Loan of an indoor CO2 monitor?

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bulkrate

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After over 2 years of overall smooth sailing I've run into a setback on my 9 gallon nano tank - all the LPS in it (about 1/3 of the coral stock) have receded & died off in the last month. Soft corals (a mix of ricordea, playthoa and zoanthids) & fish/crabs/shrimp are doing fine. Snails not so much - about half are much more lethargic than usual (astreas, nerites and trochus) while the others are seemingly unaffected (ceriths and nassarius).

No changes in livestock or husbandry practices during the time in question... I'm a little stumped. One possible suspect is that the PH and alkalinity are swinging due to indoor CO2 buildup over the winter months - anybody got a desktop/portable air quality monitor I can borrow for a couple of days?

Willing to pay in $ or macro trimmings - loaner's choice. :)
 
So sometimes the simple answers should be tried first.

Rather than stressing about borrowing a $100-odd gadget I'm simply airing out the house & checking to see if the PH swings become greater or less (currently around 8.2 at the end of the photocycle, 7.9/8 in morning).

Still would like to know what the indoor CO2 levels are, given all the articles & posts I've seen about stressed livestock use to depressed PH resulting from it. I'm a sucker for ze science!
 
I can't help you with CO2 levels but have you ruled out other factors - light bulb replacement? change in salt? additives?, etc. Maybe macro growth may have contributed to your other deficiencies?

IME, keeping up with a nano for 2 years or more is already quite an achievement. Sometimes, the slightest of imbalance will cause it to go astray.
 
I know my pH has been a little out of whack lately and it started when it got hot a few weeks ago. I posted a thread but like you got no responses. I guess I'll watch it when it heats up again and do some fiddling.

Do you know what your rank pH levels are throughout the day?
 
A sensor is cheap. Maybe $20. The rest of the electronics around it become pricier.

Laguna reef - it was YOU that did this to my tank!?! If you hadn't sold me all those awesome macros last year everything would be just peachy! Kidding... Most we traded are doing pretty well, but I don't think they're the issue.
 
Sean- no earthly idea. I'm not running this tank with any automation or controllers. So the morning/evening PH readings are all the data I have to work with. Alk was ping ponging around over the past couple of months too. Frequent water changes, dosing reef builder, then 8.4 did nothing to keep it in the upper end of nsw levels.

Update for all... haven't checked ph yet, but after a couple days of venting the house the remaining corals in the tank look loads better. Hopeful.
 
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