Ph & alkalinity

[justanotherfishhead]

My alk is at 7 kh (kind of hard to tell, the color starts to change from blue to yellow at 6 but is mostly yellow at 7 and pure yellow at 8). pH is 7.9 in the morning and 8.1 at night (right before lights off). I am really surprised that I already have borderline low pH and alkalinity in my tank I set up 4 weeks ago. When I set it up, I transferred about 40 gallons of water from my 55, but the rest was all new water using Reef Crystals. Since I have no fish in there yet (fish are still in QT) and I'm feeding just a little every few days, I have only done one 20 gallon water change (almost 2 weeks ago now). Maybe I should have done more water changes? I just figured since I had about 110 gallons of brand new water in there with really light feeding I didn't need to change out much water right now. Anyone else have this with a new tank? I thought it happens more with older tanks.

 

[chichimom79]

I am having the same readings in my tanks. I also use Reef Crystals. My alk is staying at 8-9 though. I have been thinking of switching to Aquavitro Salinity for my salt mix. I don't think our readings are low enough for it to bother anything as long as it's stable.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

Also I hope someone can tell me if it's normal to get a really low pH reading in the refugium? I have the hand-held Hanna pH meter and I put it in the refugium section of my sump and it was only around 6.0! Then I moved it to the main section where the skimmer was and it went up to 7.9. The refugium lights were on at the time. I have a small powerhead in there, but maybe not enough and the water is getting stagnant?

 

[sen5241b]

The amount of coralline will greatly affect Ph. Coralline sucks carbonates out the water very fast.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

All my rocks from my 55 (about half of my current rocks) are covered in coralline. But I noticed it's fading a little. What is strange is before with my 55 both my calcium and alk were a little on the low side. Now my calcium is testing pretty high at 460 but alk is low. Maybe the box of salt I used to fill the tank was off? I guess I'll dose a little buffer for a few days and see what happens.

 

[little_fish]

calc levels shoot up when the alk drops, but would suspect the low alk is because of the salt brand.

The fading coralline is due to air exposure, but it will come back.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I know I should be testing my newly mixed water to make sure the salt is good. But I thought Reef Crystals has a reputation for being pretty reliable, from what I've heard.

I just got some Seachem Reef Buffer today and will be adding a little every day until I get my alkalinity to 8 or 9 and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't fall again. And I'll do another water change this weekend.

 

[little_fish]

low alkalinity is a really common issue, even with the good salt brands. So i would be too concerned with it. Its an easy fix once you get your dosing all figured out.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

So after dosing a few times a week since I last posted, now my alk is finally up to just barely 8, but I just tested my pH and it was 8.5! Is this too high, do I need to stop trying to raise the alk? I was using the Seachem Reef Buffer at first but when I noticed the pH got to 8.3 I switched to the Reef Builder which is supposed to be for alk only, not raising pH. It was warm today and the temp got to 82 - does temp have any effect on pH?

 

[justanotherfishhead]

pH is still testing at 8.5-8.6. Should I be worried? Stop using the Reef Builder to raise alk? Do a big water change?

 

[Northstar24]

When you dose, are you dumping it in all at once or slowly over the course of the day with a dosing pump? If you arent using a dosing pump its possible to have PH spikes after dosing.

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I added a little on Monday, only 1/2 the recommended dosage. I mix it in with my top off water and pour into the sump. So when I tested this morning it's been 48 hours since I did that. Maybe I should just stop putting it in and see how low the alk gets, then if it gets lower that 7 add some more?