hi all.
i have a problem with my ph falling at night,to such a extent im losing my livestock, i introduced a yellow sailfin yesterday, and tested my water before he went in, ph 8.2,alk 8.4, ammo 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0.
by the morning he was dead, but the two clowns ive also got were fine!!
i just tested the water again and all is the same except the ph it was reading 7.0!!!
any idea on how i can raise the ph at night?
cheers
andy
Have some macroalgae in one corner of the tank, and always have a small light trained on it. That way, even while the rest of the tank is dark (and all the other algae are not taking up acidifying carbon dioxide), you have at least one daytime corner for soaking up CO2.
Larger systems actually plumb a separate tank in-line with the display. This separate tank is run as an algal filter, and the lighting cycle is reversed with respect to the display (display-dark while algae-lighted, to diplay-lighted while algae-dark) so that no excess CO2 is accumulated.
I only suggested the macroalgae in a corner, because it's a quick and cheap version of the above
What kind of buffer are you using, if any?Give us an idea of your bioload. Lightly stocked tanks rarely run into the problem you've described.
I use kalkwasser in my reef and i know that it has a ph of 12 so i would say that if you dripped kalkwasswr in your reef at night not only would it be healthy for the reef but it would have to raise the ph some right? alice douge verify this if im right.
ph should never flucuate that much between night and day. Too much waste may bring ph down. Be sure to have good water movement, especially at the surface and not too tight a fitting hood.
We really need more tank data, size and bioload.
Kalkwasser when freshly mixed has a pH of about 12 but it starts to decline upon exposure to CO2. Dripped slowly at night it will raise and help maintain pH. However it works best when calcium,alkilinity and pH are fairly close to target points i.e. 400calc 9-12ishDKH alk and ph around 8.2
pH will vary over the course of the day, usually lowest before lights on in am and highest before lights out at night. Most test kits arent terribly reliable, a calibrated pH monitor is a good investment along with Salifert Calc and Alk test kits.
Reverse lit algae filters will help stabilize ph swings but the amount of plant bio mass needs to be fairly equal to the invert bioload in the tank to be effective in the long run. I have a 55g sump under my 75 display tank and most of it will be an algae refugia, hopefully it will become effective enough to eliminate the need for a skimmer at some point in the future
cheers for all the replies guys, my lfs owner rushed around some ph buffer to stop it getting worse in under a hour from calling him.
i do drip kalk in 24/7 at the moment, and ive just started to leave my blue light on at night, the ph is now 8.4 and has been stable for the last 24hrs.
the bioload is still very light, 3 soft corals, 2 polyps and 2 clownfish(not including the hermits), feeding is also very light, im using about 40lbs of live rock, with a external power filter and a u.v unit in a 48x18x15 tank.
cheers for the help so far.
andy
Hi - I agree with most of what everyone else is saying with one addition. Retained C02 in your tank could also be a big part of the problem. Try increasing the surface agitation to improve the 02/C02 exchange!
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