Tank PH

[Nathan Milender]

I have been slowly building a 125g 6ft with a 40 gallon sump. Used Liveaquaria salt as it was too cheap to pass up. Lots of live rock, I really do not know how many pounds but I do not think I can reasonably put more in. Argaonite 1-2 inches, in area that the wav's blew it out I put in crushed seashells as they stay put. Alive in the tank is 1 skunk, 1 peppermint, 1 emerald, 2 blue hermits, 10 cerith, 10 nassarius (very small), 1 sandshifting sea star, chaeto, red gracilia, hair algae, amphipods, and a mix of copepods (you can see them jumping off the aragonite).

The ph continues to normalize at 7.92-94 and the dkh drops (over about a week) from 10 to 8.5-9. temp 77 (measurement monitored with apex and hanna checkers). I dose it with soda ash (about 13 g a week depending on actually readings) which resets dkh to 10 and ph back to 8.1 (ballpark). What is consuming the dk? Should I just let it normalize where it wants to normalize?

Things I have considered , chaeto and red gracilia consume dkh. Dual dursos suck in a lot of air and this is Co2 intake. Honetly, I am just not sure.

 

[lapin]

In all my new tanks I notice alk drops. I think its stuff starting to grow on all the new surfaces, as the cause. For me it takes about 2 or 3 months before it becomes stable.

 

[Nathan Milender]

Ok, everything seems healthy and I was not all that worried about it, it just boggles me trying to figure out where it is going. Thanks for the reply.