Tank ph keeps falling below 8

[Jonathan Troutt]

I have a 75 gal with a 20gal sump. I use fritz salt and here recently i have not been able to keep PH above 8. Even with dosing ESV. Did a water change 2 days ago and ph didnt change. I am not understanding what is causing this. Any help is appreciated

 

[Flux Capacitor]

What is your PH measuring?

A PH below 8 is not a bad thing. You want the PH to be between 7.8-8.4. As long as you are in that range everything is normal, there is no reason to chase a certain number.

 

[tautog83]

The house being all closed up is causing lot of our tanks to see a drop in ph for those of us that dont have a line going outside

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I have a 75 gal with a 20gal sump. I use fritz salt and here recently i have not been able to keep PH above 8. Even with dosing ESV. Did a water change 2 days ago and ph didnt change. I am not understanding what is causing this. Any help is appreciated

A pH below 8 is not dangerous. Many tanks have been successful between 7.9 and 8.4 pH.

pH is one of the harder parameters to control in reef aquaria. The only way to manage pH without adding alkalinity to the tank is by reducing or increasing CO2 concentrations. If your pH is 7.9 or higher, I wouldn't worry about it for now.

 

[Aquavaj]

The house being all closed up is causing lot of our tanks to see a drop in ph for those of us that dont have a line going outside

This. My tank is in my room and with the windows close my ph hovers around 7.5. With windows open for a day it'll go up to 7.8 to 8.1. Between my nieces and nephews visiting last night and windows being closed the ph dropped to 7.2 overnight. Eeek! My apex was going off and I immediately opened the windows. It's still only at 7.7 right now but hopefully will be back above 7.8.

 

[slojim]

yep, my pH is showing a steady drop from mid-March, from 8.4 to 7.8. My kid is back from college, my wife isn't working at school anymore, and so my dog doesn't go outside all day. I took the ample outside, stirred it up good, and retested. Viola - back above 8. Its probable that part of my issue is that I switched from an ATS to carbon dosing also in mid-March while I use vibrant to eliminate some bubble algae. It got a foothold while my tank was new and had inadequate circulation. It's almost gone - I'm interested to see if going back to an ATS my pH rebounds a little bit. I usually sample in the morning so the DT lights are out, and the ATS lights are on.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

What is your PH measuring?

A PH below 8 is not a bad thing. You want the PH to be between 7.8-8.4. As long as you are in that range everything is normal, there is no reason to chase a certain number.

it been falling to 7.6 at night. I will calibrate my probe soon to make sure it is reading correctly as well. I will also run a line from skimmer to outside,
I did not think about the co2 concentrations changing

 

[Albertan22]

Yeah with my whole family working from home due to COVID-19 the ph in my tank has dropped below 8 and is consistently around 7.7-7.9 now. We went on a camping trip this weekend and the ph went back up to 8.2, only to drop back to 7.9 after having been home a day again. I’m not worrying about it other than opening a window everyday.

 

[Flux Capacitor]

it been falling to 7.6 at night. I will calibrate my probe soon to make sure it is reading correctly as well. I will also run a line from skimmer to outside,
I did not think about the co2 concentrations changing

That sounds like a good plan.

 

[Uncle99]

I think the prob is off,really hard to,get below 7.8