Ph getting to 7.5

TangsRLife · Jul 5, 2018

right now I run a 180 total water system with my 125 display, sump and frag tank. The system has been up for 3 years with no issues. Maybe 2 months ago I suffered a massive crash because I tried adding vodka too fast and then stupidly stopping it right away. All of the corals are perky and look great and are growing, except my hammers. Lately my pH has been dropping to 7.6 at night and barely making its way to 8. I have already tried the outdoor CO2 test and saw it was a CO2 issue as my dkh is 8.7.
Parameters
All 8.7
Calc 440
Mag 1400
Nitrate <3
Phosphates- around .006
I’m uploading my apex pH graph. I just calibrated it a few days ago with a Milwaukee 7 and 10 pH calibration kit. I already tried hooking my protein skimmer up to a airline tube outside my home but so far no luck. My yellow eye kole tang for some reason gets stressed when the oH is lower than 7.8 but the rest are fine. Any help and suggestions thank you!

reeferfoxx · Jul 5, 2018

Can you verify your pH with a test kit?

TangsRLife · Jul 5, 2018

Yeah I did with a new Red Sea test kit I bought for a friend.

reeferfoxx · Jul 5, 2018

This is a unorthodox question but do you by any chance have a co2 cylinder for a calcium reactor or a planted tank? There could be a leak? Otherwise your solution is opening the windows for a few hours.

TangsRLife · Jul 5, 2018

No I don’t

AdamNC · Jul 5, 2018

Stop breathing or crack a window

When I’m home, I open a window about an inch or so. New houses are so well sealed that there are no drafts. During the summer your AC recycles the air inside your house but during the winter it pulls air from the outside. Fixed my ph issue in about a day or 2.

beaslbob · Jul 5, 2018

try adding some macro algae. It will balance out and stabilize the tank and consume co2. IME my lowest co2 after macro algae was much higher then my highest before macro algae.

my .02

TangsRLife · Jul 5, 2018

I have cheato in my fuge. I was reading somewhere that if your line to your skimmer is too long it won’t work. Anyone know why? I opened all my windows today and my levels are 8.2 and my light cycle isnt even halfway through!

beaslbob · Jul 5, 2018

TangsRLife said:
I have cheato in my fuge. I was reading somewhere that if your line to your skimmer is too long it won’t work. Anyone know why? I opened all my windows today and my levels are 8.2 and my light cycle isnt even halfway through!

perhaps all you need to do is to get they chaeto growing faster.

my .02

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 5, 2018

Did anything happen in the past 2 days to raise CO2 levels around the tank? Windows closed due to heat, etc.?

That would be why the pH dropped, but if nothing like that happened, it might just be test error.

TangsRLife · Jul 5, 2018

I probably just threw out a 5 gallon bucket full of cheato. I grow that within a week and a half. The windows are usually closed but normally before the crash I would have my ph naturally go to 8.3 so I’m just confused why now in the past weeks it’s been so low

taricha · Jul 9, 2018

Looks like your probe may have lost its mind on July 3rd.

cwk84 · Jul 9, 2018

Is a ph of around 7.5-7.8 bad or are we chasing numbers here? I have the same problems especially now since it is so hot and the AC running all the time. I'm wondering if I'm getting worried for nothing.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 10, 2018

cwk84 said:
Is a ph of around 7.5-7.8 bad or are we chasing numbers here? I have the same problems especially now since it is so hot and the AC running all the time. I'm wondering if I'm getting worried for nothing.

pH 7.5 is not desirable, IMO. Depending on the alkalinity, it is harder for corals to calcify and close to the point where skeletons can very slowly dissolve.

Johnson556 · Jul 10, 2018

This just happened to me due to how hot its been in Boston. AC has been cranking and all windows sealed. I was hitting a low of about 7.75 at night and barely breaking 7.9 during the day. This caused my alk to spike over the course of the week due to the lack of calcification and me dosing the same amount. Ran an airline from my skimmer to outside and I'm sitting pretty again at a stable 8.25

Rocky978 · Jul 10, 2024

Johnson556 said:
This just happened to me due to how hot its been in Boston. AC has been cranking and all windows sealed. I was hitting a low of about 7.75 at night and barely breaking 7.9 during the day. This caused my alk to spike over the course of the week due to the lack of calcification and me dosing the same amount. Ran an airline from my skimmer to outside and I'm sitting pretty again at a stable 8.25

I live in leominster and my tank reading the same but don't know what to do