Ph swings

[Centerline]

Hi, I am having an issue with a 4-5 point ph swing. (please see the chart at the bottom of post)

I've tried opening the windows for 48 hours to see if CO2 saturation were the issue - no luck. A few weeks ago I changed the alk dosing schedule to reflect the PH lows and hopefully overcome the worst of it. Doesn't seem to have helped much. I'm thinking about adding a light and some rock to the sump and running the light on a reverse cycle but space it limited.

Im looking for suggestion with respect to my next move.

SPS tank
80 rimless
1-2" oolitic sand bed
50 lbs rock
2 Gyre 150s alternating at 30%
Reef Octo skimmer designed for a 150

(lights on 12 - 12)
2 - 250 Radiums 10 hrs per day
4 - 15k T5s for 10 hrs per day
2 - XHO reef brites 4 hrs per day

Some fish - feed 2 x daily
Probio every 15 days
N0P0x @ .25 recommended dosage daily
Reef Energy A&B daily

Avg temp 79 deg

Alk 12 DKH
Cal 475
Mag 1400

P04 - .01
N03 - 5

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks!

 

[jsker]

I live in Central Florida and had an issue with low PH since the house was closed up all the time with the heat. My tank is located near an outer wall. I drilled the through block and stucco and ran my skimmer air line out to the outside and the skimmer draws the air from the outside. The air in the airline cools down to the inside temp before the air reaches the skimmer. My PH is see below

I have read were other have made scrubbers and @120reefkeeper can tell you more about scrubber then I

 

[120reefkeeper]

Glad to help! Here is a link you can follow that documents the process!

Cheers!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

yea air at night. stop dosing bacteria and carbon dosing no pox. is your Po 5 ?? I would see why your carbon dosing. I think thats some of the swing. bacteria. how is the bio load with coral? def a lot of light.
+1 algae scrubber and look into a chato reactor too.

 

[Centerline]

I live in Central Florida and had an issue with low PH since the house was closed up all the time with the heat. My tank is located near an outer wall. I drilled the through block and stucco and ran my skimmer air line out to the outside and the skimmer draws the air from the outside. The air in the airline cools down to the inside temp before the air reaches the skimmer. My PH is see below

I have read were other have made scrubbers and @120reefkeeper can tell you more about scrubber then I

OK, I'm off to the hardware store a bit and tubing. Did you use oversized tubing to make up for the air pressure differential?

 

[Centerline]

Glad to help! Here is a link you can follow that documents the process!

Cheers!

Thank you very much!

 

[120reefkeeper]

Glad to help! Your very welcome! [emoji4]

 

[Centerline]

yea air at night. stop dosing bacteria and carbon dosing no pox. is your Po 5 ?? I would see why your carbon dosing. I think thats some of the swing. bacteria. how is the bio load with coral? def a lot of light.
+1 algae scrubber and look into a chato reactor too.

PO is at .01 via Hanna. I can push it a little higher with Reefenergy when needed. I have been dosing carbon for many years with good result but this little tank is a bit finicky and I am questioning if the bacterial load isnt part of the problem. So good point. The tank has a lot of small 1 - 3" colonies, around 30. It also has some nice size montipors. 3 clowns, flame angel, and a yellow tang.

 

[madweazl]

OK, I'm off to the hardware store a bit and tubing. Did you use oversized tubing to make up for the air pressure differential?

I've wondered the same when doing this. I'd imagine it would have to be larger but have no first hand experience with this. I also like to do it because of our temperature swings (hot in summer and cold in winter in northern VA).

 

[Centerline]

I've wondered the same when doing this. I'd imagine it would have to be larger but have no first hand experience with this. I also like to do it because of our temperature swings (hot in summer and cold in winter in northern VA).

Empirically it seems the size of the tubing would make a difference. My skimmer is so easy to overflow that I assume the air pressure needs to remain a consistent. I'll post back here and let you know as soon as I find out.

 

[Centerline]

yea air at night. stop dosing bacteria and carbon dosing no pox. is your Po 5 ?? I would see why your carbon dosing. I think thats some of the swing. bacteria. how is the bio load with coral? def a lot of light.
+1 algae scrubber and look into a chato reactor too.

Air at night? You mean the skimmer air intake, yes?

 

[120reefkeeper]

Here is another link to a little write up I did on running a skimmer line to the outside.

 

[120reefkeeper]

Make sure you read through it .... pictures and everything. [emoji4]

 

[jsker]

OK, I'm off to the hardware store a bit and tubing. Did you use oversized tubing to make up for the air pressure differential?

No, the fitting to connect to my skimmer is 5/16 and I used 3/8 OD 5/16 ID vinyl tubing from the big box store. I used a 3/4 x 12' masonry bit to go through the wall with a regular drill with a 1/2 chuck. Once through I ran the tubing and caulked around the tubing to seal the hole. I also added a 90 so that if the rain was blowing of heavy the rain water would not be sucked into the line.

 

[jsker]

Here is another link to a little write up I did on running a skimmer line to the outside.

Check the link, it is not working

 

[Centerline]

Here is another link to a little write up I did on running a skimmer line to the outside.

Just read it and checked out the pictures. Nicely done! I am off to the hardware store. Will post the results.

 

[jsker]

Air at night? You mean the skimmer air intake, yes?

My swings are caused by the humidity at night being so high, but in late October when we have dryer air at night the swing are even less.

 

[jlanger]

I also highly recommend running an air supply line outside of the home.
A friend of mine said "Do it, only positive things will happen." And he was right.

I noticed that my pH level had dropped significantly when we shut off our air exchanger unit for the summer. I added a DIY CO2 scrubber to test if the issue was air related and it was. But using the CO2 absorbing media was going to be expensive for how fast the media was being used up. I decided that I needed to run an air supply line to the outside.
Being that my tank was in our basement along the exterior wall, I didn't want to run the air supply line out that wall as our landscaping gets sprayed for weeds and pests; I didn't want to risk contaminating the tank.
I ended up running the air supply line up inside the wall to the soffit for our HVAC and then over the family room to another wall and exit just beneath our deck. The air supply line inside the wall and crawl space ended up being about 20' in total length. (And a lot of hard work crawling around inside the soffit!)
Having a supply a fresh air to my skimmer has definitely benefitted the pH levels. My daily average went from 7.75 to 8.00; the swing is from a low of 7.89 to a high of 8.12.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My swings are caused by the humidity at night being so high, but in late October when we have dryer air at night the swing are even less.

How do you believe the humidity is impacting your pH? Are you dosing something based on evaporation rate?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Air at night? You mean the skimmer air intake, yes?

yup at night. thats where your dip in Ph is. With a lot of light in the dt with all that zoo ox and none in a fuge there should be a swing like what your seeing.
I dont know if its not normal. Nor do i know if that amount of swing is actually bad.
The bacteria should be consuming gasses a constant rate, and the zoo ox animals are only doing it in the light cycle.

How do you believe the humidity is impacting your pH? Are you dosing something based on evaporation rate?

@jsker or the water/ gas ratio in the air your questioning.