At what point does pH become dangerous?

[ScottF]

I am currently fighting a dino bloom with ozone and I also turned my tank lights off. My CO2 scrubber is off when my O3 generator is on. The dinos are disappearing, but the pH is plummeting.

With my lights off and my CO2 scrubber off, my pH has dropped from 8.3 to currently 7.64. At what point do I need to worry about the health of my mostly SPS corals? I just turned my fuge light back on, but I have it turned way down because I'm having trouble keeping detectable nutrients in my tank.

 

[Subsea]

Healthy IndoPacific reefs fluctuate 8.2-7.8

 

[ScottF]

I understand what the healthy parameters are. I'm just trying to find out at what point it becomes actually dangerous. Do I need to turn my lights back on immediately because the corals are going to start dying sort of thing.

I feel like I currently have my boot on the dinos throat so to speak. I'd like to finish them off, but not if my corals are going to start dying.

 

[Dburr1014]

I understand what the healthy parameters are. I'm just trying to find out at what point it becomes actually dangerous. Do I need to turn my lights back on immediately because the corals are going to start dying sort of thing.

I feel like I currently have my boot on the dinos throat so to speak. I'd like to finish them off, but not if my corals are going to start dying.

Do you have a skimmer and can you run the air intake outside your house?

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’d say a drop like that it’s already a big risk, I believe the calcium reacts starts dissolving coral skeleton at around 7, to me ph below 7.8 is already in the red.

 

[ScottF]

Do you have a skimmer and can you run the air intake outside your house?

There is a ball valve that switches between two different intakes. One is through the air dryer and ozone generator. The other is mostly recirculating from the skimmer through a CO2 scrubber. Both of which are inside the house.

Normally my O3 generator is only on for an hour each night while I'm sleeping. Right now I am raining down death upon dinos by running the O3 generator all day. Which means the CO2 scrubber isn't being used.

I guess I'll crank up the A360x in my fuge all the way. It's better to suck up all of my nitrates then to melt my coral skeletons.

 

[Dburr1014]

There is a ball valve that switches between two different intakes. One is through the air dryer and ozone generator. The other is mostly recirculating from the skimmer through a CO2 scrubber. Both of which are inside the house.

Normally my O3 generator is only on for an hour each night while I'm sleeping. Right now I am raining down death upon dinos by running the O3 generator all day. Which means the CO2 scrubber isn't being used.

I guess I'll crank up the A360x in my fuge all the way. It's better to suck up all of my nitrates then to melt my coral skeletons.

Gotcha.

Do you know the type of Dino?

 

[ScottF]

Gotcha.

Do you know the type of Dino?

I haven't identified them with a scope. I've had a lot of snail die off. So a toxic kind. The O3 has been working though. The tank was getting steadily better for two days of almost constant O3 and yesterday I turned off the lights which seems to be speeding up the reduction of dinos.

I was just planning on two days of no lights. I don't want to starve the corals of light for too long. I wasn't expecting such a dramatic drop in pH though.

 

[ScottF]

It looks like the pH is slowly starting to rise. It's gone from 7.64 to 7.66 since I cranked up the fuge light.

 

[ReefStable]

I would be VERY cautious about pH swings that are larger. A pH under 7.8 is a high risk, but the swing itself is even more of a risk.

I would get outside air going directly to the skimmer, kalkwasser dosing as possible to keep pH and alk stable, and use airstones (ideally running from outside) to keep that pH up.

My alarms start if the pH is below 8.