Educate me on PH

Now that you have a pH monitor--you can easily determine if elevated CO2 is the culprit. The test is simple. Take a cup of your tank water and use an air stone to aerate it for an hour or two. Do this with inside air first. Then do the same test but with the air pump outside. Depending on how the pH increases will tell you a lot. If the outside air significantly raises pH compared to inside air, then your CO2 levels inside are elevated enough to keep your tank's pH slightly suppressed. If the bubbler using inside air raises the pH just as much as the outside air does, then your issue is a lack of gasseous exchange around your tank.

A pH of 8, as Dingo said, is not an issue. Reefkeepers generally shoot for 8.1 to 8.3, but don't go chasing pH for a .1 rise. When I first got my Apex, I learned that my pH was 7.75. No wonder I had no growth since 2008!! I remedied this by running an air tube from outside to the inlet of my skimmer. If you find this to be your problem, you could do this too, but again, 8.0 is perfectly acceptable.

 

Thanks, i will try the air stone test.

 

Hope this eases your mind. Exerpt from one of the gurus;
That the alkalinity is at least 2.5 meq/L, and preferably higher at the lower end of this pH range. This statement is based partly on the fact that many reef aquaria operate quite effectively in the pH 7.8 to 8.0 range, but that most of the best examples of these types of tanks incorporate calcium carbonate/carbon dioxide reactors that, while tending to lower the pH, keep the carbonate alkalinity fairly high (at or above 3 meq/L.). In this case, any problems associated with calcification at these lower pH values may be offset by the higher alkalinity
Low pH: Causes and Cures by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

Great article. thanks.

 

You are welcome.