Woops dkh & Kent Superbuffer

[Justin]

I am trying to find the source of them problem, but I have no idea and no one seems to be familiar with this problem either.

The pH drop is small right now, but if it goes like it went last time, it;s going to drop down below 7.5 within a couple days

As far as bioload goes, there is almost no bio load. 1 small snowflake eel, around the size of an pencil, 2 small cleaner shrimp, 1 spider hermit crab, 1 blue knuckle Hermit crab, 5 Zebra Nerite Snails, some snails off the live rock. I am not worried about how they are acting, The eel came in live rock, so he's a tough little guy, but I know pH dropping below 7.5 is bad and I would like to cerrect it.

Tank specs, 48gallon tank, with single strip light - Coralife 20k bulb, Ebo Jager 150W heater, Rena Filstar XP2 External Canister Filter with Sponges, micro filtration pads, and Bio Chem Stars, running off an overflow box. 40lbs CaribSea Sea Floor Special Grade Crushed Aragonite, 28lbs Premium Fiji Liverock that's been in tank since late fall.

That's it! See anything out or the ordinary?

[Dorkel Marine 1]

:shock: I think I'll wake up and see if I'm having a nightmare.

Thanks Brad

I'll read somemore on RC. I got a good article on Water Chemistry by Randy.

Thanks for making it sound fairly simple. I'm looking forward to my first alk test. Many thanks and happy reefin :shock: 8) :x 8) 8)

[Justin]

Well this morning the lights are about to turn on and the pH is down to 7.9 :x

[Aquattro]

Put some water in a container, shake the crap out of it for a couple of minutes and remeasure the pH. Just to be sure there isn't an excess of CO2 in it.

[Canadian Man]

Well this morning my ph was down to 8.05 like normal and at night it's about 8.15 to 8.2 and I run a reverse light refugium.
So no big deal, Your animals are still alive, I presume?

[Justin]

I am gonna do that shake the water thing right now. The pH is down to 7.85ish now, that is after about 10 hours of light.

[Aquattro]

Just an FYI...when I had big problems with my pH (it went down to 7.5) it turned out to be my probe. I cleaned the probe by soaking in a 2 part cleaner for 2 days, then recalibrated it. Now it was dead on. I put it in my tank and it was 8.3. I then watched over the next 12 hours as it dropped back to 7.5. I recalibrated and tried again. Started at 8.3....ended at 8.9!!

What I would do it buy a cheep hagen pH kit and match it against your probe. Just for peace of mind.

[Justin]

Well instead of shaking the hell out of it, I put 1L of the water into a jar, and put a Rena 400 air pump on a stone into it. You cannot see water there are so many bubbles. Before air 7.91 after air 8.18. Moral of the story, I have co2 buildup. I have more flow in this tank then I do in some of my Cichlid tanks, and they don't buildup co2. So what can I do to reduce this, other then a stupid amount of water flow? I just put a powerhead in aiming at the top of the water. I am going to try to get a skimmer soon, anything else I can do? For now I will keep the filter running off the overflow box. I have absolutely no idea why the co2 is building up, so what I am going to do is have my cousin who is lisenced to serive furnaces come over and take a look at my furnace, and see if everything there is ok. I am thinking it's not. Thanks a million!

[Jack]

Glad you found out your problem!

I would try to create some surface agitation. Marine tanks have/need alot of circulation.

I'm just heading out the door but I'm sure the other guys will help you out with some suggestions. good luck

[Justin]

I have a Rio 400 aimed at the surface, as well as the canister doing 300g/h as well, think I need more agitation?