Sand's affect on ph?

7.9 isnt too bad. we keep it at that in the 500 gallon here at penn state.

typically your pH fluctuates between day and night. its because of the photosynthesis. if you want it to be higher and stable you can light your cheato 24 hours or at least on a reverse schedule from your DT

 

To answer some of your questions;

1. The skimmer does oxygenate the water, unfortunately every system is different and there are alot of factors that can alter some elements.

2. In essence, yes, but when its used as a substrate and not cleaned regularly, that can cause havoc on your paras.

3. Yes, again as stated in #2

If your ph is stable at 7.9 , I doubt you will see any ill effects in your tank. Having a 7.9 means three things to me.
1. Your Alk is low
2. Your system lacks enough O2.
3. Your Co2 levels are higher than your O2.

I as stated before, I also had my ph anywhere from 7.6 to 8.0( 8.0 was when a miracle happened) and at the time, couldnt figure out why. Did alot of research and asked around and got some answers. Here is what I did;
I cracked a window 1" to 1" 1/2 open near the tank. When the a/c turns on, its sucking fresh air across the tank and into the house. I also installed a 4 port air pump outside and ran the hoses inside the house and into my system. 1 hose and air stone is placed in the corner over flow, another in the first chamber of my sump and last chamber where the RP is and the last one is inserted into the air intake of my skimmer. I also removed some felt pads that I was using to "clean up" the water.

This is for you, Grant and any other person who suffers a low ph. I was using a couple of felt pads to clean my water to a pristine state but those felt pads are a double edged sword. As they do a great job of clearing up the water, they also trap the oxygen particles from the water leaving your system with less O2.

I hope this helps.



Luna

 

Luna,
Thanks for all the great info. I'm thinking that it is a CO2 / O2 issue. My house is very air tight.

When I get back home, I'm going to try aerating some tank water both inside and outside and do the pH compairison.

The only issue I have now is that If I need to get more O2 in my house, how can I really do that? Living in Connecticut doesn't really allow me to just leave windows open in the winter. I guess I could try to figure out how to pipe outside air to my tank. I was thinking about using the skimmer air line to draw the outside air into the system.

I will also recheck all my parameters. I know my alk was a little on the high side a few weeks ago.


Brian