PH?

[Guest]

:? OK I'm cornfused....
There seems to be a lot of talk about making and maintaining aquariums; reef, FO, and what not..However, I have yet to see much on the topic of PH and its effects on fish and LR and so on....I have found general explanations of (if your ph is low the water is acidic and if the ph is high it is not and so on) Looked at some books and they also have hundreds of pages of aquarium setup and maint and 2 pages of chemistry....OK, I have vented>>>>phew...

Now my dilemma,

Is it natural for the PH to drop during cycling? if so does it repair itself? If you have water sources for water changes that are lower than the ph in your tank, how does that help the PH level doing 10% water change? What in the %$#@ can you use to successfully raise he PH? These things are driving me crazy...

When the tank started out, I had a PH of 8.2. In 12 days that is now down to 7.8 and falling....Watching the ammonia and nitrites and both are about equal at this point....another thing is, I think this Red Sea test kit sucks...
Nitrates are starting to show on the color chart

Am I freaking out for nothing?

 

[loganj]

pH

Go to the Freshwater General Forum and read the post on pH in there that I sent. It's early here and I'm not sure my fingers will cooperate to retype it all here. Two things come to mind though...Have you checked your carbonate hardness or buffering capacity? Are you using straight R/O water? Yes, it is typical for the pH to drop a little as the tank ages due to acid buildup (nitrate=nitric acid). As for your source water having a lower pH than the ideal level for your tank, that is a problem that is pretty much universal I think. In order to get your pH back up, you will need to add a marine buffer to the water. Seachem makes Marine Buffer 8.3. Kent makes Superbuffer DkH. I'm guessing since you mentioned LR that this is or will be a reef? Let me clarify "add it to the water". Don't just dump it in the tank. Buffer your make up water for the water change (and your make up water for evap) and then check the pH again. Are you dosing kalk or do you have a calcium reactor running? What kind of substrate do you have? All of these things affect pH in different ways and it can be very confusing. If you have livestock in the tank, remember that the pH scale is logarithmic ie...it is based on a factor of 10...so be very careful to change it in small increments. Not more than .02 at a time. If it is a reef, I think you will find that you have to dose calcium in some form both to maintain pH and to satisfy the tanks need for this element.
Logan J[/quote]

 

[fishfreek]

Here is a link that Crazy was working on yesterday and just got it up earlier


http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=809

This is the link that was mentioned also:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=795

 

[Bang Guy]

I would avoid testing except for Ammonia and Nitrite during the cycle. Everything will be very very unstable and the temptation to try to "fix" it is too great. I've seen cycling tank go from a PH of 7.5 to 8.5 in less than a day. In that scenario what would have happened if something were added to raise the PH?

Just be patient and get some subtle enjoyment watching the Nitrogen levels go through their cycle. Now would be a great time to plan out your intended livestock list and get opinions from some of the people on the board.

 

[Alf]

I would avoid testing except for Ammonia and Nitrite during the cycle. Everything will be very very unstable and the temptation to try to "fix" it is too great. I've seen cycling tank go from a PH of 7.5 to 8.5 in less than a day. In that scenario what would have happened if something were added to raise the PH?

Just be patient and get some subtle enjoyment watching the Nitrogen levels go through their cycle. Now would be a great time to plan out your intended livestock list and get opinions from some of the people on the board.

Ditto!!! wait till the cycle is over to worry about PH. this will flux through out the cycle and is completely normal.