Blinkgyrl2987 Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 Hi All! Okay i've had my tank set up for 2 weeks now.... I've been testing my water regularly... and just to make sure I've been letting the tests sit long enough to completely develop I leave the water sitting in the test tubes. Last night I tested the water.... left it in the tubes... and this morning when I woke up the water in the tube...( that had been my PH test had turned dark green.) Last night my PH was at 8.0 - 8.1..... and this morning it was at 7.4..... I'm just wondering is it normal for the PH to drop as the temperature of the water drops? or is what I saw just a result of me leaving the test sit to long? let me know if you have any idea! Thanks again Megan~ Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 temp doesnt effect PH as far as i know, but could be wrong. Its just a window into your tank and the carbonate hardness of the water. How much the tank can buffer. I would guess the reason the test looks that way is because the co2 has left the tube. Im not a guru of PH or ALK or CA but they are all interrelated and it takes a long time to understand the nuances of it all. Link to comment
birdman204 Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 BUDDHA , It only takes as long as your chemistry comprehension can take. Do a few searches and you will see.. Basically , Calcium and carbonate hardness are directly related in that you can only have so many dissovled materials in a space. If one goes up, the other has to go down. The PH affects them due to the amount of H ion, hence a PH rating. The lower a PH is, the more readilyu an argonite substrate will dissovle releasing CA and H ion back into the water. Again, this is all from a mind, that hasn't taken chem in over 7 years, and only for 2 years back then. Ill bet Tinyreef knows more about this.... lemme put up the signal.... " nanana-nano Thong Thong..... " Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted January 8, 2004 Share Posted January 8, 2004 i just keep the temp stable and add b-ionic alk/ca Maybe some reef complete and iodide every now and then. Link to comment
Blinkgyrl2987 Posted January 9, 2004 Author Share Posted January 9, 2004 is there any particular reason why the test I took for PH in my tank.. was at 8.1 when i tested it... but then in the morning had changed to 7.4?! I'm not doing a second test.... I'm talking about the test I took...I let it sit over night and the next morning the water in the test tube matched a color that read a low PH..(7.4) I am just curious to know why this happens? Link to comment
tylernt Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 I'm no chemist but I can speculate. It takes time for chemical reactions to take place. It probably takes hours for the test chemicals to fully interact with the water. Since most hobbyists won't wait several hours for test results, the test makers make their chemicals way too powerful and calibrate the results for 5 minutes of reaction time. Past 5 minutes, the chemicals keep reacting and show incorrect results. Pregnancy tests are the same way -- if you show negative after the 5 minutes or whatever the test says to wait, it will slowly change to positive after several more minutes. It will do this even if you're not pregnant! Link to comment
2manytanks Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 Originally posted by Blinkgyrl2987 is there any particular reason why the test I took for PH in my tank.. was at 8.1 when i tested it... but then in the morning had changed to 7.4?! I'm not doing a second test.... I'm talking about the test I took...I let it sit over night and the next morning the water in the test tube matched a color that read a low PH..(7.4) I am just curious to know why this happens? O2 has left the building.... or in this case, the tube. I'll bet your pH fell because the oxygen dissipated out of the water overnight. Don't think so? Try this: take a cup of tank water and an air pump. test for pH now aerate that water with the pump and an air stone...let it run for a while...maybe 2 hrs or so. test again... pH should've gone up...if not, your place is like mine. Has an excess of CO2 in the air. (too much heavy....oh, nevermind..) if it doesn't go up, try running the pump and cup on the back porch for a while. Actually, my place is sealed tight and with the wife yammering on the phone , the dog panting and drooling everywhere, and my boy trying out his changing vocal chords by doing his (bad) impression of JaRule... it's a wonder that we have enough air to breath in here.... Seems like alot of trouble though...'specially since you don't really have a problem with low pH... Link to comment
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