Ph is driving me caraaaazy!

[austinsdad]

Used Oceanic salt in spite of warnings I got from folks about low Ph. I can buffer it daily and get up to abnout 8.2, but it's back down to 7.9 or so the following day. The calcium is great though.

New tank setup - 'bout 2-3 months now. Fish are doing great it seems. 3 - 3 1/2" sand bed and maybe 200 lbs of rock in a 155g.

Prolly gonna switch to Instant Ocean salt over the next few months with 15- 20g water changes. In the meantime, any other suggestions? What about alkalinity? Does that have anything to do with helping the Ph situation? Gotta test that tonite.

 

[ellisz]

hmmm, I tested mine last night and got 8.1 with my oceanic. Maybe I am to easy on my color chart but it normally turns darker than it did last night. I have been using Oceanic for over 2 years.

I hate hearing this about Oceanic. Makes me worry my next bucket might be worse...

 

[roka64]

Is your canopy tight fitting? I went from my lid to an over the tank Nova Extreme T5 lighting and my pH stay stable at 8.2 (if I am reading the chart correctly). If it is a lid, does it have the larger cut-outs? If so, cust those out and point your PHs to that area for more gas exchange....

 

[austinsdad]

The canopy is open in the back and has openings on the top. Got twin Tunze Powrheads with about 1500 gph running out of each.

One other thing I can think of is to check my Ph monitor. I'd better check it manually, but even before I got my 24/7 monitor, it was low.

 

[seaham358]

How are the fish and corals doing? If the tank is stable and all is fine I would not add things to try and reach the magic number. Being stable IMO is more important.
I use Oceanic and I can not tell you what my pH is, never checked it after the first year of the tank being set up when I used IO. I guess I better get a test kit to see where it is.

 

[Marc118]

I dunno, Ive been weary of my IO lately. Ive been testing it at 7.8.I dont know if I got abad bag or what but its getting me angry as well.

 

[ckmn101]

What about alkalinity? Does that have anything to do with helping the Ph situation? Gotta test that tonite.

yes Alk has a lot to do with it. You can have ph fluctuation if the alk is low. With normal/high alk your water will be more stable.
I use IO but I still need to add some buffer to raise my pH. I use Marine Buffer by Seachem- daily for about a week then just weekly.
I have heard many people who really like Oceanic salt, the pH is also influinced by the water you are mixing with. If you are using ro water I think most people use some kind of buffer also.
Just my opinion and what I've heard
hth
Mike

 

[austinsdad]

Yep. Using RO/DI water. Fish and coral doing fine. Inverts doing well too. Did add a capnella (leather) last week. It didn't do well at all. Added a bubble coral and a couple of 'shrooms yesterday. We'll see how thay do.