PH drop at 6 am

[Andrew Zimmerman]

Hello everyone.
At 6 am everyone morning my PH drops like a rock. It goes from about 7.8 to 7.6 in about 1/2 hour.
I am now running co2 absorbing media. It helps for about a week. When it runs out it happens again. You can see in the pic when my media ran out.
My lights turn on At 10am
As far as I can tell nothing happens on my tank or in my house at 6 am.
I do run a calcium reactor so I know my ph will be a little low.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[vetteguy53081]

Generally when lights go out, ph falls until lights have been on for about 3-4 hours

 

[DaneGer21]

Does it get any morning sun from a nearby window?

 

[Andrew Zimmerman]

Does it get any morning sun from a nearby window?

Not at 6 am.
It happens at 6 am almost on the dot.
Ph will be within normal parameters then 6 am hits and ph drops significantly. Then slowly goes back up before the light come on.

 

[Andrew Zimmerman]

Generally when lights go out, ph falls until lights have been on for about 3-4 hours

Are you saying you wouldn't wory about a 0.7 ph drop? I would think that kind of swing would be bad.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Are you saying you wouldn't wory about a 0.7 ph drop? I would think that kind of swing would be bad.

I get as much as 6 at times. It’s gradual not sudden

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Are you saying you wouldn't wory about a 0.7 ph drop? I would think that kind of swing would be bad.

The spike on July 26 is test error/interference somehow unless you added something very acidic right by the probe. Everything else on the graph is normal.

No natural process to drop pH happens instantly.

 

[DaneGer21]

Is there any piece of equipment that you have turning on at 6am?

@Randy Holmes-Farley , could another piece of equipments power cord be causing interference?

 

[Andrew Zimmerman]

Is there any piece of equipment that you have turning on at 6am?

@Randy Holmes-Farley , could another piece of equipments power cord be causing interference?

I triple checked. There is nothing set to happen at 6 am. The only thing I have set to happen at a specific time is my lights and they turn on at 10am

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Maybe a bubble on the probe, maybe an air conditioner dropped line voltage, etc.

 

[Andrew Zimmerman]

This is an updated on what I believe to be the problem.

I have my protien skimmer air intake plumed into a mechanical room. This is so I can use co2 media without taking up space under my tank. This room has a furnace and hot water heater. At about 5:40 I get in the shower. I get out 10-15 min later. Then ph drops in the aquarium at 6:00. I found that the hot water heater exhaust is not optimal. If I had to guess 99% of the exhaust makes it up the stack but there is a tiny amount that leaks into the room. I do have a working carbon monoxide detector in the room that has never went off.

Just thought I should update so people can learn from my problem.

 

[Righteous]

This is an updated on what I believe to be the problem.

I have my protien skimmer air intake plumed into a mechanical room. This is so I can use co2 media without taking up space under my tank. This room has a furnace and hot water heater. At about 5:40 I get in the shower. I get out 10-15 min later. Then ph drops in the aquarium at 6:00. I found that the hot water heater exhaust is not optimal. If I had to guess 99% of the exhaust makes it up the stack but there is a tiny amount that leaks into the room. I do have a working carbon monoxide detector in the room that has never went off.

Just thought I should update so people can learn from my problem.

You may have an exhaust issue, but those daily dips are 100% normal. pH drops over night and is always low early morning before lights on.

Here’s my pH last week. The sharper drop on Aug 2 was when the power went out for a couple hours from a storm. That drop of 8.3-8.2 was over the course of 3 hours.

You’ll also note that the daily low pH trends down in both our graphs each day. That’s the CO2 media getting used up.

 

[Righteous]

Here’s also a slow steady trend up over the course of the last couple of days:

That’s been due to us leaving on vacation. I also monitor CO2 levels in the house. Those hit 400ppm down from 700ppm within the first day we were gone (Aug 4th). You’ll notice that even though CO2 dropped fairly quickly, the pH rise has taken several days as the tank reaches equilibrium with the room air.

 

[Smite]

That is interesting. I see the OP's point. Hard to say its an error when it happens daily. Also hard to say its normal comparing the graph posted. Yes there is a drop as normal but OP is dropping from 8.3 ish to steadily down until a sudden cliff daily to 7.6.

My 180 would hit 7.6 constantly and I was always battling random TN events in sps overnight. I drilled a hole outside and ran a skimmer line with little change. After breaking down that tank we started rearranging the area and my wife smelt gas. Had the gas company come out and sure enough there was a gas leak from a DIY gas line the previous owner had ran. It was on the backside of the wall and leaking into the house. It's also directly below where I drilled the outdoor line for my skimmer intake. DOH!

OP I wouldn't rule your theory out, seems to line up.

 

[Righteous]

Yes there is a drop as normal but OP is dropping from 8.3 ish to steadily down until a sudden cliff daily to 7.6.

That’s not happening daily. That happened once in his graph which he said was due to the co2 media running out.

His daily drop is about 8.3-7.9 which is pretty typical.

 

[Smite]

That’s not happening daily. That happened once in his graph which he said was due to the co2 media running out.

His daily drop is about 8.3-7.9 which is pretty typical.

So why is it dropping to so abruptly to 7.6 when the media is exhausted? OP states it happened daily and sounds to be the reason he added co2 media

 

[cmoore806]

If I were you I would:

Change the time/clock in the system to be off by a two hours. If the problem repeats at the new time (the old 6am) then you know its the environment outside the aquarium somehow influencing the tank. If it happens at the same 6am real time (internal clock would be earlier) then you know its something inside the system influencing the change.

I've never had to do this myself, but I would try it if I were in the same position and scratching my head enough to try to go down the rabbit hole for answers (or more questions).

 

[Andrew Zimmerman]

Update #2
I fixed the hot water exhaust stack. my problem completely went away. For troubleshooting purposes I didn't replace my CO2 media since my first post. I do not see a reason to run it anymore. Again for troubleshooting I took showers at different lengths. You can see from the graph the differences. Also you can see the day I fixed my exhaust stack.

 

[Righteous]

I guess I misunderstood shower “every morning” lol … but we all work from home now so it makes sense (I may or may not share a similar shower schedule)

So the first graph only had one drop from the exhaust and this one only has two if I’m understanding correctly? I’ve only seen drops sudden like that with the skimmer / flow / lights off etc.. your skimmer line must have been sucking a ton of CO2.

if your interested in trying you might keep the co2 scrubber to see if your CO2 media lasts longer now. It might last more like 1 month and also get your low points up over 7.85.

At least it’s a good sign your heater is burning cleanly if it’s producing a ton of CO2 and not setting off your CO detector!

Edit: I just realized your first graph the CO2 scrubber media was canceling out the drops until it was offline and then you could see the drop on that last day. I think I (and maybe some others) assumed you were talking about all the other days where the CO2 media was absorbing the exhaust as being drops. Anyway, thanks for the update and I still think the CO2 scrubber might bring up your pH up over a couple days if you try and leave it running (depending on that room air, ventilation etc)