PH Swings in 40 Gallon Breeder

optimisticdingo

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Hey Everyone! I've been having some issues with stabilizing the pH in my 40-gallon breeder and was wondering if you could help share some advice. I've been dosing pH with Aqua Vitro's Eight-Four and still haven't been able to get the pH to stabilize. I'm finding that I need to dose pretty much every day. I'm worried that dosing Eight-Four this much could also be causing my alkalinity to get too high but currently, I don't have a kH test kit. Is this level of dosing normal? I'm finding that pretty much every time I check my pH it is around 8.0 and I would really like to get it stabilized around 8.4. I'm sure the constant pH swing can't be good for the tank inhabitants. All of my other parameters have remained constant. Ammonia is always at 0, Nitrite is always at 0, and Nitrate is always below 20. Should I change products or am I just doing something wrong? This is my first reef tank so I'm still pretty new. At this point, the tank is about 3 months old. All of the corals are doing very well and growing. I've recently had bad luck with my fish and I'm wondering if these pH swings might have something to do with it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Here is the current stocklist of my Aquarium

Fish/Inverts
  • 2 Bangai Cardinal Fish
  • 1 Ocellaris Clownfish
  • 1 Red Eye Fairy Wrasse
  • 1 Black Long-Spined Sea Urchin
  • 1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
  • 1 Peppermint Shrimp
  • 2 Mexican Turbo Snails
  • 3 Astrea Snails
  • 2 Cerith Snails
  • 3 Nessarius Snails
Coral
  • Fox Coral
  • Grandis Palythoa
  • Palythoa
  • Candy Cane Coral
  • Zoanthids
  • Velvet Mushroom
  • Ricordea Mushroom
  • Acan
  • Montipora
  • Hammer Coral
  • Frogspawn
 

Reefinmike

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1- Don't trust any pH reading from a test kit. calibrated dual junction pH probe or nothing at all.
2- throw that stuff away. anything that tells you it's going to maintain a perfect stable 8.4 pH is snake oil.
 
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optimisticdingo

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1- Don't trust any pH reading from a test kit. calibrated dual junction pH probe or nothing at all.
2- throw that stuff away. anything that tells you it's going to maintain a perfect stable 8.4 pH is snake oil.
I mean the bottle doesn't say that it's gonna maintain a stable 8.4 pH indefinitely. It says you still need to dose at least once a week or once a month depending on your system. However, It's been like 2 weeks of dosing and it still hasn't stabilized. What do you use to buffer your pH?
 

redfishbluefish

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If you're not testing alk, stop dosing Eight-Four....that's just some alk solution.

Don't chase pH. It is what it is because of CO2. When lights are on (photosynthesis), CO2 will be consumed and pH will go up. Conversely, when lights are out, CO2 isn't consumed, and pH drops. You can help reduce CO2 from a sealed house by running an air line from your skimmer to outside.
 
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optimisticdingo

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If you're not testing alk, stop dosing Eight-Four....that's just some alk solution.

Don't chase pH. It is what it is because of CO2. When lights are on (photosynthesis), CO2 will be consumed and pH will go up. Conversely, when lights are out, CO2 isn't consumed, and pH drops. You can help reduce CO2 from a sealed house by running an air line from your skimmer to outside.
So Alk is more important than pH?
 

GillMeister

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So Alk is more important than pH?
I don't think he's saying that. Just don't continue dosing it if you don't know how it's affecting your alk. Stability is what you're looking for.

PH is exactly as described. It's a product of your home co2 and how fast it's consumed by your tank biology. It's really difficult to maintain above 8.2. If you polled most people on R2R they'd say they hover around 8.0 to 8.1.
 

X-37B

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My ph swings 7.9- 8.2 light off lights on.
Get test kits for alk, ca, and mag.
Stability of the big 3 ='s success.
Once you figure out your daily alk swing you can start dosing 2 part to keep everything stable.
A ph swing like mine is very typical.
Do not chase ph or any other parameter.
Do some more research so you understand the process inside and out.
 
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optimisticdingo

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My ph swings 7.9- 8.2 light off lights on.
Get test kits for alk, ca, and mag.
Stability of the big 3 ='s success.
Once you figure out your daily alk swing you can start dosing 2 part to keep everything stable.
A ph swing like mine is very typical.
Do not chase ph or any other parameter.
Do some more research so you understand the process inside and out.
Sounds good. I guess I shouldn't be so worried about it. I've seen really good coral growth. My ricordea mushroom has split, my fox coral has doubled in size, zoas are starting to spread, and my candy cane corals are starting to slowly sprout new heads.
 
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