high ph

bwaller76

bwaller76

Love my tanks!
ok so I have a ph of 9.5 -10 and was wondering if there was an effective way to lower my ph. My alkalinity is at about 200 ppm. Forgive my n00bness but I am just starting to work with the chemistry aspect of my stuff...If you need more information let me know I will be more than happy to provide that.
:bowdown::bounce:
 
what kinds of items/things can I get/use to keep my ph good to go in my tank once I get that going. I have heard that a calcium reactor will help your parameters but not sure what exactly that means.
 
That pH...just doesn't sound right. Double check your test kit. Are you doing it right? Take a sample to your LFS and have them double check it. I mean, pure ammonia and bathroom cleaners have a pH of 10.

If you do need to safely drop your pH, mix some plain baking soda into your top off water. That will drop it (if you bake the baking soda in the over first, it will do the opposite and raise your pH).
 
did you add some kind of buffer to the tank that would make it that high. what do you have in the tank for corals? you may not need to add anything to the tank at all. just water changes may be sufficient
 
well i did a pretty massive water change...three whole gallons lol and 8.5 ph... seems to be better although my live rock is hosed :(
 
well bear in mind that this tank only has about six to seven gallons in it and one live rock. basically messing around with a small something to kind of get my chemistry feet wet
 
+1 biff... that's way too high to be saltwater. So it's either a bad test kit, or someone dumped some nasty stuff into your tank. :( How did you make this saltwater? what salt did you use? Also, incidentally, your alk is pretty darn low... especially given how high that pH is. somethin's really weird here...
 
I think sarah is on to your problem. I'm too lazy to look around but I thought I saw you posting about homemade rock. If homemade rock is what you have in this tank it is known to have an issue with extremely high pH readings. I think people usually cure it in a stream or something before placing it in a tank.
 
I originally put it in that tank to see what it would look like and to test the ph in the saltwater... but I took it out and changed the water. I actually think it was a problem with my ph test strip that I used. I took it a few more times and it is much more realistic. 8.5 ph and if I read it correctly alk about 250 ppm. Does this sound a bit more normal?
 
Ill get it eventually but i am glad that i set up this smaller tank to mess around with before I actually went and dove into the big tank
 
bwaller76 said:
I took it a few more times and it is much more realistic. 8.5 ph and if I read it correctly alk about 250 ppm. Does this sound a bit more normal?
Click to expand...

8.5 ph is on the high side but way better than the other reading you posted. Alk readings are typically 2.5-4 meq/L or 7-11 dKH, so I'm not sure what the 250 ppm means.


Ooops disregard. I was just reading somewhere else that a typical ppm reading is 125-200 ppm
 
Last edited:
250 ppm = 14 dkh, so pretty darned high.

Are you using test strips for all your tests? IF so, get liquid tests-- api or salifert. strip tests suck.
 
yeah they are strips and I plan to get better tests in the future but these were on clearance so I said wtf... It is getting me a handle on what to expect. I actually went to the LFS waiting for my mom to get done with surgery and asked a few questions. I got a LOT answered so
 

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