low PH

[coralcruze2020]

my night time PH gets down to 7.88- 7.89. all other params are perfect... is this enought to harm fish?

 

[coralcruze2020]

anyone have any suggestions of t hi is?

 

[coralcruze2020]

anyone at all have an opinion or know the facts on this?

 

[jjencek]

You will be fine.

 

[five.five-six]

While it's not optimal, most of the fishes we commonly keep in this hobby will tolerate it well.

In the simplest of terms, only accurate for this discussion, pH is an indicator of the ratio of Co2 to bicarbonate in your tank. At night, light dependent photosynthesis stops but respiration does not so your Co2 levels elevate. You can either raise your bicarbonate (but not without testing or you can kill everything) or lower your Co2, often running a refugium light at night will help a lot and has about a 0.0% chance of killing everything.

 

[OrionN]

pH probe are unreliable at best. I would not chase your tail measuring the pH of the tank. As long as the animals are doing OK, I would not worry about it.

 

[coralcruze2020]

pH probe are unreliable at best. I would not chase your tail measuring the pH of the tank. As long as the animals are doing OK, I would not worry about it.

Yeah i dont like to chanse... thanks for the reminder.

 

[coralcruze2020]

You will be fine.

Thanks i think so too.

 

[coralcruze2020]

While it's not optimal, most of the fishes we commonly keep in this hobby will tolerate it well.

In the simplest of terms, only accurate for this discussion, pH is an indicator of the ratio of Co2 to bicarbonate in your tank. At night, light dependent photosynthesis stops but respiration does not so your Co2 levels elevate. You can either raise your bicarbonate (but not without testing or you can kill everything) or lower your Co2, often running a refugium light at night will help a lot and has about a 0.0% chance of killing everything.

the thing is that i have a refugium light at night and it still dipped that low. unsure why exactly???

 

[SouthFla]

my night time PH gets down to 7.88- 7.89. all other params are perfect... is this enought to harm fish?

My reef has always struggled w/low pH due to a tightly sealed and poorly ventilated Florida home. Kalk helped some, running my skimmer airline outside helped some, dosing more Alk 24/7 as my corals grew helped some, but in the end I learned to stop obsessing and completely ignore pH (took me a while LOL).

With a calibrated Apex meter, for the last few years my Aquarium pH has been 7.65 at night and up to 7.9-8.0 during the day (higher in winter when we can open up the house). Here’s a pic of my soon to be 5 year old tank-yours will be fine

 

[tom obrecht]

I too had issues on my reef tank with low ph. I ran an airline from my skimmer intake to outside air and now always above 8.0.

 

[coralcruze2020]

My reef has always struggled w/low pH due to a tightly sealed and poorly ventilated Florida home. Kalk helped some, running my skimmer airline outside helped some, dosing more Alk 24/7 as my corals grew helped some, but in the end I learned to stop obsessing and completely ignore pH (took me a while LOL).

With a calibrated Apex meter, for the last few years my Aquarium pH has been 7.65 at night and up to 7.9-8.0 during the day (higher in winter when we can open up the house). Here's a pic of my soon to be 5 year old tank-yours will be fine

thanks for your input and nice tank!!!

 

[Sk8r]

Much more important to track alkalinity. I prefer it around 8.3. Magnesium levels should be over 1200 (I prefer about 1350) to hold it there.