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chadjwil
08-25-2009, 06:05 AM
Hey all, has anyone ever noticed an ATS causing Ph to decrease? I have been having a hard time getting my Ph over about 8.2 with heavy Kalk and Mag dosing, to the point of seemingly harming my hammer coral. I just assumed it was the way my tank was (I have used an ATS since day one so I never saw a difference)...still a bit of a newb to reefkeeping...but recently a friend of mine installed a scrubber and she has noticed a significant drop in Ph as well. Apparently she is now having a hard time keeping it above 8. Any ideas? Does the green algae produce a lot of CO2? Enough to lower Ph in a 125 around .4 in a couple months?

SantaMonica
08-25-2009, 10:43 AM
Scrubbers increase pH, by removing C02. The reason your pH may be dropping is probably because the screen is not getting cleaned every 7 days, and thus the bottom layers are dying and going back into the water.

chadjwil
08-26-2009, 03:54 AM
I personally clean my screen every week, don't know about my friend. I seem to have lass of a problem with it than she does though, perhaps I'll suggest that to her and see what happens. She does have many more (and larger) corals in her tank than I do, so is it possible that they have become healthier and have increased element intake to the point that its effecting her Ph? Just spitballing here.

Thanks

SantaMonica
08-26-2009, 08:51 AM
My next guess is poor circulation in the display. All the extra copepods (and broken-off pieces of algae) from the scrubber are settling in the display and rotting. Test this by adding a filtersock and then blowing/vacuuming all the stuff off the rocks and bottom; if the pH goes up the next day, then that's it. Add another powerhead in the display to kick up stuff from the bottom.