PH problems

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gearhead

gearhead

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Hi I am new and I am having an issue with my ph and I am not sure why. It all started when I dumped a bottle of copepods in my tank. I have done this many times for my mandrin. Soon as I did this my orp on my apex went from 350 down to 50 in about 2 min. Then my ph started to drop like a rock. So I increased the flow and added a line out the window to my skimmer input to get oxygen content up to get orp and ph back up. The orp went back up but ph would not. It kept dropping so I added buffer to raise and then I reached 12dkh and couldn't add any more. So once ph got below 7.8 I did a 40% water change to correct the problem. It is stable now at about 7.95 and doesn't go up at all during the lighting cycle as it should. I have tested everything 12dkh my calcium is 420 and magnesium is 1360. I have tested for silica 0, iron .06, potassium 420, iodine .03. There is no copper, ammonia, nitrates are .25 phosphates are undetectable with my hanna tester. I am dosing red seas nopox. I have stopped for now I really don't think the corals like the nitrates this low from what I can tell. Sorry getting off topic here. I am stumped my ph was always about 8.15 to 8.2 with the light on and it would drop down to about 8 during lights off. Now it won't go up and I even added an airstone. I don't know what was in that 20oz bottle but I am now scared to add them again. I started running uv but that has done nothing. The water is clear as can be. Fish seem happy I just don't get it. I even thought my probe was off so I got out my handheld and reads the same? I added some fresh carbon to try to help but no luck. It's almost as the oxygen has been dropped down from some bacteria. If this is the case how do I kill it? If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

75Gallon tank mixed reef
 
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Welcome to R2R!! ;Bookworm I’d probably start with the water changes and rely less on buffer if the it persists. Your corals may just be in shock due to all the swift shifts in pH and Alkalinity now that you’ve almost corrected the issue. Your pH is acceptable at 7.95 so try to just keep things stable and see if the pH starts rising again during the light cycle as the corals settle back down.
 
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Welcome to R2R. Does sound like a stumper. Sounds like you are thinking thru trying to find the issue. I would be like you and rule out the obvious first. You are getting good flow and ran the airline. You did the water change and dosed. You caught you alk increases and stopped.

My thought would be if all else is constant what would be the one change. I may think like you the pods, but you have dosed before. It’s possible maybe something came in with the pods that threw of the PH. As mentioned the ph you are now at is good.

I would sit back a little and let the tank be a tank. I would monitor but hold off on dosing or anything else unless a test comes back bad. Hopefully th tank will fall back into balance. As mention3d lots of quick changes are not the greatest for more fragile inhabitants.

#WelcometoR2R
 
Orphek OR3 reef aquarium LED bar
gearhead said:
Hi I am new and I am having an issue with my ph and I am not sure why. It all started when I dumped a bottle of copepods in my tank. I have done this many times for my mandrin. Soon as I did this my orp on my apex went from 350 down to 50 in about 2 min. Then my ph started to drop like a rock. So I increased the flow and added a line out the window to my skimmer input to get oxygen content up to get orp and ph back up. The orp went back up but ph would not. It kept dropping so I added buffer to raise and then I reached 12dkh and couldn't add any more. So once ph got below 7.8 I did a 40% water change to correct the problem. It is stable now at about 7.95 and doesn't go up at all during the lighting cycle as it should. I have tested everything 12dkh my calcium is 420 and magnesium is 1360. I have tested for silica 0, iron .06, potassium 420, iodine .03. There is no copper, ammonia, nitrates are .25 phosphates are undetectable with my hanna tester. I am dosing red seas nopox. I have stopped for now I really don't think the corals like the nitrates this low from what I can tell. Sorry getting off topic here. I am stumped my ph was always about 8.15 to 8.2 with the light on and it would drop down to about 8 during lights off. Now it won't go up and I even added an airstone. I don't know what was in that 20oz bottle but I am now scared to add them again. I started running uv but that has done nothing. The water is clear as can be. Fish seem happy I just don't get it. I even thought my probe was off so I got out my handheld and reads the same? I added some fresh carbon to try to help but no luck. It's almost as the oxygen has been dropped down from some bacteria. If this is the case how do I kill it? If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

75Gallon tank mixed reef
Click to expand...
I applaud you. For being new you sure do know a lot about testing. Etc. I agree with others. If there isnt any physical issues then I would leave it alone for a couple weeks to see what happens. More than likely it will work itself out.
 
Welcome to Reef 2 Reef!!

I would not use buffer's because some contain borate, and at the least, it will mess up your test kit readings.

Your ph is not bad if it holds.

You can take a cupful outside and use your air stone with pump outside too.
Test the cup in about an hour. If your ph raises, then you have trapped Co2 in your home.

Might want to try a Co2 scrubber with your skimmer too.
 
GoVols said:
Welcome to Reef 2 Reef!!

I would not use buffer's because some contain borate, and at the least, it will mess up your test kit readings.

Your ph is not bad if it holds.

You can take a cupful outside and use your air stone with pump outside too.
Test the cup in about an hour. If your ph raises, then you have trapped Co2 in your home.

Might want to try a Co2 scrubber with your skimmer too.
Click to expand...

that’s a good suggestion. I had to add one and I still ran my inlet to the scrubber outside. used to bottom out at 7.8 and high side was 8.05 now with the scrubber it bottoms out around 8.08-8.09 but usually 8.10 and high side is 8.28 This made a huge difference for me.
 
Tidal Gardens
I always do alot of research before starting anything. I am very OCD. But thank all of you for your input. I have just been watching it and monitoring with my new trident. I set it on manual or it tests a minimum of 4 times a day which for me is overkill. Once a day right now is ok. After this is over I will probably test 3 times a week. But thank you all.
 
gearhead said:
I always do alot of research before starting anything. I am very OCD. But thank all of you for your input. I have just been watching it and monitoring with my new trident. I set it on manual or it tests a minimum of 4 times a day which for me is overkill. Once a day right now is ok. After this is over I will probably test 3 times a week. But thank you all.
Click to expand...

gearhead,

Are you sure that your ph probe is good or it might need to be re-calibrated with 7 and 10 solutions.

I'd also try the cup (outside) test, to see if a Co2 scrubber will pull up your ph.

Trapped in Co2, is a ph killer.
 
ReefBot Lab, Automated Water Tester
gearhead said:
I always do alot of research before starting anything. I am very OCD. But thank all of you for your input. I have just been watching it and monitoring with my new trident. I set it on manual or it tests a minimum of 4 times a day which for me is overkill. Once a day right now is ok. After this is over I will probably test 3 times a week. But thank you all.
Click to expand...

gearhead check your apex aquabus cables. I recently found one that was not plugged in all the way and it was messing with my pH probe readings
 
h2oh2o said:
Could also try cracking a window in the room and test a little bit later to see.
Click to expand...

lol
Raise ours all the time.
Tight townhome...:)
 
Tidal Gardens
I don't get the fact that the light doesn't make it go up at all and I have checked it with my Hanna handheld and red sea kit all are close. The only thing that creeps it up is when lights are out and I have wave makers up at constant 100% while corals are closed. Got it up to 8.3 today but when flow decreases back down to 7.8. it seems to be getting better a little bit at a time. The corrals are not fully extending. Like my hammer my torch and zoas. I guess maybe from the changes at least I hope.
 
Your system being 7 months old, it is still cycling and the parameter are still not settled. Yes you have a large PH swing and that is concerning for the reason that with the large swings this is causing you parameters to also swing up and down. A high PH is not a good also.

What type of heating do you have?
What size is you skimmer?
 
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