a little help with ph

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tyvex

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hey,
heres the stats of my tank
5 x2 x 2 all glass
3" oolite substrate
50 kilo live rock
sump 30 x 12 x 15
full r/o water
aquamedic turbofloater 1000 multi
calcium rector knop "C" up to 800ltr
2 grundfoss pumps + two mj1200 on surge controller (apprx 14x tank vol/hr)
2 x m/h 150w 10k's + 1 x actinic
additives - magnesium, sterling ph buff
(i'm getting to the point soon :D )

critters -
3 x serpant stars
12 ish red legs
1 x blue leg
12 ish turbo's
1 black and white clown
1 common clown
1 green chromis (had more but the stars ate them :grr:
1 humbug damsel

water cond -
nitrate -under 12.5mg/l
nitrite- nil
phosphate- 0.1
ammonia- nil
calcium - 360
dkh hardness - 9
spec grav 1.022/23

now, ph is stuck at 8/8.1 and although my alkalinity isn't high, i cant seem to increase my ph ?
my effluent ph is normally between 6.5 and 6.6, which i believe is correct

any suggestions
cheers
tyvex
 
Ty, is your salinity temp corrected? How do you test it, with what?

PH of 8 is right at the bottom range, you should be ok. You could use a little more calcium, 450 range ideally. This would also bring you hardness up a little, and help you stabilize your ph even more. Are you checking you Ph at night or in the morning? It will be lowest in morning, unless you are running reverse lighting on your sump.

Also, running berlin/live rock method, you should have 4 inches minimum dsb. And, is your substrate real course, or do you have some fine stuff with it?
 
hi gl
test salinity with seatest full range kit, temp is 80/81f
if thats what you mean ?
i've also been trying to raise my calc levels, i've just started running the reactor (about 2 weeks), but i find the test kits difficult to read properly. i have no corals in there yet, so am now trying to correct the water to proper params for some softies, my heart is with fish,which as you know can tollerate a bit more than corals, but i would like to add some easy corals to give a more homely feel for my inhabitants.

the sand would be mainly for decoration, so should i lower the level to an inch or something, or would i get away with it as is? i intend cramming as much l/r in there as will fit(wallet allowing:D )

i've been checking both unlite times and in the evening when the lights have been on for a few hours. ph of 8 unlite and 8.1 when lite .

the sand is oolite sand from tmc, corn sand i've heard it called also, its porous and will seed off the rock,
its the next best thing i believe to live sand, which i cant afford to fill my tank with. its size is fairly fine, not like crushed coral, it must be about 1.5/2mm to dust.

thanks for your reply mate
cheers
tyvex
 
hey,
spoke to a bloke today, this is what i think it may be
since starting my reactor, i had a faulty vakve and lost all my co2 in a week.
this dropped the tank ph down to 7.6, which would effect the magnesium levels.
my calcium levels also rose of the scale, which precipitates everything else out the water, therefore also reducing my magnesium levels.
no magnesium = dodgy ph.
by coincidence i've started adding magnesium to boost my coraline algae, so i will now have to get a test, (which seem rare), and try to get my mag levels corrected, before i can correct my ph.
thankfully my calc levels are back down now
thanks
stay fluffy
ty
 
Ty, you don't have to use all live sand for you dsb, just add a bag or two.

I got an amazing amount of critters when I did this... :thumbs:
 
If you add a few bags of ls and the feed the substrate movint the food source each time this will speed up the process as the critters will follow the food
 
hey i was too lazy to read everyone else's comments but my friends and i just use kent PH buffer and it seems to work fine. We also use saltwater from a tropical fish store and use mostly bottled water and very little tap water in an emergency. We also use a water detox chem. when adding new water. all of out ph's seem to be doing great. our tanks range from 10gal-35gal some have only been up for a few weeks some have been up for almost a year. just my 2 cents
 
hey,
just an up date,
been dosing my magnesium levels, nearly back to nsw levels now.
my ph is gradually rising, so it looks like the tanks on the mend, calc levels are back to norm also.
thanks for your posts.
just shows what a faulty valve and too much c02 can do eh! :X
stay fluffy
ty
 
I'm new to reefkeeping but I read somewhere that the nitrates in a reef tank could and perhaps should be 0 ? Is this true ? apparently with

a) skimmer
B ) bacteria actually inside the liverock which convert nitrAtes to nitrogen gas which leaves the tank and oxygen.

Urban legend?
 
and can I ask whats you verdict on the aquamedic turbofloter 1000 I have heard varying reports about this piece of equipment I think :blink:
 
hey,
my nitrate levels are "lower than 12.5"
the test kit only gives a 12.5 (red) or zero(yellow) at the lower scale, my reading was a light orange, so is closer to the zero than the 12.5, but i cannot get an exact reading.
i think its the nitrite reading you need to worry about more, its more toxic than nitrate.
i personally don't think you will get a zero reading on everything, there is always gonna be some trace of pollutants, its just a case of keeping them as low as possible.
if there was no nitrite, what would the bacteria in the rock/sand live on ?
this is there food, as far as i understood it (and i am by no means an old hand at this and would like to be corrected if wrong)
the cycle is ammonia from fish(nastiest) to nitirite(bad but not as nasty as ammonia)filtered thru rock bacteria to nitrate (protein)(least nastiest) to skimmer(crud) to toilet(flush) let breath out and inhale fresh air:D

as for the turbo 1000, :hyper: this is how i felt when i got it
and this
smileyhyper.gif

is how i felt when i saw all the crud it removed.
i have heard nothing and would say nothing to its detriment.
the best buy i made so far.
stay fluffy
tyvex
 

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