water parameters

[ZOOT098]

came home early from work today and did some testing here is what i came up with

1. salinity 1.022
2. ph 8.8
3. temp 78
4. alkalinity 10dkh
5. calcium 320ppm
6. phosphate 0
7. amonia 0
8. nitrite 0
9. nitrate 5-7

my ph seems high any suggestions to lower it a little?
my calcium seems a little low


input please
im thinking about getting a zoo this weekend and want to make sure its safe

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

I've had my pH that high a few times and it doesn't seem to hurt anything. Did your pH get this high from adding buffer? If so you can do a water change or just let it decrease on it's own. Definitely add some calcium to at least 400. I use Kent turbo calcium, works real quick without clouding your tank unlike purple up. You really want to keep you calcium at about 450 if your trying to keep stony corals, also good for optimal coralline growth. Watch your salinity that it doesn't drop below 1.022. It's all personal preference but 1.023-1.025 is good a number.

 

[ZOOT098]

i think it is high from adding a buffer
i will let it go for the weekend and see if it drops a little
i also read that adding some seltzer water will drop the ph
im slowly bringing my salinity up by topping off with salt water

 

[fatman]

Carbonated water. Unflavored. It is just carbon dioxide in water. It quickly becomes carbonic acid. It will lower the pH. Use just three or four ounces at a time. If you have a sump pour it slowly either where your over flow water enters or where your return pump inlet is located. No sump then pour slowly in the area in front of a power head. Remember if you have any photosynthesis going on then your pH will be highest at around midday (light cycle wise). Usually by about 0.2 pH points. Your calcium is fine for a fish only or for soft corals. Unless you are growing a lot of stoney corals it is easiest to just keep your calcium at the level of your new water or around 350ppm. I would do a water change to see if it helped the pH or calcium before I did anything else. If the water change makes no difference to your pH I would deal with it before I worried about the calcium. Lots of calcium levels are only around 350 for aged newly mixed water. It takes a heavy stoney coral load to warrant the hassles of trying to balance out carbonate parameters with calcium levels of 450ppm. If lowering the pH also lowers the alkalinity a little that is OK, if it lowers the akalinity to much it is esay to raise the alkalinity without again raising the pH, just use SeaChem Reef Carbonate.

 

[Bifferwine]

I also agree with Fatman to leave the calcium alone where it's at, unless you have lots of SPS. Calcium in the 300's is fine for everything else and not worth the trouble of trying to balance it out with pH and alkalinity, IMO.

 

[fatman]

Call me old, does IMO mean "in my own opinion?"

 

[ZOOT098]

all sounds good to me
i wanted to stay away from additives anyway because the more i read, it seems like you get stuck in a cycle of improving 1 thing but depleting another

although i may try some carbonated water to get the ph down a little

im more concerned with my algea right now

planning a wtaer change tomorrow or tonight

tank is cloudy as hell

im going to go with the advice you all gave chemjoey in his thread

 

[RyanG]

Call me old, does IMO mean "in my own opinion?"

Yes sir yes it does.

 

[fatman]

If any body wants to have tank water that is really hard to adjust, use municipal water from somewhere where they do lime softening. Picture dumping in huge amounts of calcium hydroxide to neutralize any free acids that may be present in the water. That means adding enough calcium hydroxide to increase the pH of the water to 10.3. This causes precipitation of calcium carbonate. Then you add even more lime to raise the pH to 11 which removes the hardness due to magnesium. Then to remove the carbonate hardness additional carbonate is added in the form of soda ash. This leaves us with water that will let soap lather but what a chemical mess. The final step is usually to pump a bunch of carbon dioxide into the water to lower the pH to a safe drinkable level. At least this water has had the phosphate precipitated out. Is it now more understandable why RO and RODI filters are recommended now. And this does even cover he potassium permanganate they add to oxidize the iron in the water or the polymers they add to aid in flocculation. Thats is forming particles large enough to filter things out. They floc together. That is a pun, really. Then there are the disinfectants such as chlorine and chloramines and many more under strange new names coming out constantly. And I go to school to learn to do this stuff. Whoopee, I can design water treatment and sewer treatment systems.

 

[ZOOT098]

well so much for the water change

hose popped out of the trash can and shot 30 gallons of fresh RODI salt water all over my garage

im sure some feel my pain

 

[fatman]

I would love to be paid for all the RO floods of one sort or another I have done over the Years. Even a few gallons seems like a lot when it is in the wrong place. Thirty gallons though is a full showers worth. No quicker picker upper big enough to pick that up.

 

[Piggy]

Been there done it several times. The last time was last week end. Went shopping and forgot the RO unit was on. I had a flood. Took me awhile to clean up. Seems like I would learn.

 

[sen5241b]

Water filter overflow? Been there done that.