I have a 6 week old 75 gallon tank that I've set up Triton. I have a good ~2 softball size chunk of chaeto in the fuge, and a skimmer pulling a decent amount out. I moved a few live rocks from my old tank so this tank has cycled very quickly and is already growing quite a bit of coralline. I also moved a number of coral frags that all look really good and I have 9 small fish that are also doing well.
My question is about ph and alk. My ph has been around 7.8-8.0 since I set the tank up. My ph in my freshly made saltwater also reads about 8.0 and I've calibrated the apex probe twice. I also have a good skimmer, and I put a CO2 scrubber on, which, in one month, has shown no signs of media changing color (probably a waste of money in my case). I purchased a CO2 monitor from Amazon and it showed ~650ppm in the basement where the sump and skimmer are, and ~800-1000 in the office where my tank is (depending on whether or not I'm in there working). I also did the aeration test with outside air and my PH only rose by .04 in the sample, so not a huge impact from CO2. My alk started out at 9.6 with fresh saltwater and I have tracked it's consumption down to about 8.4 now. Based on Triton's recommended 7dkh, I have started dosing the components at a very low volume to maintain or slowly decline my alk to the recommended 7 (1ml per day per component).
However, with that said, I'm concerned about my ph as it seems to be have declined and stayed pretty low as well. Isn't ph largely a function of alkalinity when CO2 is not an issue? I'm curious / worried that if I keep letting my alk decline to the recommended 7, will my ph continue to go down? Is this all normal for a new tank I should be patient? Are there techniques within the triton method for elevating the ph up into the more desirable 8.1-8.3 range? The ph has dipped into the low 7.8X range a few times which increased my anxiety over the topic as I understand that below 7.8 starts to impact coral skeletons.
Thanks everyone for all the great info here!
My question is about ph and alk. My ph has been around 7.8-8.0 since I set the tank up. My ph in my freshly made saltwater also reads about 8.0 and I've calibrated the apex probe twice. I also have a good skimmer, and I put a CO2 scrubber on, which, in one month, has shown no signs of media changing color (probably a waste of money in my case). I purchased a CO2 monitor from Amazon and it showed ~650ppm in the basement where the sump and skimmer are, and ~800-1000 in the office where my tank is (depending on whether or not I'm in there working). I also did the aeration test with outside air and my PH only rose by .04 in the sample, so not a huge impact from CO2. My alk started out at 9.6 with fresh saltwater and I have tracked it's consumption down to about 8.4 now. Based on Triton's recommended 7dkh, I have started dosing the components at a very low volume to maintain or slowly decline my alk to the recommended 7 (1ml per day per component).
However, with that said, I'm concerned about my ph as it seems to be have declined and stayed pretty low as well. Isn't ph largely a function of alkalinity when CO2 is not an issue? I'm curious / worried that if I keep letting my alk decline to the recommended 7, will my ph continue to go down? Is this all normal for a new tank I should be patient? Are there techniques within the triton method for elevating the ph up into the more desirable 8.1-8.3 range? The ph has dipped into the low 7.8X range a few times which increased my anxiety over the topic as I understand that below 7.8 starts to impact coral skeletons.
Thanks everyone for all the great info here!
