PH and Alkalinity question

[bubbaque]

@Randy Holmes-Farley My ph in my tank generally ranges around 7.8 on the high side and I am sure it goes lower at night due to built up co2 in my home. I notice when my alkalinity starts to dip below 7.4 I start to get what looks like tip recession on my sps. I know sea water alkalinity is lower but with higher ph.

I was reading your article about ph issues and I seen with low ph you recommend an alk of at least 3.0 meq/l. Could my low ph and low alk cause this issue?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Could be lots of things. Is this a new situation?

 

[bubbaque]

I normally run my alk around 8 to 8.5. I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago and seen lots of burnt tips when I got back home and I checked alk and it was 6.7. I raised my alk back up to 8.2 and the issue went away. I bought all the triton elements and want to use their products and they say use an alk of 7.0. I have been letting it lower but today I noticed burnt tips on a couple sps and reduced polyps on a few others, so I checked alk. I got a reading of 7.3.

The ph is an on going issue but I can not do much more to fix it. I already run a hose from the skimmer to outside but since I work from home and my kids are here all day I have high c02.

For what it is worth my nutrients are not low. po4 .08 and no3 of 7.5

I never ran my alk this low before and never had this issue. I just assume this is the issue since it only happens when my alk goes lower.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Maybe the kit is off and it is even lower than you think.

In any case, targetting 8 dKH seems a good plan.

 

[bubbaque]

Thanks for the help. I tested with two different kits. The hanna gave me 7.4 and the red sea gave me 7.2, I averaged it and came up with 7.3. I started to raise it again and I will see if it goes away in a couple of days.