low PH? dosing baking soda. Fault PH monitor? or test kit?

[SharkLover]

Hi guys,
I did a water change yesterday and got my PH up to 8.19 ish.

well;
This morning and there after its been at about 8.0. I know ph drops at night but its yet to rise. Any reason why my Ph would drop so bad? Before the water change the Ph was at 8.0 hence why the water change.

Calcium , mag, alk are all in check.
salinity is on the high side 1.026 where i like it.

I'm just not sure why my Ph keeps falling out the bottom when i do water changes. Also, the chemical test kit i have is reading 8.4. The calibration test on the Ph monitor was a success could the monitor still be broken?

 

[Joel A]

mine's far worse if that helps at all =/.

I can't seem to get mine up, right now it is 7.94, if i dose kalk all the time i can get it to stabilize up at 8.1, but then my calc and alk levels go way high...

One thing i'm going to do to hopefully help keep it up a little is plumb my skimmer to pull outside air in...

 

[afboundguy]

I think 8.0 is fine. IMO it's the consitency that really matters. If it stays around 8.0 24/7. It could be low due to the lack of fresh air and maybe in the summer it will go up a point or two. I'd say don't stress about it if it's steady at 8.0...

 

[brokereefer]

i have the same issue i cant get my ph any higher than 8.0-8.1 and reef seems really happy at night it drops to 7.8 so when i drip kalk it stay at a steady 8.0-8.1 i agree with what daves says if its happy leave it be

 

[TheBigDrewsky]

Yeah, we have had this problem too.... our pH ranges from 7.7 at night to maybe 8.0 during the peak of the lights... our params are all in good shape. We have excellent SPS and LPS growth and little to no other problems these days. BTW, we have a 45 hex tank with HOB Refuge and HOB CPR Skimmer.

We have just kind of decided that we are going to live with it the way it is for now - our fish all appear healthy, and as I said, the corals are getting excellent growth. We are about 15-20 feet from an outside airsource and running the tubing (to the skimmer) from the outside just doesnt seem to make sense so long as everything else appears to be stable, and thriving, which it appears to be.

When we switch over to the larger tank in the Spring, we'll definitely look at other options (kalk) if we have the same problem in our bigger tank/new house.

 

[stingythingy45]

Personally,I think worrying about PH and chasing it around is not nessasary.As long as your Alk is up to the correct parameters you'll be all right.
Ph naturally falls off at night(especially during the winter with all the windows closed).A reverse lighting schedule on a refugium stuffed with chaeto helps.Also dripping kalk at night will help keep the PH higher.