New tank pH did not went up today.

[Difrano]

Hi all,

I am pretty new to continuous variable monitor in reef tank, so I was looking at today trend and the pH did not came back up to the 7.8X that it used to be every day since I started the tank. The tank is just 3 weeks old (moved all the live rocks and livestcok from a 32 Biocube to a RSR 250) and I understand that the first few months pH swings are expected, but is this normal? It is safe for the fish and inverts those pH swings? I have only a frag on zoas so far so I am not concerned about corals.
Trend:

I have no more data because I factory reset the Apex a few days ago for a connectivity issue.

 

[kyleinpdx]

ph can be affected by the amount of co2 in the air; nice days where all the windows are open and there is a lot of gas exchange = nice, high ph. cold or hot days where the heat/AC is on or a bunch of people are over, little gas exchange = lower ph.

when was the last time you calibrated your probe? that reading is lower than I'd want but we dont know if thats legit. my ph ranges between 8.3 to just under 8.5 depending on how open or closed up the house is.

 

[Albertan22]

ph can be affected by the amount of co2 in the air; nice days where all the windows are open and there is a lot of gas exchange = nice, high ph. cold or hot days where the heat/AC is on or a bunch of people are over, little gas exchange = lower ph.

when was the last time you calibrated your probe? that reading is lower than I'd want but we dont know if thats legit. my ph ranges between 8.3 to just under 8.5 depending on how open or closed up the house is.

You won’t see ph that high in a new tank. You have a bunch of coral undergoing photosynthesis to drive the ph up. A new tank has a hard time keeping the ph high enough to not be constantly setting off the Apex low ph alarm. It gets better when you start adding coral.

Regarding the ph not coming up today, we’re your lights out for part of the day or the skimmer off? Did you have the house closed up or more people in the house? I wouldn’t worry about it, look for the longer term trends.

 

[kyleinpdx]

You won’t see ph that high in a new tank. You have a bunch of coral undergoing photosynthesis to drive the ph up. A new tank has a hard time keeping the ph high enough to not be constantly setting off the Apex low ph alarm. It gets better when you start adding coral.

Regarding the ph not coming up today, we’re your lights out for part of the day or the skimmer off? Did you have the house closed up or more people in the house? I wouldn’t worry about it, look for the longer term trends.

I’m assuming you were trying to quote the OP and not me?

 

[Albertan22]

I’m assuming you were trying to quote the OP and not me?

No I was quoting you. I was referencing your ph numbers of 8.3 to 8.5 and saying that his ph was lower than you would like to see.

 

[kyleinpdx]

No I was quoting you. I was referencing your ph numbers of 8.3 to 8.5 and saying that his ph was lower than you would like to see.

Why couldn't you achieve that on a new tank? I guess I don't follow the direction you are going.

pH is a very well understood component of tank chemistry. Remove dissolved co2 and ph will go up, sink a bunch of dissolved co2 and ph will go down. It can be done via coral photosynthesis (but thats just one means of exporting co2) If done correctly, you can fire up a tank today and hit a nice high ph number. The build I am currently working on (my build thread) is a tank upgrade:

100% new sand
100% new water
60% new rock

I'll probably top out around 8.45 today as it will be a little cooler/rainy so the house wont be open as much as it will be Wednesday (80* forecasted).

 

[weamdog]

House full of visitors for memorial day? Bacteria bloom since tank is new? In any case, probably not something to get overly worried about as swings are to be expected with new tanks.

 

[Difrano]

Thanks for your comments, yes I understand CO2 is the main driver of tank pH levels, but I usually tested for pH one a month and first time realizing how it swings hour to hour. I live in FL and always keep the back door open during the day for the cat to go in and out, the weird thing is that for the past 3 weeks the pH was oscillating between 7.95 to 7.7 but yesterday it never came up during the day, the only difference was that yesterday was raining all day with humidity up to the roof, so maybe the gas exchange was bad? I was running lights and skimmer as always.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Humidity won’t impact the gas exchange between tank water and the air.