PH problem way too low

[Jetsetter57]

The Internet is a hole I've spent an hour going down with no answer. So I pose this question to you saltwater experts.

I recently did a tank transfer where all corals and fish/inverts were heathy and happy. Transferred all water and rock and placed in my tank. He was bare bottom and so am I.

The next day a fish was breathing heavy and died that night. Lost a couple other livestock items but soft corals/nem happy. Only parameter out of whack was PH at 7

School me on why the ph would drop so low and is this the cause of the die off?

I've since added an air stone and bringing ph up with the baking soda water change method

 

[Jetsetter57]

Bump.

Does no one have an idea?

 

[Adrock]

what is your alk, you can buffer if alk is low , if alk is ok you might need a product called ph up or ph+, you can also do a partial water change. if you have a air pump handy you can throw that in the display tank by adding more o2 ph level may go up ...more o2 in the water the higher the ph. also I do know that having no light on the body of water will also drop ph no light less o2 in the water, more light more o2 in the water.

 

[thegrun]

How are you measuring the pH, most anything except a calibrated probe is fairly inaccurate. If your pH is really at 7.0 your rocks and sand will be dissolving.

 

[Jetsetter57]

Api test. 7.2. I get fairly inaccurate but a full 1.0 off is BS.
Here's a tank shot

 

[theMerchant]

Dosing kalkwasser would bring up your ph. But you have to figure out why it's so low. Obviously the parameters are different between the 2 tanks

Sent from my SM-N910T3 using Tapatalk

 

[Jetsetter57]

Transfer went complete from one tank to the other. Used same rock and water. I never checked his water first but regardless fish should have been happy in my tank as they were in his. Using a buffer seems to be just a bandaid. I guess the only thing left is to mix new saltwater and replace 5gals every day until it's up to new water standards. Most new batches will be around 8.5 right?

Good news is after adding air stone a new yellow tang survived the night and has been in for 24hrs happily picking at the rocks as there's a lot of old algae growth and a ball of chaeto to munch on.