I am still learning

[shaunda]

I have been at this for about 1 year now and I have learned so much from this website but I still have a few questions that I was wondering if someone could answer for me.
1. Can you have too many powerheads in your aquarium? I am circulating 2400 GPH without my main pump. I have a 125 g tank. 6 feet long. What happens if you are circulating too much?
2. Do you EVER clean your sponges in your filter. I understand it needs some of the bacteria but should you at least rinse them off?
3. I asked my lFS what causes PH to go down and he told me something about the gravitational pull of the earth. Is that true???? If not, what causes your PH to drop? I recently went out of town for 5 days and had someone feed my fish while I was gone. When I left the water was perfect, ph was about 8.0-8.2. By the time I got back home, all my fish were dead. PH was 7.2. What could have happened! I find it hard to believe it was the gravitational pull of the earth!
I know this was long but hopefully you guys can answer these q's for me! Thanks in advance.

 

[ric maniac]

first off, welcome! and i think the gravitational thing sounds like a load of bull lol. what are your other parameters? ie: ammonia or nitrates. and im not sure about the power heads.

 

[jtrzerocool]

do you have your light on a timer?
did you leave the lights off during the trip?
when the lights go out in an aquarium photosynthsis stops and the PH will drop.

 

[shaunda]

Before I left the house my parameters were
amm - 0
nitrites - 0
nitrates - about 40
PH 8.0 - 8.2
When I came back home they were
amm - .50 ( which I think was due to dead fish and too much food.)
nitrites - 0
nitrates - 40
ph 7.2

 

[autofreak44]

that is a good ammount of flow in your aquaruim... 2400/125= 19.2
thats about 20X turnover which is an ideal turnover rate. some go as low as 5 and as high as 35
sorry to hear about your fish, the gravity is a load of bull. ph can be affected by lots of things such as oxygen content, alkalinity etc. it is possible that possible overfeeding could have caused an algae bloom that messed with the pH. salinity is also a big factor of ph, what is your salinity reading right now?

 

[shaunda]

I told him to make sure the light were on for 10-12 hrs a day and I would bet that he didn't do it. I asked my LFS if that would have been the case since I know my PH is always lower in the AM then it is in the PM. That is in when he started in on the the earth thing.

 

[trigger11]

Typically speaking you will have better luck getting questions answered if they are asked one at a time. People seem to be able to focus on the question at hand a little easier. I should be able to help with a few of your questions.
1. Powerheads. No you really cant have too much flow. Usually you try to maximize the size of the powerheads for the tank. Not counting your main pump you would be at a turnover rate of 19X for water movement. Right in the range you would want to be for having corals. Since you also have a main pump then you are even higher so that is good.
2. Cleaning sponges. Yes, sponges should be cleaned regularly. Can use saltwater from the tank to clean them. Personally I had a sponge in my overflow box and I took the darn thing out. So would just depend on where you have the sponge at.
3. IMO your LFS is way off base with the moon causing PH drop. The moon causes high tide and low tide by moving the waves back and forth. But I have never ever heard anything about it effecting PH.
So why did your PH drop so much? It is always hard to tell when things have gone bad while you were away from the tank. The person watching the tank could have overfed, added too much water. Not added enough water. Added too many other chemicals. If I had to guess it sounds like something else happened to the water while you were away. The alkalinity got out of whack which could cause the ph to go out of whack as well. Or course this is only theory.
Sorry to hear about your loss while you were away. I had to leave my tank for a week a short time ago and I was worried every day that I was gone.

 

[shaunda]

Salinity is 1.024 tested with a hydrometer.

 

[shaunda]

Thanks for your response. I asked if any water was taken away or added and was told no. No chemicals were added. I just asked about the light and was told he did turn them on. I am starting to think it was overfeeding since when I came home there were rotting krill on the bottom of the tank.

 

[ric maniac]

is it a swing arm thing? if so those are the worst possible salinity testers on earth. and you might want to raise that to 1.026, however 1.024 is in the acceptable range.

 

[shaunda]

Originally Posted by ric maniac
is it a swing arm thing? if so those are the worst possible salinity testers on earth. and you might want to raise that to 1.026, however 1.024 is in the acceptable range.

No it was tested with the scope thing with the scale inside of it. That is called a hydrometer right?

 

[autofreak44]

i believe yours is a refractometer, much more acurate...
overfeeding is definately your problem if there is food on the bottom of the tank

 

[tarball]

Maybe you had a power outage for several days. No powerhead flow, no pump flow, no lights. No circulation at all. Maybe even overfeeding.
Oxygen depleted in tank, CO2 up, PH down.
I don't know..

, Just a thought
The moon did it...

now thats funny!