What's the lowest pH a tank should reach?

C

Corn-Picker

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Dec 30, 2003
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I notice my tank's pH cycles, lower in the morning, higher in the evening. Is this something I should worry about? Sometimes early in the morning it gets pretty low, like 7.8. I think I'll pick up some buffer this afternoon just to be safe.

I hve ~60 pounds of aragonite sand in my 30 gallon tank.
 
This is a normal change--you have photosynthetic critters, or algaes? During the day, they use CO2, pulling it out of the water and this raises the pH. At night, the CO2 accumulates, and lowers the pH. Increasing the buffer might not make a difference, since this is related to CO2, not calcium (ie, your alkalinity is probably stable). This is why many people run a fuge that has lots of algae on the opposite light cycle to the main tank--this way there's CO2 use all day, instead of just when the lights are on.
 
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