Tank pH at night is 7.49 and nothing makes sense, I guess 7.5 is perfectly healthy for a reef?

[2Wheelsonly]

That CO2 level would drive pH down by about 0.3 pH units relative to aeration with normal outside air.

Which makes sense if I am 7.8 at night outside translates to the 7.5 I’m seeing indoors.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I am going to take a reverse stance here... So lets reduce your surface agitation and only allow the skimmer to perform most of the gas exchange..Total speculation here but maybe your mixing in to much of your indoor air at 750ppm with the surface exchange compared to how much your skimmer with airline is pulling in...

As for probes, if I move my PH probe from one side of my sump to the over I can get up to a 0.1 PH change pretty easily.

I am going to turn off my gyres tonight which account for most of my surface agitation and see what that does.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Which makes sense if I am 7.8 at night outside translates to the 7.5 I’m seeing indoors.

What does 7.8 at night outside mean?

If the pH does not rise above 7.8 by aerating a small amount of tank water with outside air, then I think that means the whole pH measurement system is miscalibrated to read too low.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

So after one evening running the duct from the outside over my tank my pH never dropped below 7.88. Will keep it there for 7 days before I move to a more perm solution. I'll need to convert to an ERV as I don't think 0 degree weather in winter will cooperate with this method long term.

I may not be able to put the ERV directly into the fish room but I believe I can get it right near the tank outside about 7 feet away. The Panasonic ERV unit is rated for 1500sq foot and I am under that so hopefully it should do the trick.

 

[josephxsxn]

So after one evening running the duct from the outside over my tank my pH never dropped below 7.88. Will keep it there for 7 days before I move to a more perm solution. I'll need to convert to an ERV as I don't think 0 degree weather in winter will cooperate with this method long term.

Glad it helped you out. I don't find that the cold makes any difference at all. We had below zero weather here this year and it didn't appear to make a dent at all all the way down to -10f.

Build Thread - Mixed Reef 167gal Peninsula

Had some coral warfare going on this morning between an orange echinata and a favia.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[arking_mark]

What does 7.8 at night outside mean?

If the pH does not rise above 7.8 by aerating a small amount of tank water with outside air, then I think that means the whole pH measurement system is miscalibrated to read too low.

I'm with @Randy Holmes-Farley

Do the cup aeration test (cup of tank water aerated outside with an airstone) and test your pH. If it is below 8.2, I'd question the pH tester.

 

[Jon_W79]

So after one evening running the duct from the outside over my tank my pH never dropped below 7.88. Will keep it there for 7 days before I move to a more perm solution. I'll need to convert to an ERV as I don't think 0 degree weather in winter will cooperate with this method long term.

I may not be able to put the ERV directly into the fish room but I believe I can get it right near the tank outside about 7 feet away. The Panasonic ERV unit is rated for 1500sq foot and I am under that so hopefully it should do the trick.

I'm just curious, do you have good algae growth on the aquarium glass? I didn't have good algae growth until I started dosing ammonium chloride, mostly when the tank lights are on. If your tank has weak algae growth, I wonder if that could hurt the ph(and be related to other things that could be lowering the ph).

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

OK, then it is clear the aquarium water needs more aeration to blow off the excess CO2. It may also be approached by adding less, as noted above.

Open any closed areas (like a sump (or blow fresh air into it).

Make sure the skimmer is sucking as much air as it can (no inhibition on the air inlet).

I know this is an old threat, but I recently upgraded my tank. I never had low ph issues until now that I have a bigger tank. But after reading this I think I know what the issue is. The water in my sump almost looks stagnant so I’m going to try and get some more surface flow down there. My display is good and I have a skimmer with a line tan outside but at night time my oh is dropping to 7.4-7,5 and I’m having issues

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I know this is an old threat, but I recently upgraded my tank. I never had low ph issues until now that I have a bigger tank. But after reading this I think I know what the issue is. The water in my sump almost looks stagnant so I’m going to try and get some more surface flow down there. My display is good and I have a skimmer with a line tan outside but at night time my oh is dropping to 7.4-7,5 and I’m having issues

pH 7.4 sounds much more likely to be a measurement issue than a real pH.

When did you last recalibrate the meter? How did you calibrate it?

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I’m sorry I got 7.53 this morning. The probe was calibrated about three weeks ago. I do know the ph values are low based off all consumption. I had to turn kalkwasser offline since I’ve been consuming almost no kalk. By end of the day yesterday i only read 7.9 I do feed lrs frozen 3 times a day. I’m thinking I may cut that down to once a day and try to get more aeration so c02 can be removed from the water. I calibrate with lab grade 7.8 and 7.4 solution packets I have both an Alkatronic and Hannah ph probes. The Hannah is I always stored wet.I believe my Hanna to be a bit more accurate when I check it in solution packets so my actual reading may be 7.6-7.7 however i haven’t checked in the morning to be 100% sure. But I do know there’s an issue as there’s no all consumption. That I have made sure is accurate with the Alkatronic and Hannah