Can to much Co2 cause these swings?

[jhaggerty1990]

So Ive had my first tank for almost a year. Ive always struggled with stability. I have 4 small corals (tiny frags of gsp, zoa duncan), 3 fish, snails and a crab in a 25g lagoon. Im having alkalinity drop by around a point a day and it seems, from what Im hearing, this isnt normal. Ive struggled with pH under 8 for a while and I think I have a co2 problem. Ive ordered a co2 scrubber bc my house really is kind of stuffy. Can high co2 cause such a low pH that it makes my alk swing this hard? Thanks!

 

[Dan_P]

So Ive had my first tank for almost a year. Ive always struggled with stability. I have 4 small corals (tiny frags of gsp, zoa duncan), 3 fish, snails and a crab in a 25g lagoon. Im having alkalinity drop by around a point a day and it seems, from what Im hearing, this isnt normal. Ive struggled with pH under 8 for a while and I think I have a co2 problem. Ive ordered a co2 scrubber bc my house really is kind of stuffy. Can high co2 cause such a low pH that it makes my alk swing this hard? Thanks!

Alkalinity is removed from the water by growing coral or precipitation of calcium carbonate. A sign of precipitation is a white, hard film on surfaces and hard clumped sand.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Expanding on Dan’s comment, low pH is not a causative factor in depleting alk. All processes that deplete alk slow down (animal use and precipitation) or stay the same (accumulating nitrate) as pH is dropped.

Is the sand hardening?

 

[Pistondog]

Ph is a measure of acidity. Co2 dissolves to form carbonic acid, lowering ph.
AS co2 concentrations in the air change, they will dissolve in the water, causing a corresponding ph change.
My tank is in the media room and i can tell when people are watching a movie by the drop in ph.

 

[jhaggerty1990]

Expanding on Dan’s comment, low pH is not a causative factor in depleting alk. All processes that deplete alk slow down (animal use and precipitation) or stay the same (accumulating nitrate) as pH is dropped.

Is the sand hardening?

Yes on the surface yeah. Whats that mean and what should I do? I cant find any answers to my problem. Ive been losing so much alk from day one and It doesnt seem to happen to anyone else. I just hooked up a co2 scrubber. Also my RODI filters seemed to be a bit used up however I dont have a TDS meter so I ordered one and new filters just in case. After that Idk what else to do but maybe tear down and start over. I seem to drop calcium fairly fast too. Getting a salifert checker rather than marine reef master kit. Have hannah checker for alk, phos, and salifert for mg.

 

[jhaggerty1990]

Yes on the surface yeah. Whats that mean and what should I do? I cant find any answers to my problem. Ive been losing so much alk from day one and It doesnt seem to happen to anyone else. I just hooked up a co2 scrubber. Also my RODI filters seemed to be a bit used up however I dont have a TDS meter so I ordered one and new filters just in case. After that Idk what else to do but maybe tear down and start over. I seem to drop calcium fairly fast too. Getting a salifert checker rather than marine reef master kit. Have hannah checker for alk, phos, and salifert for mg.

Also my new golden head goby has pretty much churned all my surface sand now

 

[jhaggerty1990]

I think low Mg may be an issue from what Im learning. I do have chalky dust on my rocks too. Praying that checking TDS, new co2 scrubber, and check Mg levels is a solution. Tired of struggling but Ill have a good tank so help me god lol....till death or bankruptcy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

These are my general directions for precipitation issues:

1. Stop all efforts to boost pH.
2. Stop dosing alk for a bit and let it decline.
3. Reduce pH by switching to a low pH alk mix like sodium bicarbonate, or a calcium organic such as Tropic Marin All for Reef.
4. Ensure magnesium is normal to high.
5. Keep organics and phosphate on the high side.

After a few days of not dosing alk, restart slowly, adding additives to a very high flow area so it mixes in fast. Keep alk on the low end, near 7 dKH.

 

[jhaggerty1990]

These are my general directions for precipitation issues:

1. Stop all efforts to boost pH.
2. Stop dosing alk for a bit and let it decline.
3. Reduce pH by switching to a low pH alk mix like sodium bicarbonate, or a calcium organic such as Tropic Marin All for Reef.
4. Ensure magnesium is normal to high.
5. Keep organics and phosphate on the high side.

After a few days of not dosing alk, restart slowly, adding additives to a very high flow area so it mixes in fast. Keep alk on the low end,

These are my general directions for precipitation issues:

1. Stop all efforts to boost pH.
2. Stop dosing alk for a bit and let it decline.
3. Reduce pH by switching to a low pH alk mix like sodium bicarbonate, or a calcium organic such as Tropic Marin All for Reef.
4. Ensure magnesium is normal to high.
5. Keep organics and phosphate on the high side.

After a few days of not dosing alk, restart slowly, adding additives to a very high flow area so it mixes in fast. Keep alk on the low end, near 7 dKH.

Should I keep dkh near 7 indefinitely or get it down to 7 and slowly raise back up?

 

[Reefing.with.Rich]

Expanding on Dan’s comment, low pH is not a causative factor in depleting alk. All processes that deplete alk slow down (animal use and precipitation) or stay the same (accumulating nitrate) as pH is dropped.

Is the sand hardening?

Question
Cycling a new tank build and nearing the end of the cycle and my ph stays around 7.6-7.69
Is this normal?
Tank is the Red Sea max nano peninsula g2
There is no fish,nor coral
There’s a skimmer running but no collection cup since it’s cycling.
No lights
Tank is in my finished basement and no one is ever down there besides most days. I have a co2 meter and I get constant reading between 400-500ppm of co2 from which iv read is great levels. Why is my ph so low and how do i get it up above 8 like my other tanks always were?

 

[ronsonb]

When I was very new and had small frags and was “losing” Alk it turned out my nitrate was steadily climbing and I just didn’t know/wasn’t testing Nitrate at the time.

Just a side thought to check if you haven’t yet and it’s not ph

 

[jhaggerty1990]

Never mind Randy, I get it now after reading your post on other threads and researching more. Thank you for the advice!

 

[Reefing.with.Rich]

When I was very new and had small frags and was “losing” Alk it turned out my nitrate was steadily climbing and I just didn’t know/wasn’t testing Nitrate at the time.

Just a side thought to check if you haven’t yet and it’s not ph

Yeah my nitrate is at 9ppm per my Hanna checker

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Should I keep dkh near 7 indefinitely or get it down to 7 and slowly raise back up?

7 dKH is fine long term, but after a while (say, a week) at 7 dKH it can be ok to slowly raise it if you want.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Question
Cycling a new tank build and nearing the end of the cycle and my ph stays around 7.6-7.69
Is this normal?
Tank is the Red Sea max nano peninsula g2
There is no fish,nor coral
There’s a skimmer running but no collection cup since it’s cycling.
No lights
Tank is in my finished basement and no one is ever down there besides most days. I have a co2 meter and I get constant reading between 400-500ppm of co2 from which iv read is great levels. Why is my ph so low and how do i get it up above 8 like my other tanks always were?

The pH may be inaccurate, the CO2 meter may be inaccurate, or the tank may need more aeration.

This aeration test can help sort things out:

http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium
From it:


The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

 

[jhaggerty1990]

7 dKH is fine long term, but after a while (say, a week) at 7 dKH it can be ok to slowly raise it if you want.

So my ph is now 7.7. Calcium and mg seem to be stable now at 440/1380. Alk is now at 7.4 at 3:45 down from 8 last night at 8pm so its still dropping fast. Should I dose all for reef even though it takes days to notice alk and also will up ca/mg or should i dose a small amount of the brs soda ash to keep above 7?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So my ph is now 7.7. Calcium and mg seem to be stable now at 440/1380. Alk is now at 7.4 at 3:45 down from 8 last night at 8pm so its still dropping fast. Should I dose all for reef even though it takes days to notice alk and also will up ca/mg or should i dose a small amount of the brs soda ash to keep above 7?

It won’t take days, except maybe the first time. It’s a fine production use, but not the only good way to go.

 

[jhaggerty1990]

It won’t take days, except maybe the first time. It’s a fine production use, but not the only good way to go.

Hey, I hate to keep bugging because I know youre busy. Alk is still dropping pretty fast. It went down to 6.9 but 7.1 after a second test. Ive been testing 1 to 2 times a day. I didnt want to dose a ton of All for Reef to keep alk from dropping fast (took a few days to register the the first time I used it before this issue and I didnt want it to go below 7) so Ive been doing like just enough liquid soda ash to keep it around 7-7.2. Keeping Ca at 440 and magnesium 1350. Keeping alk around 7, will it eventually level out and stop dropping this quickly? My goby cleans the sand and I dust the precipitation off the rocks with a baster. I didnt dose any alk for about 5 days until it was going below 7. Seems to be slowing down to about .6 decrease a day.

 

[jhaggerty1990]

It won’t take days, except maybe the first time. It’s a fine production use, but not the only good way to go.

Ive also turned off skimmer, refuge light, removed gfo, and started doubling feeding to try and raise no3 and no4 as they were bottomed out so hopefully see improvement soon or I guess start looking into dosing that

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It’s not unusual to lose a little alk each day in any tank. 7 dKH is fine and I’d just keep it there with any of the methods you are using.