I cannot raise my PH, need advice please

[Liam's tank]

My tank is a 25 gal lagoon, live rock & sand, 14 months young. I have a few torches, a duncan, frogspawn, several zoa colonies & several other LPS. I have NO success with SPS. My PH is 7.8 in the morning when the lights are off, and is 8.1 at night with lights at their peak. Alk is 9.4, cal 440, phos 0.1, nitrate 10 to 15, SG 1.026, temp 78, I'm dosing a three-part blend that includes:
Fluoride, bromine, calcium, chrome, Colbalt, manganese, copper, nickel, zinc, barium, iron, potassium, iodide, & magnesium.
The three part includes: 1- alkalinity supplement
2-Calcium chloride with trace element supplement & carbon dosing source
3-Magnesium supplement ( ratio of MgSO4 & MgCL2, same as natural sea water.)
I'm dosing all 3 equally at 11ml daily spread out over 24 hours.
I have a skimmer running, my filtration is just filter floss in both caddies with 1/4 cup of activated carbon in one of the caddies, & obviously the live rock.
I purchased a CO2 monitor just to be sure that I didn't have a problem there, I didn't think I would, I live in a very old drafty house. The CO2 is fairly consistent at 405ppm.
What can I do to get my PH up to 8.1 at the low point & 8.4 at the high point?
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[boacvh]

Try a CO2 scrubber maybe, or a line directly outside, that's easiest solution w/o dosing anything. But I'd say 7.8 to 8.1 is a good range, not sure that's the issue with SPS. What lights do you have?

 

[Liam's tank]

Try a CO2 scrubber maybe, or a line directly outside, that's easiest solution w/o dosing anything. But I'd say 7.8 to 8.1 is a good range, not sure that's the issue with SPS. What lights do you have?

The inside air is not the problem, my CO2 is at 405ppm in the tanks room. I have two AI prime 16hd that run from noon to midnight with a 2 hour ramp up & 2 hour ramp down, so 8 hours of full light.

 

[Reefering1]

How's the aeration?

 

[nanoreefer23]

The inside air is not the problem, my CO2 is at 405ppm in the tanks room. I have two AI prime 16hd that run from noon to midnight with a 2 hour ramp up & 2 hour ramp down, so 8 hours of full light.

Did you check your PAR? I was surprised how high I needed to raise all the channels to get PAR over 300 with the AI PRIME

 

[Liam's tank]

How's the aeration?

it's good, lots of movement on the surface from the two return pumps nozzles, and two wave makers adding a nice flow

 

[Reefering1]

it's good, lots of movement on the surface from the two return pumps nozzles, and two wave makers adding a nice flow

Movement or breaking the surface? Skimmer? .3 ph increase from photosynthesis sounds reasonable. If the Co2 and ph readings are accurate, the only thing left is aeration.

 

[Spare time]

The carbon dosing will lower pH. What alk supplement are you using?

 

[Liam's tank]

Did you check your PAR? I was surprised how high I needed to raise all the channels to get PAR over 300 with the AI PRIME

no, I don't have a par meter, but the lights are uv & violet at 167%, royal & blue at 125%, green & red at 9% & white at 16%. the lights are mounted 9 inches above the water and the tank is only 12 inches deep, so with two lights at these settings, I don't think par is the problem

 

[Spare time]

no, I don't have a par meter, but the lights are uv & violet at 167%, royal & blue at 125%, green & red at 9% & white at 16%. the lights are mounted 9 inches above the water and the tank is only 12 inches deep, so with two lights at these settings, I don't think par is the problem

PS the UV and Violet that high will burn the diodes and melt the lense eventually.

 

[KonradTO]

Dude it's not the pH. Your tank is still young. Mine started to grow sps when I 1) passed the 1-1.5 year mark. Most sps would fade and die slowly but at some point it just started doing well. I guess the microfauna and bacterial community evolve over time. 2) I also noticed improvements with sps moving from led to ATI bulbs. Not saying it's the cause, many people grow sps with led, but for me was the thing that made the difference for some reason.
To be honest I could grow them then but I always had some piece of equipment fail or did some mistakes and mess up with stability, and that made the difference in worse. So if you focus on stability - do not change things in your tank for few months - it's gonna impact your tank much more than chasing pH. I did that before and now I don't even use the pH probe anymore.

 

[Liam's tank]

The carbon dosing will lower pH. What alk supplement are you usi

Dude it's not the pH. Your tank is still young. Mine started to grow sps when I 1) passed the 1-1.5 year mark. Most sps would fade and die slowly but at some point it just started doing well. I guess the microfauna and bacterial community evolve over time. 2) I also noticed improvements with sps moving from led to ATI bulbs. Not saying it's the cause, many people grow sps with led, but for me was the thing that made the difference for some reason.
To be honest I could grow them then but I always had some piece of equipment fail or did some mistakes and mess up with stability, and that made the difference in worse. So if you focus on stability - do not change things in your tank for few months - it's gonna impact your tank much more than chasing pH. I did that before and now I don't even use the pH probe anymore.

I realize my tank is still young, that's why in my OP I stated my tank is 14 months young. I do think though that starting with live rock and sand does "mature" a system faster. I agree that chasing numbers can be counterproductive. I just feel strongly that the low PH is the cause of my SPS failures. Your description of the SPS fading and slowly dying is exactly what is happening to most of my attempts. Others went south with stn. Maybe I just need to wait a bit longer and try again. I just have a gut feeling that I'm missing something, my torches, duncan and zoas are growing like weeds! I have a ton of cuc doing great, a ton of other life in the tank

 

[Liam's tank]

My tank is a 25 gal lagoon, live rock & sand, 14 months young. I have a few torches, a duncan, frogspawn, several zoa colonies & several other LPS. I have NO success with SPS. My PH is 7.8 in the morning when the lights are off, and is 8.1 at night with lights at their peak. Alk is 9.4, cal 440, phos 0.1, nitrate 10 to 15, SG 1.026, temp 78, I'm dosing a three-part blend that includes:
Fluoride, bromine, calcium, chrome, Colbalt, manganese, copper, nickel, zinc, barium, iron, potassium, iodide, & magnesium.
The three part includes: 1- alkalinity supplement
2-Calcium chloride with trace element supplement & carbon dosing source
3-Magnesium supplement ( ratio of MgSO4 & MgCL2, same as natural sea water.)
I'm dosing all 3 equally at 11ml daily spread out over 24 hours.
I have a skimmer running, my filtration is just filter floss in both caddies with 1/4 cup of activated carbon in one of the caddies, & obviously the live rock.
I purchased a CO2 monitor just to be sure that I didn't have a problem there, I didn't think I would, I live in a very old drafty house. The CO2 is fairly consistent at 405ppm.
What can I do to get my PH up to 8.1 at the low point & 8.4 at the high point?
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Would love to hear from @Randy Holmes-Farley on this one!

 

[KonradTO]

I realize my tank is still young, that's why in my OP I stated my tank is 14 months young. I do think though that starting with live rock and sand does "mature" a system faster. I agree that chasing numbers can be counterproductive. I just feel strongly that the low PH is the cause of my SPS failures. Your description of the SPS fading and slowly dying is exactly what is happening to most of my attempts. Others went south with stn. Maybe I just need to wait a bit longer and try again. I just have a gut feeling that I'm missing something, my torches, duncan and zoas are growing like weeds! I have a ton of cuc doing great, a ton of other life in the tank

Yeah sps do that. Also I had them react to stress (e.g. salinity fluctuation) weeks after the actual event. Like one week was passed and I was " wow I am so lucky I missed the bullet" and then after one week more many SPS would stn. Especially birds nests. So sometimes it's hard to realise if you did something that caused the die off. On the other hand I had SPS do fine (not grow much though) with very high PO4 levels (like 1ppm!).
P.s. I am not an sps person, as you probably understood haha

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If your main goal is to have success with sps, I would start with sharing details on the light and flow. If your having good success with lps at that ph level, then most sps should also do well.

 

[Liam's tank]

If your main goal is to have success with sps, I would start with sharing details on the light and flow. If your having good success with lps at that ph level, then most sps should also do well.

I detailed my light & flow in this thread

 

[Spare time]

Which sps have you tried? Also again, I am not sure which alk supplement you are using but some have a greater alk boost. I really don't think the pH is the issue though.

 

[Liam's tank]

I've tried birds nest, leptoseris, purple stylo, green stylo, digitata, cyphastrea, leptostrea, I'm sure I'm spelling some of these wrong, & I'm sure I'm forgetting a few from this list. The three part I'm using is from Not a feesh. They are local to me and their three part has made an amazing difference with the corals in my tank but have not helped with my PH which is why I went with them to begin with. It is also the reason I am posting here, I have tried everything I can think of but my ph simply does not change, NO MATTER WHAT! Driving me crazy, I want to evolve to some amazing sps but fail with every attempt.

 

[Semper.Reefing]

I don’t think the age of the tank necessarily means it won’t grow SPS. My 210 is 6 months old and been growing SPS after month 3. I give my Kalkwasser dosing a lot of credit. I use an ice cap reactor and dose Kalk to match my evaporation rate.

 

[Spare time]

Do they RTN, STN, bleach, etc.? How they died is a big help to knowing why they died.