params ok?

[Cal_stir]

you want to balance your ca and alk, 430ppm ca and 9dkh alk is pretty well balanced, sps systems usually run lower alk, once balanced your ph will be stable, 8.0 to 8.3 ph is good

[Aquattro]

Some good overall advice for beginners is don't dose anything, period. Regular partial water changes will suffice until you have a fair bit of growth with corals that consume calcium. Currently you have nothing in your tank that requires dosing.
A good salt mix will give you enough of Ca and alk, and if you want a bit higher Ca, dose a Ca product into your make up water before doing the water change.
For your current needs, keep Ca above 380ppm (but under 420ish), alk above 7dKh. Do a 10% water change every 2 weeks and you're laughing!

[Nano]

thanks you guys, I feel like such an Idiot being new here, cause my LFS wrongly told me that aragamilk buffers ph, when it is in fact for calcium. I'm glad I can get advice on here. I wont be dosing aragamilk as I'm sure with my good mix of salt, and the amount of dosing I had been doing that my calcium is probably quite high, which would explain why I havent seen my ph go above 7.9-8 I'm a little concerned on the ph topic as I would like to get it up to 8.1-8.2 and keep it there, will it go up on its own? or will I need something for this? I'd rather not add anything more to the tank(dosing/chemicals) as I dont want to for lack of a better term "****" anything up (pardon my french.) I have had a tough time trying to keep things stable in terms of ph and salinity, but have found out the trick to the salinity, now I just need to figure out the ph aspect. anyone have anytips in this regard? again
Parameters
7.9-8 on a good day. sometimes down around 7.5-7.7 though.
Nitrates 0ppm
Nitrites 0ppm
Amonnia 0ppm
kh 180
gh 340
Salinity 1.0245

[Aquattro]

Don't worry about pH. Keep the tank clean, don't over feed, regular water changes and good flow will keep your pH happy. My pH issues went away 6 years ago when I stopped measuring it. Don't over complicate things. Take it slow, keep it clean and you'll be fine for long enough to learn what you need to by the time you need to learn it

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Don't worry about pH. Keep the tank clean, don't over feed, regular water changes and good flow will keep your pH happy. My pH issues went away 6 years ago when I stopped measuring it. Don't over complicate things. Take it slow, keep it clean and you'll be fine for long enough to learn what you need to by the time you need to learn it

k thanks, I was concerned, but since everythings been ok with a lower ph it should be fine hey? i guess this is where the old saying comes into play "if it ain't broke don't fix it". So my ph will stay low then? or will it eventually figure itself out on its own?

[Aquattro]

Honestly, you have no idea what your pH is unless you monitor it in place. Adding water to a test vial can affect pH. Residue in the vial can affect it. Probes require a lot of care to stay accurate. And if you're using something like a Hagen pH kit, you could probably just make up a number.
If your fish are swimming and your rock isn't dissolving, your pH is fine

[cwatkins]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Honestly, you have no idea what your pH is unless you monitor it in place. Adding water to a test vial can affect pH. Residue in the vial can affect it. Probes require a lot of care to stay accurate. And if you're using something like a Hagen pH kit, you could probably just make up a number.
If your fish are swimming and your rock isn't dissolving, your pH is fine

LOL. Ya, my Ph problem went away too when I stopped measuring and actually caring about it.

It's displayed on my controller but is all over the place depending on the time of day and what part of the light cycle the tank is in.

Now I feel silly having a container of Ph buffer sitting on my shelf!

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Honestly, you have no idea what your pH is unless you monitor it in place. Adding water to a test vial can affect pH. Residue in the vial can affect it. Probes require a lot of care to stay accurate. And if you're using something like a Hagen pH kit, you could probably just make up a number.
If your fish are swimming and your rock isn't dissolving, your pH is fine

lol thanks makes sense. and I'm using api and Elos test kits the reason I'm asking all these questions obviously is cause I'm new lol. And I want to get as much info and knowledge as possible. take for instance my zoo's they are all opened, but haven't spread, where as my mushrooms have dropped a few new heads, as well as my ricordea (I've only had the "ric" for a week) I have heard the zoo's like dirty water to spread fast, but I can only see them spreading fast in dirty water as an attempt to survive lol. so I keep my water clean, 10-20% wc every 2 weeks, and daily to every other day fresh water top offs about 2 cups+