Hello everyone. I have been noticing over the last 4-5 days that some of my zoanthids have not been looking really well. They are not opening nearly as frequently and not staying open for very long periods of time. I have about 5 different varietys. One colony looks great while the others are drab and closed up. I moved everything from a 12 g aquapod to my 40 breeder that has been up for 8 weeks. I checked my PH today and it was 7.8 at the highest and possibly a bit lower. Its kind of hard to tell witht he color kit I have. Alk is normal and I am wandering what I can do to raise my PH without moving my ALK. Kind of new at this still and want to make sure I am doing the right things.
You help is appreciated.
Thanks.
John

John, i would say that your PH is not the problem, it seems that ALOT of people think PH is more important than it really is, i've learned that having a stable PH is FAR more important than having it above 8.0. I would check for nitrates and phosphates before i did anything else. When was the last time you did a water change??

I have found that alkalinity and phosphates are the prioritys when it comes to zoo's. What is your alk at?

What these guys said.! Give us more parameters to work with.

I agree with Jeremy completely. So this is just for future information and you may already know some of it.

When the lights go off in our tanks the pH drops because "life" slows. pH in my experience can drop as much as .2 or more and then goes back up when your lights come back on. Also, when your house is closed up for the summer you trap CO2 inside which mixes with your water and creates carbonic acid and drops your pH this can be hard to correct. The most common way to combat these probelms is with dripping/adding Kalkwasser as all or most of your top-off water.

The conditions above make it difficult ( but not impossible ) to maintain a stable pH like Jeremy talked about. When this is accomplished it can change the complete nature of a reef tank. Read the tag line of one of our Masters - Einsteins for more evidence of this - "Balanced Parameters". Balanced parameters will truly gain you the ultimate goal in reef keeping, beautiful fast growing corals. Obtaining this goal is difficult IMO but fun and worth it.