pH Stability issues

[mamachicken]

I have a cycled 55 gallon tank with a spotted hawk, engineer goby, tomato clown and up until this morning a yellow tang. We have been having a horrible time keeping the pH up. Our local store suggested a pH of 8.3. Ours had been around 8.1, but every morning the pH would drop to 7.8. The store suggested keeping the lights in the tank on longer at night in order to keep the pH up. So we only have the lights off in the entire tank for 2 hours. The rest of the night one half is lit and the other half has the lights off. But the pH still drops. We add buffer and this brings it up for a day or two, but thats it. How do we fix this issue. We made the mistake of not measuring the pH for about a week and today we lost our yellow tang. The pH was way low (my husband took the measurement so I don't know what it was).
Please help.

 

[big]

PH does drop at night , here is the same type of issue I ask about a while back. Your PH issue needs to be solved another way other than 22 hours of light on the tank. There are tons of factors to look at.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/301088/how-much-ph-drop-at-night
When Bang said the numbers where Ok I stopped fretting so much. Yours are not bad. Sometimes it take time to balance all the issues involved in holding a stable PH. Do a search with the tool in the upper left then reading some of the past posted threads also helps.
Ohhh BTW welcome aboard!!!!!!!.... Warren

 

[ameno]

do you have an open top on the tank? or is there a glass cover, if it's covered you should take the glass off to help oxidation, also do you have water circulation across the top? if not add a power head to the top to get some water movement.

 

[perfectdark]

You can also aim a power head at the surface of the water to agitate it.

 

[mamachicken]

Originally Posted by big
PH does drop at night , here is the same type of issue I ask about a while back. Your PH issue needs to be solved another way other than 22 hours of light on the tank. There are tons of factors to look at.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/301088/how-much-ph-drop-at-night
When Bang said the numbers where Ok I stopped fretting so much. Yours are not bad. Sometimes it take time to balance all the issues involved in holding a stable PH. Do a search with the tool in the upper left then reading some of the past posted threads also helps.
Ohhh BTW welcome aboard!!!!!!!.... Warren
I know the numbers are ok, but I shouldn't have to buffer everyday in order to bring it back up. I will check out your link above and see what I can do. Thanks for your help.

 

[mamachicken]

Originally Posted by ameno
do you have an open top on the tank? or is there a glass cover, if it's covered you should take the glass off to help oxidation, also do you have water circulation across the top? if not add a power head to the top to get some water movement.
It is a covered tank, mostly because I have a 2 year old who likes to try and put things in the tank. But I will uncover it and see if it helps. I do have 2 powerheads at the top of the tank so the water should be getting agitated pretty well at the top.
Thanks for your help.

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by Mamachicken
It is a covered tank, mostly because I have a 2 year old who likes to try and put things in the tank. But I will uncover it and see if it helps. I do have 2 powerheads at the top of the tank so the water should be getting agitated pretty well at the top.
Thanks for your help.
I have a 3 year old and he would likely do the same, though instead of a glass cover I use egg-crate. It's better for the gas exchange (which helps the pH issues), and although it's classified as lighting "diffuser" it actually lets more light through than a glass lid with salt-creep on it. Here's what I mean:

And the top of the tank:

You can find it in the lighting section at Lowes or Home Depot, and it's lighting diffuser, but when you're in that section it'll have a specific label of egg-crate. A 4'x2' piece shouldn't cost more than $15, and that's all you'll need to cover the top of your tank.

 

[ameno]

good idea, I think this is going to help your ph issue a lot, also make sure your skimmer air inlet is were it can bring in fresh air, if it's a hang on skimmer off your tank then probably ok but if it's sitting in a sump under a cabnet run a hose from the air intake to the outside of the cabnet this will also help oxidate the water and raise the ph.

 

[dennis210]

To help on pH need more info. You say can't get pH above 8.1 and drops to 7.8 over night.
How longs has tank been up and running?
Live rock - how much - was it cured???
Live sand bed - how deep - and is anything agitating (stirring it up)?
Do you use a cannister filter?
Do you run carbon?
How often do you do a water change, and how much?
Do you use any addatives?
And what are your tank parameters (temp, pH, SG, amn, NO2, NO3, Ca, alk)
Answer these and we can give you a better shot at solving problem!

 

[tiberius]

Originally Posted by m0nk
I have a 3 year old and he would likely do the same, though instead of a glass cover I use egg-crate. It's better for the gas exchange (which helps the pH issues), and although it's classified as lighting "diffuser" it actually lets more light through than a glass lid with salt-creep on it. Here's what I mean:

And the top of the tank:

You can find it in the lighting section at Lowes or Home Depot, and it's lighting diffuser, but when you're in that section it'll have a specific label of egg-crate. A 4'x2' piece shouldn't cost more than $15, and that's all you'll need to cover the top of your tank.
I really like that egg crate. I have glass tops and lost a LMB through one of the spaces it leaves. I put wedding veil to cover up all the holes in the back. Wondering if you ever had any fish jump through all those holes. It definitely would improve my lighting since I have to clean the glass tops often.
Thanks

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by Tiberius
I really like that egg crate. I have glass tops and lost a LMB through one of the spaces it leaves. I put wedding veil to cover up all the holes in the back. Wondering if you ever had any fish jump through all those holes. It definitely would improve my lighting since I have to clean the glass tops often.
Thanks
Nope, haven't had a fish jump through it. The only one that would have fit is a firefish, and considering how jumpy they are I figured it would somehow squeeze through, but it usually freaks out and heads down, not up.