Hello,
I have a 90 gallon tank that I've been very patient with. The rock is approaching 8 months in age. There are just a few fish and only two test corals at the moment. The tank is bare bottom and has a lot of flow (2 MP40s on the sides, MP10s on the bottom) The tank is in the basement and I often entertain friends and guests in this space so it didn't take long to discover high CO2 was going to be a problem.
I've happily been able to keep all of my parameters in check except pH. Now comes the classic discussion on whether pH is worth monitoring at all. In the past, my SPS frags would not grow. I looked at everything I could think of and the only parameter I couldn't get into the recommended range was pH. My SPS frags never grew. The tank was stuck at a pH of 7.8 and it went as low as 7.6 at night. I didn't want this to happen this time. I wanted good growth.
So I figured I'd try a CO2 scrubber. Since I have more money to spend now I wasn't worried about the cost compared to the hopeful growth I'd get. I installed the scrubber as instructed and the pH immediately shot up from 7.8 to 8.3. I had seen a similar effect on a previous tank and the media lasted about a week. Granted that's not very long, but this time the media lasted one day. The next evening after installation the pH tanked.
After requesting advice from BRS, I implemented the recirculating skimmer design they've been making videos on. I figured this would work since the skimmer would always be using air that had already been scrubbed of CO2. I was wrong. The media still only lasted a day.
I'm stressed and worried about adding SPS. I designed this system to support SPS and I don't want low pH preventing growth. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? Can an SPS tank be successful with a pH of 7.8? I've considered running tubing outside, but my tank is no where near a window or outside wall and since I'm in the basement I'd have to run the line across a room, up the wall, and then to a window. Any ideas or suggestions? I'm using a newly calibrated Apex pH probe and my other test kits show the same as the probe.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
I have a 90 gallon tank that I've been very patient with. The rock is approaching 8 months in age. There are just a few fish and only two test corals at the moment. The tank is bare bottom and has a lot of flow (2 MP40s on the sides, MP10s on the bottom) The tank is in the basement and I often entertain friends and guests in this space so it didn't take long to discover high CO2 was going to be a problem.
I've happily been able to keep all of my parameters in check except pH. Now comes the classic discussion on whether pH is worth monitoring at all. In the past, my SPS frags would not grow. I looked at everything I could think of and the only parameter I couldn't get into the recommended range was pH. My SPS frags never grew. The tank was stuck at a pH of 7.8 and it went as low as 7.6 at night. I didn't want this to happen this time. I wanted good growth.
So I figured I'd try a CO2 scrubber. Since I have more money to spend now I wasn't worried about the cost compared to the hopeful growth I'd get. I installed the scrubber as instructed and the pH immediately shot up from 7.8 to 8.3. I had seen a similar effect on a previous tank and the media lasted about a week. Granted that's not very long, but this time the media lasted one day. The next evening after installation the pH tanked.
After requesting advice from BRS, I implemented the recirculating skimmer design they've been making videos on. I figured this would work since the skimmer would always be using air that had already been scrubbed of CO2. I was wrong. The media still only lasted a day.
I'm stressed and worried about adding SPS. I designed this system to support SPS and I don't want low pH preventing growth. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? Can an SPS tank be successful with a pH of 7.8? I've considered running tubing outside, but my tank is no where near a window or outside wall and since I'm in the basement I'd have to run the line across a room, up the wall, and then to a window. Any ideas or suggestions? I'm using a newly calibrated Apex pH probe and my other test kits show the same as the probe.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
