Ph drops and inverts die within 24 hours.

[cookiehouse79765]

Any ideas on why my ph will drop all the way down to 7.58 from 8.1 in a 24 hour period. I have been treating with kalkwasser to bring it up. I have attached my seneye check. My next step is to send off a sample of my water to a lab to be broken down for contaminants. I also now have hair algae starting in my tank as well. My fish all are happy and corals are not but not dying. All the inverts I add seem to die with in an hour as well.

 

[UnnamedReef]

How old is the tank? Fish happy but corals and inverts struggling leads me to think copper or heavy metals in the water. Do you run carbon?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

CO2 lowers the ph. Is the tank well oxygenated? Do you have a skimmer on the tank, or a powerhead pointed at the surface to cause agitation? Do you have any windows open your home?

This article is a bit complicated IMO, but it explains the reasons for low ph and how to correct it.

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

 

[cookiehouse79765]

How old is the tank? Fish happy but corals and inverts struggling leads me to think copper or heavy metals in the water. Do you run carbon?

Run carbon constantly in a reactor.

 

[cookiehouse79765]

CO2 lowers the ph. Is the tank well oxygenated? Do you have a skimmer on the tank, or a powerhead pointed at the surface to cause agitation? Do you have any windows open your home?

This article is a bit complicated IMO, but it explains the reasons for low ph and how to correct it.

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

I have left the lower cabinet doors open to let the skimmer catch air from the house. The dissolved o2 is 8.1-8.3 constantly. Powerhead’s are pointed up and cycles the water up and around completely.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I doubt the pH is killing inverts.

Try the aeration test for the pH issue:


https://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/
The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

 

[cookiehouse79765]

I doubt the pH is killing inverts.

Try the aeration test for the pH issue:


https://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/
The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

Continues to drop Idk now.