Fluctuating PH

[Alexnyc22]

My PH keeps fluctuating between 8.2 and 7.8 over night... Should I be concerned?

 

[marrone]

This is common and not really a big concern.

What a lot of people do is if you're running a Refug you either have reverse light cycle, so when the MT lights are on the Refug lights are off, and vice verses, or run the Refug lights 24hrs.

 

[JBNY]

That's a bit more than normal, which is a 0.2 shift, but nothing I would be overlay concerned about. Some things to do if you want to try and stabilize it a bit. As stated above run a refugium on a reverse daylight scheduled, dose kalk at night to raise the pH. run fresh air (from outside) to your skimmer.

Not sure what kind of animals you keep, some like lower alk, but keeping you alk in the 9-12 dkh range can also help to stabilize your pH.

 

[Alexnyc22]

I do have a light on my fuge and my ALK is usually around 10. What do you mean by fresh air on my skimmer?

 

[marrone]

A lot of times the room that the tank in doesn't have good air circulation, which can result in a lot of CO2 in the air, which can make the Ph low. You want to make sure you get enough air into the room, opening a window does help. The Skimmer will suck in air, so if the room doesn't have good air circulation the skimmer will be sucking in that air. You also want to make sure you have good water breakage, as that will help remove the CO2 from the water.

It dropping at night to 7.8 isn't that big of a worry, and is very common.

 

[JBNY]

Fresh air, like run a line from the outside of your house and pull air from outside and into the air intake of your skimmer. CO2 levels are generally much higher in the home over the winter causing lower pH for many people.

 

[Alexnyc22]

The skimmer is in the stand under the tank... Would opening the stand and leaving it open during the day help?

 

[JBNY]

try it see if it makes a difference. As we said, it's not really that big a deal, but those are some things you can try to bring the pH up if you want.