Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - errant pH readings ?

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- - errant pH readings ? (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=90251)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wheelman76 (Post 750837)

I'm dealing with the same thing right now. My tank is four and a half months old and my ph has always hovered between 8.15 and 8.25 during lights on and it drops down to 8.05 to 8.10 at night and I run the light in my refugium 24/7. For the last three or four days the ph won't get above 8.12 during the day and drops to 7.97 at night. I know it's not a huge difference but it's bugging me. It must be the weather since we are both dealing with this problem at the same time. I have my balcony door open all day and night as I have for the last few months and have made no other changes, so I think it must be excess co2 causing the drop in ph. Btw my alkalinity sits between 8.4 and 9.0 and I have an apex controller that reads the ph , which I just calibrated three days ago when I noticed the drop. I plan on running a tube from the air intake on my skimmer out my window to see if it makes any difference.

I'm looking forward to your observations once you find something different to explain what is happening to your tank

I can't change what I'm doing as I have the doors and windows open as much as I can

I quit testing when my ph pen started saying 3. Lol. The Mh lights were affecting the electonics like a solar flare.

The only test I do every couple months is ca/alk/mg

Unless something starts to look off, don't worry about the pH. My system is dropping down too: now that all of the windows are closed overnight in the house again.

There are much more important parameters to worry about. ;)

I run my skimmer air thru CO2 absorbant, my ph is 7.5 without it and 8.3 with it. My sump is under my basement stairs, I tried drawing outside air but didn't see any significant results.
I don't understand why people who don't test ph tell others not to, maybe there ph is ok and not testing it doesn't matter.
Everything I've ever read says that 7.5 ph is too low, my tap water is 7.6.
I monitor ph mainly as a quick indicator of chemistry problems and find it hard to believe that a ph of 7.5 is not detrimental to the long term health of a reef tank.

The reason that some people will say not to worry about the pH is that as the pH drops down, the aragonite will dissolve and bring the pH back up.

(I think this is correct, someone correct me if I'm wrong)

If I ran a ca reactor I would monitor ph. But until then. My tank was always stable. If you really want aquavitro has a great buffer that will not raise over 8.3.

But until I see fish loose direction or inverts fall apart I won't worry

I highly doubt that the oceans them self are constant considering co2 is absorb and released with flux in temp and agitation. The ocean is the largest source of co2 in our world.