pH consistency

[uhuru]

What's the best way to maintain consistent pH in a nano-tank? My LFS was telling me crushed coral, but I've been reading crushed coral is not a good idea. Also it was posted earlier on my other thread to avoid DSB's.

[H20cooled]

I wouldn't worry about it to much unless its getting down to level like 7.5. Water changes will probably be the easiest way though.

 

My 130G reef gets down to 7.8 at night and up to 8.00 when the lights are on. I've tried everything to try to get it to stay at around 8.00 but nothing made any difference so I quit worrying about it.

[oldbrownies]

having aragonite helps a little, but you'll still see swings similar to H2OCooled, at least I always have

[pledosophy]

I use Seachem's pH buffer to keep it at 8.3 in my nano. JME

[Palani]

reverse lighting will help the pH stay more consistant at night, if you have a fuge attached. It produces O2 and less CO2 is released which lowers pH.

[oldbrownies]

Dripping your kalkwasser at night helps too

My pH runs like this without kalk (on average)

actinic on=7.85

late morning=8.2

afternoon=8.45

actinic off=8.3

 

with 2gallon drip of kalk started for the night just before I leave (about 30 min before lights out)

lights on=8-8.15

late morning=8.25-8.3

afternoon=8.45

actinics off=8.35

peak durring kalk drip=8.56 (ussually about 8.45 though)

and thats just 2 gallons dripped slowly into a 60 gallon tank, it takes about 3 hours to drip out