Having a problem with low PH need suggestions

[fish_who?]

I have been wanting to run my calcium reactor and get everything set up so I have less work, but my ph seems to be dropping when I add my reactor.
On a normal day when I am not running the reactor the PH in the tank (measured with a newly calibrated pinpoint) in the early morning 8.05, and in the afternoon it is 8.1. When I use the reactor with 1 bbl/sec the PH will drop to 7.99 constant. I have been using SeaChems marine buff to help it out, but have not seen a change, and the Co2 is off on the reactor for now.
I have not seen any problems with the corals, fish or inverts (take a look for yourself). I need some more suggestions on how to raise the ph. I would like to get up to 8.2 with my reactor running.

 

[sillingw]

How long are your lights on for? increasing your time will increase PH overall, also do you drip Kalkwasser at night? this will prevent the PH dropping as much as without and has the added benefit of adding calcium to the tank if you just add kalk rich water as your topoff. I prefer Kalk to boosters and I also run a calcium reactor.

 

[mark h]

7.99PH is fine my 40 gallon stays between 7.8 and 8.0 and everything in the tank is growing rapidly. sps, lps,clams and softies are all doing great. i tried everything to raise the ph but when it was higher it would not stay stable enough so since everything looks good why worry about it. it has been in this range for over a year

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Tanks with CaCO3/CO2 reactors typically run lower in pH than other tanks. It's a necessary byproduct of the process. It is mitigated by increased aeration to blow of CO2, or by addition of limewater along with the reactor.

 

[fish_who?]

I run my lights from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm right now. The begining of the morning my house lights up the tank pretty well.
I used to dose Kalk (8 months), but started using B-IONIC a while back. Should i go back to KALK. I thought these were about the same. The tank was just moved 3.5 weeks ago. I had a 60 (where the PH was 8.2), and moved it to this 125 when I moved into my condo. If Kalk will help I will try it. I have some left from a freind, I will try it tonight and see what happens.

 

[Roach]

I was having the same pH problem, minus the reactor, in my 40 gallon tank awhile back. I also use seachem reef buffer. You know how the buffer says that you can't overdose with it, meaning you can't go over 8.4 or something like that. Well I found out that it also takes a lot of this stuff to actually get your pH to remain stable. I too have Pinpoint pH monitor and when I dose with Seachem it will read 8.2-8.3 then it will slowly go down again. The thing is you have to dose with that stuff everyday, even if you get the reading you want. It took me like 3 weeks to finally get my pH to stable out. Now I only add it about every other week.

 

[XXX]

Keep your alk and calcium in line and don't worry about pH. I have yet to see a post like this that said a word about corals or fish looking stressed. My pH has been 7.7-7.8 every night for well over a year. I dripped kalk, used buffers, airstone in the effluent, ect. I finally realized that nothing looked any different at 7.7 than at 8.2. Now I do nothing to try to boost pH.

IMO constanly causing a sudden pH jump with a buffer is not a good thing for your animals.

 

[sillingw]

I used to use B-ionic till i switched my calcium reactor on - now I just drip kalk with my top off water at night and use the calcium recator to keep alk/calcium at desired levels, I don't add anything else at all - I would increase the lighting cycle though I have my actinics on for 13 hours and my main lights for 12 hours, this will increase the PH and the less dark time will stop it decreasing too much - the b-ionic is not needed if you tune your CR properly. I agree with the above post that says the most important thing is to keep an eye on the inhabitants and not focus too much on numbers - the above works for me though.