PH has tanked, and I have no idea why

[MnFish1]

Maybe, but a two week lag time to see the effect of the change? It's also hard to explain the change in alkalinity consumption without the corresponding drop in pH being real, I'll double check though.

I haven't cleaned out large amounts of algae, nothing any different than is typical for me.

Double check the pH probe - as a first solution (IMO). Then see if your CO2 scrubber is somehow making a problem.

PS im perfectly happy with a pH between 7.8 and 8.2. You may be trying to solve a problem that is not a problem

 

[Pdash]

Double check the pH probe - as a first solution (IMO). Then see if your CO2 scrubber is somehow making a problem.

PS im perfectly happy with a pH between 7.8 and 8.2. You may be trying to solve a problem that is not a problem

Two reasons it's a problem. 1. It slows coral growth very significantly, I want fast growth period, if this isn't your goal that's cool, it is a goal for me. 2. Not understanding what is going on means I can't prevent it in the future, and this type of instability can cause swings in dKH which can hurt my corals, I'm not a fan of this.
I just checked pH with red sea kit, reads about right, which is between 8.0 and 8.2, my pH right now is 8.05. I'll re calibrate the pH probe though, I have some solution on hand.

 

[MnFish1]

Two reasons it's a problem. 1. It slows coral growth very significantly, I want fast growth period, if this isn't your goal that's cool, it is a goal for me. 2. Not understanding what is going on means I can't prevent it in the future, and this type of instability can cause swings in dKH which can hurt my corals, I'm not a fan of this.
I just checked pH with red sea kit, reads about right, which is between 8.0 and 8.2, my pH right now is 8.05. I'll re calibrate the pH probe though, I have some solution on hand.

Great. Good luck

 

[Pdash]

Oh, one more thing, I ordered new sponges for the co2 reactor off amazon yesterday, because they had been looking a bit crudy. Can anyone confirm or dis-confirm that this can cause issues with operation?

 

[Billldg]

Oh, one more thing, I ordered new sponges for the co2 reactor off amazon yesterday, because they had been looking a bit crudy. Can anyone confirm or dis-confirm that this can cause issues with operation?

I have had the same sponges in my reactor since I bought it a year ago and haven't seen any decline in their purpose.

 

[jt17]

I recently had an issue with my temp probe. My cooling fan ran non stop for 3 days so I change out the temp probe and discovered my tank was at 75. My ph showed a similar decline coinciding with this.

Since we’ve eliminated most of the obvious potential causes maybe it’s something we’re not considering.

 

[Pdash]

I recently had an issue with my temp probe. My cooling fan ran non stop for 3 days so I change out the temp probe and discovered my tank was at 75. My ph showed a similar decline coinciding with this.

Since we’ve eliminated most of the obvious potential causes maybe it’s something we’re not considering.

Just double checked temperature with the Hanna temp probe, and its the same .5 lower than my Neptune that it always has been. I'll report back when I'm finished calibrating my pH probe.

 

[Pdash]

Okay so after re calibrating my probe it went from reading 8.08 to 8.17, but after calibration the readings inside the calibration packs were around .1 off which is quite a bit. I'm going to re calibrate again when I can, maybe I'll just get a new probe, but if my probe started to go bad around the 21st that might explain part of the drop, and my slowing of dosing could maybe explain the rest? If so then I would still have to look elsewhere for my reduction in alkalinity consumption. Maybe my nutrients have been too low, I've had trouble keeping them up lately even with feeding a lot (coral color still looks fine), including unwholesome amounts of powdered coral food. Probably going to go over to dosing nitrate/phosphate as using so much coral food at this point just grows tons of vermetids, aiptasia, sponges etc, just need to buy the phos. Let me know if my thinking seems right?