I'm trying to understand what is going on with my PH as of the last month. Up until this system (past 20+ years ) I arguably ignored PH. It was something I wrote off as not being able to control or accurately monitor so I did neither. However with the advent of tridents handing the big 3, and everything humming along it's afforded me some bandwidth to play with PH.
So here's the scenario.
Where I started.
PH in the Winter was mid 7.8s-8.0
In the Summer/Spring/Fall - with windows open 8-8.3ish - with the swamp cooler running up to 8.5!
Long story short, I got spoiled over summer winter came back ph dropped and I decide it was time to see if I couldn't do something about it.
Where I went
Ran a line for my skimmer outside (Boosted my Ph w/the windows closed from 8-8.2ish
Added a Kalk stirrer, boosted my ph from 8.2-8.4/8.45ish
It was humming along great for the past 6 months or so, and I noticed a huge difference in my animals in the winter they were looking like they did in the summer, with better PE, anemones looked very healthy; not that they looked bad now but really full.
Where I am now. (ignore the 8.06 I was zapping aptasia and it spiked)
As of a month ago, I noticed my PH was creeping up without any changes I figured it was time to calibrate the probe. When I did It dropped, for redundancy's sake, I swapped to a new probe I had stowed away *purchased 6 months ago. At that point, I thought maybe my calibration fluid has gone bad so I purchased a new calibration fluid and a new probe, and it dropped yet again after calibration. I've tried swapping the probes between each other to no avail.
During this time frame outside temps raised and my windows to the house have been open every day; which previously had raised ph. I live in a rural area 400 miles from any city with great air quality.
I have great gas exchange with an absurd amount of surface agitation (nothing has changed in this regard)
My Skimmer is still running outside, I also went through and cleaned it to make sure everything is running as it should; everything checks out.
I tried cleaning out and replacing the Kalk in my Kalk Stirrer. It doesn't seem to want to stay at saturation, however.. I've been adding Kalk by the cup (now up to 3ish), and unless I manually lift and lower the stirrer which is running 24/7 it doesn't seem to agitate it very well, but even without the Kalk reactor I should be at least at 8.0 on the low end as I was prior to adding Kalk.
All other parameters are within expected ranges. The inhabitants all seem fine, I'm not worried about the tank crashing or anything however I can notice a difference in the inhabitants specifically the anenomes they are as "full" as they are when my PH is elevated.
Not sure where to look next. Any suggestions?
So here's the scenario.
Where I started.
PH in the Winter was mid 7.8s-8.0
In the Summer/Spring/Fall - with windows open 8-8.3ish - with the swamp cooler running up to 8.5!
Long story short, I got spoiled over summer winter came back ph dropped and I decide it was time to see if I couldn't do something about it.
Where I went
Ran a line for my skimmer outside (Boosted my Ph w/the windows closed from 8-8.2ish
Added a Kalk stirrer, boosted my ph from 8.2-8.4/8.45ish
It was humming along great for the past 6 months or so, and I noticed a huge difference in my animals in the winter they were looking like they did in the summer, with better PE, anemones looked very healthy; not that they looked bad now but really full.
Where I am now. (ignore the 8.06 I was zapping aptasia and it spiked)
As of a month ago, I noticed my PH was creeping up without any changes I figured it was time to calibrate the probe. When I did It dropped, for redundancy's sake, I swapped to a new probe I had stowed away *purchased 6 months ago. At that point, I thought maybe my calibration fluid has gone bad so I purchased a new calibration fluid and a new probe, and it dropped yet again after calibration. I've tried swapping the probes between each other to no avail.
During this time frame outside temps raised and my windows to the house have been open every day; which previously had raised ph. I live in a rural area 400 miles from any city with great air quality.
I have great gas exchange with an absurd amount of surface agitation (nothing has changed in this regard)
My Skimmer is still running outside, I also went through and cleaned it to make sure everything is running as it should; everything checks out.
I tried cleaning out and replacing the Kalk in my Kalk Stirrer. It doesn't seem to want to stay at saturation, however.. I've been adding Kalk by the cup (now up to 3ish), and unless I manually lift and lower the stirrer which is running 24/7 it doesn't seem to agitate it very well, but even without the Kalk reactor I should be at least at 8.0 on the low end as I was prior to adding Kalk.
All other parameters are within expected ranges. The inhabitants all seem fine, I'm not worried about the tank crashing or anything however I can notice a difference in the inhabitants specifically the anenomes they are as "full" as they are when my PH is elevated.
Not sure where to look next. Any suggestions?
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