ph drop

[caino]

my friend's tank is having problems. he has lost several fish in the last few weeks. 55 gal. sand substrate. around 50 lbs. of live rock. aqua c skimmer, mag filter. sp. 1.023, all other levels at o. the ph which has normally been at 8.0 in the morning and 8.3 during the day has dropped. around 7.7 in the morning and only raises to 8.0 during the day. the set up is nothing fancy. no sump or anything. just fish only. the ph is the only thing that is out of whack. could this be the cause of all of his problems? how could he easily fix this? add more sand? buffer? at this point the only thing in the tank is a crab. any help would be appreciated.

 

[31-2c]

I would be doing some major water changes.

One possibility is that some chemical made its way into the tank. Something used to clean the tank maybe?

I am assuming that when you say all readings are zero, you are including ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

Check your test kits, are they expired? Take a water sampe to a LFS and have them check it. (preferably one that knows what they are doing)

GOOD LUCK

David