I am starting my first Reef tank. It is 30g with a 10 gallon sump. It has been cycling for 2 months now... a bit long but I was finishing school and didnt have time to give my full attention to any fish yet. Anyways, I have finally ordered 2 clownfish from live aquaria and they are arriving tomorrow but my tanks pH dropped to 7.6 overnight!! It has had decent parameters, not perfect (Nitrate was high at 2 ppm and pH was 8.0) so I did a 30% ish water change to lower the Nitrates yesterday before the pH dropped. Previous water changes have not affected the pH. Should I add baking soda before my fish arrive tomorrow? Should I attempt another water change? Should I add an air stone? I opened the doors to let some air in so that might help? My little clownfish are arriving tomorrow and I'm worried.
There currently isnt a protein skimmer running. And I have been lightly dosing some micro bacteria 7 over the past week just to add some more bacteria, idk I thought the more couldnt hurt, just to be safe. And it is fully cycled to the best of my knowledge. (Added a small dose of ammonia a little less than a month ago to double check if it was cycled and it was all gone within a few days. Other parameters from last night( before water change) are at ammonia (0 ppm), (dKH 9.5), nitrite (0.05ppm), pH (8.0), temp 78, and salinity 1.025. And now (after the water change) the parameters are nitrate is at 0ish maybe 1, nitrite is 0ppm, dKH is at 8.5 and pH is at 7.6. Also I use RODI water for filter changes, instant ocean salt mix, and I dont have anything in the tank other than sand and rock that weren't live to start. I run AI prime lights.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I apologize for the long post, I wasn't sure on what information would be relevant.
There currently isnt a protein skimmer running. And I have been lightly dosing some micro bacteria 7 over the past week just to add some more bacteria, idk I thought the more couldnt hurt, just to be safe. And it is fully cycled to the best of my knowledge. (Added a small dose of ammonia a little less than a month ago to double check if it was cycled and it was all gone within a few days. Other parameters from last night( before water change) are at ammonia (0 ppm), (dKH 9.5), nitrite (0.05ppm), pH (8.0), temp 78, and salinity 1.025. And now (after the water change) the parameters are nitrate is at 0ish maybe 1, nitrite is 0ppm, dKH is at 8.5 and pH is at 7.6. Also I use RODI water for filter changes, instant ocean salt mix, and I dont have anything in the tank other than sand and rock that weren't live to start. I run AI prime lights.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I apologize for the long post, I wasn't sure on what information would be relevant.