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

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Yes, how far away is “away”? I am testing as far as my probe reaches about 3 ft away.

Two issues are out of the tank water to avoid ground loop issues, and cords away from lights and things.

You are avoiding the former, maybe not the latter.

But you are measuring the outdoor and and indoor air aeration tests this way? And when you take tank water out and measure it that same way, right away, you get low levels like 7.5 still?
 
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Can’t use probe outside so I test it with my Salifert kit that seems to match the pH probe as it’s easy to tell when it’s below 7.7 drastically.

edit: the Salifert pH test kit is consistent with my probe and fairly easy to read. At pH 8.0 it’s a nice deep forest green, at 7.7 it’s pastel green and anything below 7.7 just goes yellow.
 

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I ordered a secondary chamber that I will fill with crushed coral. I can’t think dripping 90ml per minute of pH 6.4 water directly from my calcium reactor is helping things.

To me it sounds like this is the cause. 90 ml of 6.4 effluent is a lot. I mean 90ml x 1440 mins in a day, that's 129,600 ml in a day, or about 34 gallons. Darn close to 10 percent of your tank's water volume.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Yes it is.

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).
 

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I have tried using SeaChem's pH buffer to bring up the pH in my tank but it has been a very gradual process and my tank really wants to keep lowering the pH even after significant and consistent water changes.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I have tried using SeaChem's pH buffer to bring up the pH in my tank but it has been a very gradual process and my tank really wants to keep lowering the pH even after significant and consistent water changes.

ALL "buffers" are alkalinity supplements, and these sorts of buffers don't even have the most pH boost per unit of alkalintiy added.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I’d like to stay away from any buffers and focus on an approach that offers consistency. I feel like buffers really risk throwing params out of whack esp if left unchecked.

Buffers are never the best solution to a pH problem. Higher pH alkalinity supplements can be part of the answer.
 

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Looks like your two low pH sources are too much for the skimmer to effectively degas. If you have a spare skimmer, or one in a separate system, I would try borrow it over for a couple days to see if it make a difference. If so, it's time to consider upgrading the skimmer or permanently add a second one.

Another thing can help is dosing kalk. For one, it raise pH by itself. For the second, it supplement the calcium reactor so that less low pH effluent is needed to add to the tank.
 

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Another thing I noticed is the day night difference in your tank is quite big, as 0.5. Mine is only 0.2. It could because the heavy bioload, both fish and corals, produce plenty of CO2 at night, and plenty of photosynthesis during the day. So another thing might help is only run the calcium reactor during the day when lights are on. Or higher flow during the day, lower flow during the night if it's doable. That way you minimize the CO2 input into the tank at night. Maybe it can change pH from 7.5~8.0 to 7.6~7.9. That would be a welcoming improvement.

Also, find a way to drip the effluent into skimmer will also help gas out CO2 more efficiently. ReefDudes mentioned in his livestream that it help raise the pH by 0.1.
 

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Another consideration. I see you have a life reef skimmer. I love these skimmers but keep in mind that the air is recirculated. I would remove the air line from the cup and see what happens. it may help to add more room air to the skimmer.
 
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Ok, I really really need help. I am throwing money at the problem at this point and nothing is working.

So far since the last post I have added:

Kalk stirrer added to ATO
Aeration chamber for sulfur denitrator effluent that is attached directly to an outside line (skimmer already connected to an outside line)
Added a second chamber to my calcium reactor that greatly increased effluent pH.
Re-routed my calcium reactor effluent from my return portion of the sump to the skimmer inlet.

All of these things and my pH has actually gotten worse!!! It’s dropping lower and lower by day. I just bought another co2 meter and it reads within 20 of my old one. Right around 750 today. Hovers between 500-750 which doesn’t seem terrible.

I am running 2 new probes with brand new calibration and they are almost the same reading. How can this be? Could it be possible that my home is on some portion of earth unbeknownst to modern science that we have not discovered yet? Can I be the first reefer in the world to have a home that is unable to house a reef tank?

I am so dang frustrated I can scream!

*EDIT:

The only thing I can think of after seeing NO improvement after adding ALL of the above is that maybe my aeration is too strong and my tank no matter how much I try to manipulate it is VERY quickly equalizing to the co2 in my home and that these meters are garbage meaning my home has way more co2 in it than I think it does. I really would love to hear everyone's take on this because my only other option is to install an ERV for some serious air exchange but my quote is over $4500 just for the install due to the fact that my basement has to be ripped up pretty good to get this unit to fit in the ceiling of my fish room and drill 4" intake/exhaust through the foundation and outside. Seriously about to pull the trigger...
 
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josephxsxn

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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.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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All of these things and my pH has actually gotten worse!!! It’s dropping lower and lower by day. I just bought another co2 meter and it reads within 20 of my old one. Right around 750 today.

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

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