pH plummeted

rja · Aug 12, 2023

Hey all,
Everything in my tank seems normal but my pH just absolutely plummeted over the past 24 hours. I switched out the media in my CO2 scrubber but everything else seems normal. I tested alk, ca, and no3. All were normal levels. The only thing i can think of is I have nori for a new tang in the tank. The tang has not touched it and it began to turn white. I pulled it out this morning and it smelt rancid.

vetteguy53081 · Aug 12, 2023

rja said:
Hey all,
Everything in my tank seems normal but my pH just absolutely plummeted over the past 24 hours. I switched out the media in my CO2 scrubber but everything else seems normal. I tested alk, ca, and no3. All were normal levels. The only thing i can think of is I have nori for a new tang in the tank. The tang has not touched it and it began to turn white. I pulled it out this morning and it smelt rancid.

Check again in 8 hours - may be the media change. Any water change performed and an increase in alk? That would do it as well .

rja · Aug 12, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
Check again in 8 hours - may be the media change. Any water change performed and an increase in alk? That would do it as well .

No water changes. I just changed the media about an hour ago after seeing my pH drop. No dead fish or anything. Very strange. I’ve not had any increase in people in my basement or anything either.

vetteguy53081 · Aug 12, 2023

rja said:
No water changes. I just changed the media about an hour ago after seeing my pH drop. No dead fish or anything. Very strange. I’ve not had any increase in people in my basement or anything either.

Assure nitrate has not risen, as nitrification can consume alkalinity and cause a ph drop. Also check skimmer
One other though- If you have a ATO and it disbursed a lot of water, that too is a possible cause

jsker · Aug 12, 2023

I would suggest checking the probe. Clean the probe, reboot your controller since everything else checks out.

rja · Aug 12, 2023

jsker said:
I would suggest checking the probe. Clean the probe, reboot your controller since everything else checks out.

Yeah i think it’s on the controller side. I’ve been having issues with Fusion disconnecting. Not sure if that has to do with anything. Sucks that you pay $1000 for a unit that may or may not work as intended. You can see a huge flatline in my pH as well which makes no sense as it’s historically dynamic between 8.1 and 8.25.

jsker · Aug 12, 2023

rja said:
Yeah i think it’s on the controller side. I’ve been having issues with Fusion disconnecting. Not sure if that has to do with anything. Sucks that you pay $1000 for a unit that may or may not work as intended. You can see a huge flatline in my pH as well which makes no sense as it’s historically dynamic between 8.1 and 8.25.

Yes I understand your frustration. How old is the probe? I would start with the classic IT fix, reboot the controller first.

I had all kinds of PH issues a few years ago, I did the whole recalibration process, which did not do anything. Then bought a new probe. The new probe helped, I also check my scrubber media.

I have a ceiling fan above my tank to help with the closed house, Low PH

Another suggestion, if you live where it is very warm right now. It could be due to your house being seal up to keep the heat out. You could crack a window in the room and turn on a fan to see if the PH rises.

In summary with would suggest

Fan and cracking a window in the room to check for PH swing
Reboot your controler
Clean the probe
Lastly look at purchasing a new probe. Probe to go bad

rja · Aug 12, 2023

jsker said:
Yes I understand your frustration. How old is the probe? I would start with the classic IT fix, reboot the controller first.

I had all kinds of PH issues a few years ago, I did the whole recalibration process, which did not do anything. Then bought a new probe. The new probe helped, I also check my scrubber media.

I have a ceiling fan above my tank to help with the closed house, Low PH

Another suggestion, if you live where it is very warm right now. It could be due to your house being seal up to keep the heat out. You could crack a window in the room and turn on a fan to see if the PH rises.

In summary with would suggest

Fan and cracking a window in the room to check for PH swing

Reboot your controler

Clean the probe

Lastly look at purchasing a new probe. Probe to go bad

I have a small basement window that I have decided to open up. The AC is running but the window is so small and most of the vents are closed in my basement anyway. The unit is less than a month old so, although not ruling it out, I think the probe is okay. I can try rebooting it as well. I did swish around the probe and inspect it for debris. Hopefully it is just something simple.

jsker · Aug 12, 2023

rja said:
I have a small basement window that I have decided to open up. The AC is running but the window is so small and most of the vents are closed in my basement anyway. The unit is less than a month old so, although not ruling it out, I think the probe is okay. I can try rebooting it as well. I did swish around the probe and inspect it for debris. Hopefully it is just something simple.

If running a skimmer? Have you considered running a line from outside to you skimmer to inject fresh air into the skimmer via the skimmer intake? If not and you do decide to run a line from outside, keep your scrubber online still.

FYI if you do decide to run a line from outside, add some carbon in the Co2 scrubber to filter any contaminates like when the bug person comes to spray.

rja · Aug 12, 2023

jsker said:
If running a skimmer? Have you considered running a line from outside to you skimmer to inject fresh air into the skimmer via the skimmer intake? If not and you do decide to run a line from outside, keep your scrubber online still.

FYI if you do decide to run a line from outside, add some carbon in the Co2 scrubber to filter any contaminates like when the bug person comes to spray.

That is my fear with running a line outside is the lawnmowers or pesticides.

Second Shot · Aug 12, 2023

I’d give it a few days to see if it bounces back before trying to change things that may not need to be changed. A big chunk of rotting seaweed would probably lower your ph as the bacteria work to break it down. Same as a dead fish in the tank.

rja · Aug 13, 2023

Second Shot said:
I’d give it a few days to see if it bounces back before trying to change things that may not need to be changed. A big chunk of rotting seaweed would probably lower your ph as the bacteria work to break it down. Same as a dead fish in the tank.

I am back at around 8, very weird that all of a sudden we had a huge boost of CO2 in the house