Hi everyone - I need to get to the root cause of my high PH issues. I understand how to lower my ph through reading a ton of stuff, but I'm hoping to understand why I have such an issue in the first place.
My tank has gradually been increasing ph over the last several weeks. I consistently do a 20% water change every 3 to 4 weeks. Generally speaking the water change does very little to reduce the ph- if at all and the ph grows 2 to 3 points every few days. Right now my tank is reading 8.61 during the day and 8.55 at night. I need help to figure out what's going on. I plan on adding some airstones in the sump to increase oxygenation to fix the problem - but would like input from you guys before I try anything.
Let me start with the biometrics of my tank:
I'm not sure what you need so I'll tell you everything:
300 gallon 72"x36"x27 Display Tank
Inline 75 gallon sump
Inline 29 gallon seahorse tank
350lbs of live rock
200lbs of live sand
Vertex Alpha 250 skimmer
8 48" T5HO lights (adding 4 Ecotech Radions tonight!)
4 MP40 powerheads
Mag18 return pump
No Fuge (just some live rock in one chamber of the sump)
36 watt UV Sterilzer running 24x7
3 dosing pumps for MG, CA and ALK
Neptune Apex controlling everything.
Not sure if you need my fish inventory - if so I can add it. Here's the current measurements on my tank using Red Sea and Elos test kits:
KH is 8
PH averages around 8.55 at night and 8.61 during the day.
MG is 1200
CA is 440
Any ideas?! Help please! Oh - i guess before i kill my fish - is there a general rule about how fast or slow you can lower PH without killing fish?
My tank has gradually been increasing ph over the last several weeks. I consistently do a 20% water change every 3 to 4 weeks. Generally speaking the water change does very little to reduce the ph- if at all and the ph grows 2 to 3 points every few days. Right now my tank is reading 8.61 during the day and 8.55 at night. I need help to figure out what's going on. I plan on adding some airstones in the sump to increase oxygenation to fix the problem - but would like input from you guys before I try anything.
Let me start with the biometrics of my tank:
I'm not sure what you need so I'll tell you everything:
300 gallon 72"x36"x27 Display Tank
Inline 75 gallon sump
Inline 29 gallon seahorse tank
350lbs of live rock
200lbs of live sand
Vertex Alpha 250 skimmer
8 48" T5HO lights (adding 4 Ecotech Radions tonight!)
4 MP40 powerheads
Mag18 return pump
No Fuge (just some live rock in one chamber of the sump)
36 watt UV Sterilzer running 24x7
3 dosing pumps for MG, CA and ALK
Neptune Apex controlling everything.
Not sure if you need my fish inventory - if so I can add it. Here's the current measurements on my tank using Red Sea and Elos test kits:
KH is 8
PH averages around 8.55 at night and 8.61 during the day.
MG is 1200
CA is 440
Any ideas?! Help please! Oh - i guess before i kill my fish - is there a general rule about how fast or slow you can lower PH without killing fish?