High phosphate and low ph

[starktw]

Hi Starktw, as I said in my previous post, what time of the day are you sampling the pH ?? the level of Po4 you are experiencing is unlikely to have any influence on your pH but many other factors will have, including the balance between you foundation element levels (Magnesium, Calcium and Alkalinity)

Are you running the water cooling fans ? this also helps with gaseous exchange this will help keep the pH higher, is your skimmer now suitably sized ? I have no experience with them, smaller skimmers take in less air, this also can effect Co2 dissipation and hence the low pH.

I've been testing at all times of the day, morning, afternoon and evening and getting the same 7.6. The skimmer, Nanoreef Systems RED SEA MAX 250 REPLACEMENT PROTEIN SKIMMER, was designed for the max 250 and claims to take in 180 ltrs per hour of air. My cooling fan is always on. I think a big part of the problem was I was keeping my water level very high in the back filter compartment, at line 1 or two so there was not a lot of agitation during the surface skimming process. I've lowered it to the 6th line down and am now getting a lot of adgitaion, should give me quite a bit of aditional air exchange and better skimmer results. My foundation elements test results are all within the recomended levels listed in the red sea max owners manual some even on the higher end, except for iron, that tested at zero. I listed them on my original post. I contaminated my k testing d solution during my initial test so I've had to order a replacement, so I have no idea where my potassium is at. I will test my PH in a few days and see where I am at. I did test a fresh batch of saltwater solution before I added it to the tank and it was at 8.2.

Thanks for your help on this, please let me know if you have any other thoughts