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Odd pH Shift, Why?
- Thread starter Unexpected
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- #22
Wouldn’t that be great. One day hopefully.
I think you are over thinking this.
If you look at the first chart you posted, the trend you are tracking is not the fully degassed pH/dKH , it's the overnight pH. This can fluctuate for many reasons.
My tank never fully degasses overnight. Fully degassed is 6.25, drops down to 4.85 during the lighting period, then gets to somewhere around 5.5 to 5.85 overnight. Why the variance? Could be a difference in surface agitation, could be a difference in plant mass, could be one of a dozen other things.
I once ran my tank for a week without CO2 just to see what happens. It was interesting. My pH still fluctuated quite a bit. At night the plants expel CO2 and I could see pH drop overnight. During the day pH rose as naturally occurring CO2 was consumed.
Just saying there is a lot going on with pH and your chart is nothing that unusual.
Does it matter? Not likely. As long as dKH is stable you are fine. If you really want to get a good degassed reading, I recommend taking your time. I've never had a sample fully degas overnight, or with a bubbler in an hour. It can take days. Wait a couple of days, start testing about every six hours or so, and see where it stabilizes.
As to CO2 controllers, I wouldn't be without one. Makes it much easier to dial in a stable CO2 level, and it gives me piece of mind with my tank full of hard to replace Rainbowfish. But it does require stable dKH, and I am guessing your dKH is much more stable than you think.
If you look at the first chart you posted, the trend you are tracking is not the fully degassed pH/dKH , it's the overnight pH. This can fluctuate for many reasons.
My tank never fully degasses overnight. Fully degassed is 6.25, drops down to 4.85 during the lighting period, then gets to somewhere around 5.5 to 5.85 overnight. Why the variance? Could be a difference in surface agitation, could be a difference in plant mass, could be one of a dozen other things.
I once ran my tank for a week without CO2 just to see what happens. It was interesting. My pH still fluctuated quite a bit. At night the plants expel CO2 and I could see pH drop overnight. During the day pH rose as naturally occurring CO2 was consumed.
Just saying there is a lot going on with pH and your chart is nothing that unusual.
Does it matter? Not likely. As long as dKH is stable you are fine. If you really want to get a good degassed reading, I recommend taking your time. I've never had a sample fully degas overnight, or with a bubbler in an hour. It can take days. Wait a couple of days, start testing about every six hours or so, and see where it stabilizes.
As to CO2 controllers, I wouldn't be without one. Makes it much easier to dial in a stable CO2 level, and it gives me piece of mind with my tank full of hard to replace Rainbowfish. But it does require stable dKH, and I am guessing your dKH is much more stable than you think.
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- #24
This. I pulled everything out, reduced and started anew. Sent the tank in absolute chaos.
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