pH too low questions...

[Myka]

Imo, you are concentrating on pH way too much, and calcium and alkalinity not enough. You need a calcium kit as well. Provided the calcium and alkalinity levels are already balanced you will use equal parts of Kent Tech A & B. If they are out of balance you will balance it by using only one of the parts (A is calcium and B is alkalinity if I remember correctly).


Balanced Calcium and Alkalinity: (as per Randy Holmes-Farley)

360 ppm to 0 dKH
370 ppm to 1.4 dKH
380 ppm to 2.8 dKH
390 ppm to 4.2 dKH
400 ppm to 5.6 dKH
410 ppm to 7 dKH (natural seawater)
420 ppm to 8.4 dKH
430 ppm to 9.8 dKH
440 ppm to 11.2 dKH
450 ppm to 12.6 dKH
460 ppm to 14 dKH

In addition to what everyone else has said, your tank is brand spanky new if I remember correctly. Was the live rock cured or uncured? Did it have much of a cycle? The more nutrients that are allowed to break down in the tank and go through the nitrogen cycle the lower the pH will be. This is why we use such things as protein skimmers to remove dissolved organics before they can be processed by the nitrogen cycle. "Dirty" tanks will generally also have a lower pH because of such a large amount of organics breaking down.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the low pH right now. Worry about keeping your tank clean, keep detritus from settling, provide fresh outside air to your house (open a window at night), make sure your skimmer is of suitable size and quality for your tank, keep skimmer clean and skimming wet instead of dry, keep calcium, alkalinity and magnesium within their balanced levels, etc. If everything else is in order pH will fall into place. I would strongly suggest a person not try to alter pH directly in a reef tank.

[Milad]

the tank I got from another reefer (kaliforina) and i set it up in early April and let it cycle for 3 weeks wtih the live rock in it. The liverock came from MikeOlsen which had the rock in his tank for a few years. He had shut down his tank so the rock was in SW with no lights for ~5months. as far the the cycle, i dont think it was a big cycle, the ammonia went up a bit on my test kit (second bar) but it didnt go up much higher than that.

I usually open the door when I get home after work so im sure im getting alot of air into this place. I also have 3 celing fans running (one directly above the tank) in 600sqft so there is alot of air movement.

what test kits should i be buying? These 5 drops here and 5 drops there test kits are really annoying and hard to read (im using API).

on a side note, i thought one of my PH probes was broken because it was not in water for a long time but turns out after sitting in my tank for a few days it fixed itself!

[Myka]

Elos kits are kinda pricey (depending what you compare to lol), but they are really easy to use and to read. Salifert kits are good too. API are pretty straight forward, but I would prefer a higher quality kit (their Mg kit is pretty good imo). Generally though, hobbyist grade kits are not overly accurate. Buy 3 kits from the same manufacturer, but from different batches, and you will get 3 different numbers from the same water sample. I have had kits vary by 100ppm (Ca), and 3 dKH. Annoying as "heck".

You hear people talk about "the big three" when it comes to testing which means Ca, Alk, and Mg. I think that Nitrate and Phosphate kits are also important, but don't need to be tested very often (kits will often expire before you use them up), so often I recommend people to just take a sample to their LFS for testing once a month or so.

I wouldn't be too worried about the pH for now as I suggested earlier, but I agree that you will need to calibrate your pH monitor before you trust it. Most will not be accurate out of the box. You will need pH 7 and pH 10 solutions to calibrate for alkaline pH as in our marine aquariums. Fyi, for freshwater aquariums that would be reading acidic pH you would use pH 4 and pH 7 solutions to calibrate. Personally, I like the single use pH calibration solutions offered by Milwaukee which should be available at any good retailer.

[Milad]

Just tested my stuff

300ppm CA
8ish dKH
this is at 8.03PH

thoughts?

[Myka]

You will need to raise the calcium by over 100 ppm. I suggest you do this by raising no more than 50 ppm per day. Please read the link in my signature for lots of information on calcium, alkalinity, pH, etc - it's a good starting point.

[Megalodon]

Originally Posted by Milad

Just tested my stuff

300ppm CA
8ish dKH
this is at 8.03PH

thoughts?

My thoughts are low calcium, so either it's true and requires intervention, or, your test is bunk.

[Milad]

Originally Posted by Megalodon

My thoughts are low calcium, so either it's true and requires intervention, or, your test is bunk.

ill retest the calcium today
its annoying dropping 231423423423 drops and shaking between each one. someone needs to come up with a calcium probe or something, lol

[Myka]

Pinpoint used to make a calcium probe, but from what I understand it had some issues either inaccurate, or burning out probes I'm not sure. I know they quit offering it because of the issues. I know using a probe to test calcium and particularly alkalinity isn't straight forward and either we don't have the technology to do it accurately and reliably or maybe it isn't overly possible. I don't know...either way it's not a viable option right now.

[Megalodon]

I asked about them at JL's and the guy said that unlike the handy pH and salinity probes, the calcium one's a "toy" and the test kit is still the way to go in terms of accuracy, cost, and convenience.

[Myka]

A $250 "toy"!!!