Effects of low pH

[cornerjag]

What's up everyone, I am just getting my 90g tank up and running and my water parameters seem to be staying consistent. I am noticing that my pH tends to drop at night which I think I have heard happens. I seem to stay consistent at 8 through the day and drop down to about 7.7 during the night. What are some ways I can keep my pH up through the night and what kind of effects does having low pH have on SPS corals?

 

[Biocubehqi]

Do you run a light in your fuge opposite of the display tanks? That helps eliminate ph swings

 

[jda]

I fought chronic low PH for years when I had a tank in the basement. Airing out the house was the best thing for me, but this was not always possible with the weather that we had in Missouri. In the end, I cannot tell of any ill effects. Just keep your alk stable and don't chase the PH.

 

[dunc101]

I agree with jda. My pH tends to stay around 7.8 in some parts of the winter/spring and I don't see any issues. I use my pH probe on my Apex as more of a "monitor" to tell if too much kalk was dumped in my tank at once than anything else.

 

[Allmost]

check PH only when its out of range, prety normal for it to be 7.7 to 8.

if you get up and see its 7 though, then there is something wrong which you should check.

no down sides to lower PH at night.

 

[plantastic]

Most often, chronic "low Ph" is from accumulated CO2 in the house/room. Opening the windows is the easiest way to combat that, but not always feasible.

The best advice is to monitor Ca, Alk, NO3, and PO4. And, to not overly micro-manage the tank, just to feel good about a number.

A few years ago, I had a "perfect" tank....till a friend gave me an old pinpoint Ph meter...started chasing that parameter, since I had become aware of it's "deficiency"...8.0 in the day, 7.7 at night...started messing with Kalk,drilling holes in the wall to run skimmer air intake from outside, replacing probe with new, surface agitation, recalibrating probe, etc.....till I took the Ph meter off...then perfect tank again!

 

[cornerjag]

Thanks guys. I was getting a little worried about my parameters and checked today and found that I need to add a touch more calcium to the tank. Also my refugium is running on the same time table as the display primarily because I got my ballasts off another tank that had them already wired and may switch to LED's in the future.

On another note what would be the cause of a birdsnest looking to be bleaching out. my parameters seem stable and the only thing that I can think of that could have effected it is that I added another acropora in the same half of the tank but nothing too close it may be about 6 inches or so from the birdsnest. Though thinking about it now the birdsnest had an acropora crab in it that I haven't seem recently. would a dead invert close to the birdsnest raise phosphate or anything to make it look pale or bleached? I have noticed this a bit in the past with the birdsnest bleaching or going a little pale in color but nothing for this long a period of time.

 

[dunc101]

Thanks guys. I was getting a little worried about my parameters and checked today and found that I need to add a touch more calcium to the tank. Also my refugium is running on the same time table as the display primarily because I got my ballasts off another tank that had them already wired and may switch to LED's in the future.

On another note what would be the cause of a birdsnest looking to be bleaching out. my parameters seem stable and the only thing that I can think of that could have effected it is that I added another acropora in the same half of the tank but nothing too close it may be about 6 inches or so from the birdsnest. Though thinking about it now the birdsnest had an acropora crab in it that I haven't seem recently. would a dead invert close to the birdsnest raise phosphate or anything to make it look pale or bleached? I have noticed this a bit in the past with the birdsnest bleaching or going a little pale in color but nothing for this long a period of time.

Bleaching is normally a sign of too much light. Is it high up in the tank? Can you move it down some? Did you acclimate the coral when you placed it in your tank?
I have also had "paleing" out of corals before because of too LITTLE nutrients (phosphates should be around 0.03 and you should be able to measure some nitrates). For some reason in my tank... I have a hard time of getting nutrients UP instead of down LOL. In the instance I stated above, I had PO4 registering 0.0 and also registering 0 nitrates on my hannah checker and salifert test kits.

 

[cornerjag]

Bleaching is normally a sign of too much light. Is it high up in the tank? Can you move it down some? Did you acclimate the coral when you placed it in your tank?
I have also had "paleing" out of corals before because of too LITTLE nutrients (phosphates should be around 0.03 and you should be able to measure some nitrates). For some reason in my tank... I have a hard time of getting nutrients UP instead of down LOL. In the instance I stated above, I had PO4 registering 0.0 and also registering 0 nitrates on my hannah checker and salifert test kits.

Yea both my nitrates and phosphates are reading 0 and have cut back on coral feeding a bit thinking I may have been adding too much. I acclimated the birdsnest and has been in the tank for roughly 6 months now and has been primarily in the same spot of the tank the entire time. I believe I should check into raising my nutrients. What would be a good indicator that I have too much nutrients in the water. Im guessing cyano and an algae bloom?

 

[dunc101]

Yea both my nitrates and phosphates are reading 0 and have cut back on coral feeding a bit thinking I may have been adding too much. I acclimated the birdsnest and has been in the tank for roughly 6 months now and has been primarily in the same spot of the tank the entire time. I believe I should check into raising my nutrients. What would be a good indicator that I have too much nutrients in the water. Im guessing cyano and an algae bloom?

Yep