Alk and Ph

[cmlewand]

Hey guys I am kind of new to this hobby and was wondering if anybody could help me out. I have a 34g solana and it has been running for about a month and a half and has fully cycled. I have been trying to get my pH up to 8.2 or 8.3 and cant do it. I have been adding seachem marine buffer and cant get it to come up. It comes up during the day to about 8.15 and then at night it goes back down to 7.97 during the night and wont come back up during the day until i add buffer. And because of this my alk has gone up to 13dKh. Any suggestions. Thanks.

[Rocket]

You need life. Don't worry too much with the ph at first. Need to get the tank going before worrying. A brand new tank should need no other chemicals except a quality salt.

[franklypre]

Hmmm... TDS could be high depending on dieoff. Personally I usually do a large water change before I put fish or coral in just to reduce stress. I use this on most of my freshly cycled tanks usually at about 5 to 7 weeks. I am getting ready to do the first WC on my new nem tank. Don't concern to much unless you are planning on throwning some harder to keep coral in, zoas and shrooms should do fine.

[Rocket]

Ph decreases at night due to lack of photosynthesis taking place. increasing carbon dioxide in the system.

[drakkor]

You're ph looks spot on to me, your alk is probably high from the dosing.

[Amphiprion1]

The first thing you should do is stop using buffers. They are a poor way to control pH, since they are very temporary. The best ways to keep it raised are through photosynthesis (refugium helps with this), added aeration (highly dependent on CO2 concentrations in the surrounding air), and kalkwasser (must be careful, since this solution has an extremely high pH and must be dripped slowly). Out of all of these, I would try the first two before anything else. Kalkwasser is great, but as I said, you must be careful or you'll overshoot the pH. A little goes a long way and the effects are long-lasting. It also adds equivalent amounts of calcium and alkalinity, and is therefore a balanced additive.

 

Edit: I should add that the values you have are fine. You only need to do the above if you see any values below 7.8.

[cmlewand]

I have two damsels in the tank now just for some life and waste and have one colony of zoas and two little ricordea mushrooms for photosynthesis. I am running filter, cheato and chemi-pure elite in the rear along with the stock skimmer for right now will be ugrading to tunze in about two or three weeks. After i cycled i did a 5 g water change and will be doing another one this week.

[Rocket]

SO you posted the same question on RC and N-R. You sir are a smart cookie. More responses the better I say! Specially in this hobby almost nothing is hard defined!

[Urchinhead]

Stop dosing. You are chasing parameters and that is a loosing proposition.

 

pH falls and rises with changes in CO2 levels in the tank. Do a longer light period if you are really bothered by it and monitor your Ca and dKH keeping them as close to 420 Ca and 8-11 dKH as you can. Over time your pH will stabilize.

[doctaq]

how does that buffer differ from bicarbonate?

as in it doesnt raise the alk?/why not raise alk to fix the ph?

[lakshwadeep]

A buffer does not have to be made of bicarbonate (which is a specific ion) to be successful. Those that do will raise alkalinity.

 

You should not be trying to "fix" pH because a pH above 7.8 is not low, especially since alkalinity is very high. What test kit brand(s) are you using?

 

It sounds like you need to learn more about water chemistry. Try reading this thread, especially the section under the pH article titled "What is the Acceptable pH Range for Reef Aquaria?"

 

Part 1: The Saltwater Itself

Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented

Part 3: pH

Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate

[LiveBrock]

Hey guys I am kind of new to this hobby and was wondering if anybody could help me out. I have a 34g solana and it has been running for about a month and a half and has fully cycled. I have been trying to get my pH up to 8.2 or 8.3 and cant do it. I have been adding seachem marine buffer and cant get it to come up. It comes up during the day to about 8.15 and then at night it goes back down to 7.97 during the night and wont come back up during the day until i add buffer. And because of this my alk has gone up to 13dKh. Any suggestions. Thanks.

i use aquavirto 8.4 and my ph stays 8.4 during the day and kh is a steady 8-10 range. just test for alk when it drops dose its a real easy way if alk and ph are ur concern

[reefer916]

I agree with the other guys.. Don't worry too much about your Ph right now. It'll stablize as the tank matures, which usually takes several months. I'd definitely do a few water changes to bring your alk down to 9-10.

 

Regarding the Seachem Marine buffer.. I still use it occassionally because I bought a big bottle of it over a year ago and I use it sometimes when my alk is low. I also use it to buffer when I'm mixing Reef Crystals salt because the alk is always low at around 7. I'll use it to buffer the water to raise my alk to 10, since it claims that it won't raise PH past 8.3. I haven't had any issues using it as a buffer for my freshly mixing salt water. That way I don't have to just throw it away.

[lakshwadeep]

Aquavitro (seachem's "premium line") eight.four is going to act similarly to many buffers. +1 to aeration and the other steps listed by amphiprion1.

[Neya]

I wouldn't target a ph unless neccessary.

I actually didn't even test ph until my tank was 5months old with no I'll effects. And yes, it was low when I did(7.8? I think. It stabalizes on it's own, waxes & wanes day to night. Again, I let ph do it's own thing) No problems though. This is my own expirience take it with a grain of salt.

 

Also, I personally aim for 12dkh, I've had it as high as 13dkh with no I'll effects but also did the changes veeerrry slowly. Changing the values slowly is "my" key. Abrupt changes disrupt my tank.