OK, help me with this one!

Melonbob

Reef enthusiast
I am in the process of cycling my frag tank, I went bare bottom with about 25lbs of rock to start, and added water about two weeks ago. Anyways, I figured I'd do my tests today, Amm, trites, and trates all zero. PH is very low, less than 7.5, my calcium is low at about 300, and my alk is high at about 11 dKH. I have reef builder to up the ph, but that will also raise my alk, which is already too high. Should I try to up my calcium first, in hopes it will bring my alk down, then dose the reef builder to up my PH? Also, why would these numbers be like this, the water is only two weeks old, and there is no life in it.

Finally, can I just dose the crap out of it right away, as there is no life in there, or will is kill off anything started up on the rock? Thanks gang
 
one week old or two? by 2 two weeks i think it would be somewhat significant and you can do water changes as dustin suggested.
 
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11 DKH aint that high.Mine stays between 11 and 12.
The low calcium could be causing the low PH,but thats just a guess.Could also be carbon dioxide build up in the water.
 
What brand salt are you using? You should not use a buffer to raise pH as it can/will also affect alk.
Here ya go.
Low pH: Causes and Cures
and
The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 3: pH
From the article....
"Buffers alone are not generally a good method for raising pH because they raise pH relatively little, and often result in excessive alkalinity. Unfortunately, the labels on many commercial buffers are written in ways that convince aquarists that their pH will be fine if they just add some buffer. More often than not, the pH is not improved for more than a day, and the alkalinity rises above desired limits."
 
yeah, that was my concern. I did a 25% change instead, but wonder why it dropped so much so fast in an empty tank
 
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