failure to thrive

[sea gnome]

My tank has been doing really well until about a month ago. (3yrs, soft and hard corals). My 2 cleaner shrimp died within two days of each other.( 3yrs old) and then the frogspawn that was big is still alive but barely, and today I noticed that the mushrooms are disintergrating. What is up?. Temp 80 fairly consistent, lights are 4 months old, no chemistry problems other than pH is 7.7 which I have trouble keeping at 8.0, it is the only culprit that I can find. Fish seem fine. Rachel

[Jack]

Low pH is a pretty obvious culprit. Has it always been that low?

[sea gnome]

yep, I can not get it to 8, any suggestions. I do think it is slightly lowere than normal. I don't have monitor, I do the eyeball guress with color. Very techinical.

[kari]

I agree. First step get that ph back up. Could this be a another aging sand bed issue?

[sea gnome]

I need to know how to increase the pH.

[Orion80]

possible loss of all trace elements, I have also heard that a low magneseum count makes it hard to keep your ph up, r u useing test kits , what r the parameters of the tank??

calcium, alk, and ph r all directly related they all effect each other...

[ron101]

Any algae issues?

[Jack]

Well, eyeballing color changing test kits can be tricky. I would see if you could borrow a pH monitor.

[Old Guy]

How about water changes?

[sea gnome]

Ok, I do 10% water changes once a week, I have no idea about magnesuim levels as I don't have that test. phosphate, nitrate and ammonia are basically nil. Ca 430 Kh is 10.5 salinity 1.026. I will try and borrow a pH monitor. Thanks for all the input so far, I have to go to bed now 430 comes early! rachel