time in a while, is it possible it is generating excess co2 somehow? Again though I'd assume the co2 scrubber would handle that.

Thanks.

mitch91175 · Mar 30, 2018

Any kinks in the hose running to the scrubber?

mitch91175 · Mar 30, 2018

Also did you maybe pull the tubing off the venturi for the pump?

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

mitch91175 said:
Any kinks in the hose running to the scrubber?

Nope

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

mitch91175 said:
Also did you maybe pull the tubing off the venturi for the pump?

No but I pulled off the venturi to check to see if there was a blockage or anything that would cause my skimmer to be underperforming and it was clean as a whistle, that's why I'm confused. Besides calibrating the ph probe I don't know what it could be. I wonder if a wrasse stirring up my sandbed in a "bad spot" could cause it.

mitch91175 · Mar 30, 2018

How long since you calibrated the probe? If over 6 months it may need a tuning. Outside of that I’d say you’re breathing harder, lol

AllTheCorals · Mar 30, 2018

When it’s cooler outside than inside our house the ac barely runs and I notice my ph drops until we get that Florida heat back. Has today been cooler than usual?

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

mitch91175 said:
How long since you calibrated the probe? If over 6 months it may need a tuning. Outside of that I’d say you’re breathing harder, lol

Yea it's been over 6 months but this change happened in the last 24 hours. I would expect a gradual stray from calibration.

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

AllTheCorals said:
When it’s cooler outside than inside our house the ac barely runs and I notice my ph drops until we get that Florida heat back. Has today been cooler than usual?

No the opposite actually, the ac has been on for the first time in a while over the last 2 days.

mike werner · Mar 30, 2018

I had the same problem this week.i also have a scrubber and went through it and found no problems.what I did notice is it's been in the low 70's the last 2 days so the heat has not kicked on in the house.this ment no circulation of air in the house when the heat kicks on.air gets stale and the c02 in the house rises.maybe try opening a window in the tank room and see if that helps.

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

mike werner said:
I had the same problem this week.i also have a scrubber and went through it and found no problems.what I did notice is it's been in the low 70's the last 2 days so the heat has not kicked on in the house.this ment no circulation of air in the house when the heat kicks on.air gets stale and the c02 in the house rises.maybe try opening a window in the tank room and see if that helps.

I guess this is possible since even though the ac has kicked on occasionally it might not be kicking on as much as the heat was when it was 30 outside. I will try to turn on the circulation fan and then if that doesn't work than the window. Additionally, I wonder if there is any reason why an AC unit would generate more co2 than a furnace.........

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 30, 2018

Neither a furnace nor an air conditioner should be producing CO2 in the home, but when you need them you likely have fewer windows open.

I’d also recheck the calibration.

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Neither a furnace nor an air conditioner should be producing CO2 in the home, but when you need them you likely have fewer windows open.

I’d also recheck the calibration.

I never keep windows open ever, so not that. The one thing that makes me think it's not the probe is that my alkalinity has gone up as well, directly coorelated with the pH drop. When I don't use my co2 scrubber I have almost half the consumption due to less calcification/more precipitation. Could some sort of die off in the tank because this?

Seminoles76 · Mar 30, 2018

This could be a long shot but it happened to me once so I'll mention it. Give the media canister a check and see if it's got a lot of condensate built up in it. If there is a lot of condensate it will start pooling in the bottom of the canister. That pooling at the bottom coupled with wet soda lime will cause the skimmer to struggle to pull the appropriate air causing a lower PH and a not so efficient skim production. Hope you get it squared away.

mike werner · Mar 30, 2018

BigJohnny said:
I guess this is possible since even though the ac has kicked on occasionally it might not be kicking on as much as the heat was when it was 30 outside. I will try to turn on the circulation fan and then if that doesn't work than the window. Additionally, I wonder if there is any reason why an AC unit would generate more co2 than a furnace.........

I tried that but it seemed it just circulated c02 rich air the house already had.no difference.i did turn the heat up a little while ago and it jumped up .5.will see what happens tonight

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

Seminoles76 said:
This could be a long shot but it happened to me once so I'll mention it. Give the media canister a check and see if it's got a lot of condensate built up in it. If there is a lot of condensate it will start pooling in the bottom of the canister. That pooling at the bottom coupled with wet soda lime will cause the skimmer to struggle to pull the appropriate air causing a lower PH and a not so efficient skim production. Hope you get it squared away.

Thanks bud I appreciate it, I will check it out.

mike werner · Mar 30, 2018

has anyone tried to rejuvenate soda?

rkpetersen · Mar 30, 2018

I scrub CO2 (at night only, automated). What you're describing really sounds like your scrubber isn't functioning properly; that's what I would definitely check first, including replacing the soda. Rise in alk will correlate with drop in pH, that's an effect not cause. Longshot might be some cause of increased CO2 in the house. As RHF mentions, neither furnace nor ac should do that, but other things can. For example, my kitchen is between the family room and dining room, and I keep 1 tank in each room. Simply boiling water and making a batch of pasta on the gas range will cause the CO2 level in the adjoining rooms to jump from around 600 baseline in my house to over 800 in less than half an hour. This is just an example, it comes back down just as quickly when I turn off the range and there is no measurable effect on either tank. But you might have a new unidentified cause of persistent increased CO2 in your house. You might consider getting a meter; there are many, I use this one.

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

mike werner said:
has anyone tried to rejuvenate soda?

I think brs has been trying to find ways to regenerate it reliably but to no avail.

BigJohnny · Mar 30, 2018

rkpetersen said:
I scrub CO2 (at night only, automated). What you're describing really sounds like your scrubber isn't functioning properly; that's what I would definitely check first, including replacing the soda. Rise in alk will correlate with drop in pH, that's an effect not cause. Longshot might be some cause of increased CO2 in the house. As RHF mentions, neither furnace nor ac should do that, but other things can. For example, my kitchen is between the family room and dining room, and I keep 1 tank in each room. Simply boiling water and making a batch of pasta on the gas range will cause the CO2 level in the adjoining rooms to jump from around 600 baseline in my house to over 800 in less than half an hour. This is just an example, it comes back down just as quickly when I turn off the range and there is no measurable effect on either tank. But you might have a new unidentified cause of persistent increased CO2 in your house. You might consider getting a meter; there are many, I use this one.

I was mentioning my alk was going up so people didn't think I had low pH because I had a large drop in alk or something, not that it was causing my pH to drop.

I will check the scrubber. I called brs to find out if maybe the media could be exhausted even though it hadn't turned purple, they said no.

never have issues with cooking or anything like that, pH is normally pretty rock solid.

Thanks