Chasing PH -

Rwwilli

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Tank - 90 gallon rimless with 30 gallon sump
Lights - Radion G4 Pro and T5 hybrid - 10-hour for radion 5-hour for T5
Algae scrubber - reverse of light schedule with a 30 minute overlap on each side
Dose 50 ML of All-For-Reef over 24 hour period with Neptune DOS
CO2 scrubber plumbed in to skimmer - skimmer on 24/7

At night PH drops to 7.7ish during the day PH 7.9
Tank located in basement approx. 10 feet from back door that is open often throughout the day.

Alk- 9.55
Ca- 486
Mg- 1387

Inhabitants - low fish load- 2 x chromis, Coral Beauty, Powder brown tang (small), 2x clowns
Higher coral load, but all growing frags. Just not growing as fast as I think they should. SPS, LPS and a few zoas. Tank overall is doing well. Just moved a month ago and did not lose anything. Has been up a cumulative 2 years- started with 60 cube and the upgraded the 90.

Question- Do I chase PH to 8.2ish? If so - how? With the tank in the basement I do not have an easy way to introduce fresh air to the skimmer. CO2 scrubber did bring the PH up by .2.

Thoughts? Am I out of my mind?
 

DC Reefer

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The drop at night is normal. Have you checked the calibration of your PH meter recently? I would start there to confirm it is as low as your readings are showing.

I use CO2 scrubbers on two of my tanks, on 1 it keeps it between 8.3 and 8.4, on the other it is usually between 8.1 and 8.3. The main difference is the lower one is on a Calcium reactor and has low PH affluent dosed 24/7. Both of the scrubbers are recirculating through the skimmer.

Another option if you are dosing 2 part and using Sodium Bicarbonate is to switch to soda ash for the Alk portion which will increase the PH

I have experienced faster coral growth with higher PH.
 
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Rwwilli

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I calibrated the pH meter in November using the supplied calibration fluid from Neptune. I will pick some more up this weekend from the LFS and recalibrate.

Right now I only dose All-For-Reef from Tropic Marin. From what I am reading it may lower pH, so that could be my issue.

For now I will calibrate the pH meter again and advise of any changes.

Thank you for the advice.
 

am3gross

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Your numbers are not far off from what I have either, and I have my skimmer sucking air from the outside. I honestly dont know why my PH is not higher.

Dripping Kalkwasser will help raise the PH a bit if you still need to raise it some, which is currently what I am doing to get mine to the 7.89 that I am at.
 

homer1475

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7.7 to 7.9 is perfectly fine and what you would typically see in a tank that is in a closed up house. Quick and easy fix for a few tenth is just to run an airline to your skimmer from the outside.

Unless you want to chase that magical 8.3 dragon, your PH is fine.
 
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Rwwilli

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7.7 to 7.9 is perfectly fine and what you would typically see in a tank that is in a closed up house. Quick and easy fix for a few tenth is just to run an airline to your skimmer from the outside.

Unless you want to chase that magical 8.3 dragon, your PH is fine.
Thank you for this.

Tank stayed near 7.99-8.0 with the lights off last night. I will see what it does when the lights kick on later today. I think with the recalibration and I changed the media in the scrubber I will see better numbers. I have had too much time at work lately to start reading and I think I sailed down a rabbit hole.

The shortest run to get outdoor air is over ten feet I am not sure it is worth the struggle. I will monitor pH and coral growth and see what happens.

Thanks again to everyone.
 

tvang81

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I also was dealing with low PH, it would range from 7.6 to 7.9. I added a CO2 scrubber which helped got it a little over 8, but felt something wasn't right and tested my PH probe in 7.01 solution. Hey what do you know it's only reading 6.85, after recalibrating the probe PH is sitting at 8.15-8.25.
 

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