How to fix low ph at night?

[Stuckita]

My PH during the day will be around 8.1. However at night I’m dropping to around 7.6. I’m currently dosing aqua forest 3 part, running a skimmer and have lots of surface agitation.

Opening the windows doesn’t help much.

Tank is a waterbox 35.2, not sure if a refugium is possible in an AIO.

What would you do?

 

[dwest]

I would try not to worry about it. My tank pH gets lower than I would like. But I’ve been reefing for 30 years and it’s OK. You’ll get faster hard coral growth at a higher pH but you can still get good growth when it’s lower. Focus on the control of salinity and alkalinity.

 

[Stuckita]

I would try not to worry about it. My tank pH gets lower than I would like. But I’ve been reefing for 30 years and it’s OK. You’ll get faster hard coral growth at a higher pH but you can still get good growth when it’s lower. Focus on the control of salinity and alkalinity.

Yeah eh? I have been getting growth but just figured the swings weren’t too good for it!

Speaking of alk, just realized my doser has been clogged for 1.5 days - fixed now!

 

[Reef Stag]

Over the years, I’ve tried just about everything to fix low pH at night, other than a very large refugee with a very bright light. The only truly effective thing in my experience was a CO2 scrubber. Best set up in my opinion is to have it with a bypass valve, so the skimmer only draws air through it at night, the media last twice as long this way and the pH will be more stable overall.

 

[Troylee]

Top off with kalk and back off the 3 part.

 

[apb03]

I've been working on an experiment on my tank for the past few days on this topic. I wanted to evaluate my growth with a stable pH and try to start my lighting period at or near 8.3.

Here's what it's looking like so far

I am dosing Kalkwasser only during the lights out period and then dosing ESV at three intervals, the first interval 1 hour before lights on, and again twice more 6 hours apart (8am, 2pm and 8pm).

I'm also using a Co2 scrubber to help out. I don't know if this will improve my growth, but I wanted to see for myself.