Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I had a Calcium and Alk two part buffer already but my Calcium levels are fine, so I've bought some of the pH up stuff you gave me the link for, thanks guys 
pH just keeps dropping...but WHY?
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Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Sebastian_Troy said:I had a Calcium and Alk two part buffer already but my Calcium levels are fine, so I've bought some of the pH up stuff you gave me the link for, thanks guys
My calcium AND Alk levels are fine and my pH is still low I mean! I also have some Kalk and I cooked some baking soda, so additive wise I think I'm fully covered? I'm not worried about magnesium or strontium just yet, as i currently have no corals in my tank (I only have 1snail :C )
yetee
Aquarium Advice Activist
I might have missed it but have you checked the pH of your RO water and then the pH of your newly mixed salt water after it has had 24 hrs to sit? What I am wondering is if your main water is more acidic than it should be?
Another question: what type of substrate do you have in there? sorry if you listed it already I just didnt see it. Perhaps your substrate is buffering to 7.5?
Another question: what type of substrate do you have in there? sorry if you listed it already I just didnt see it. Perhaps your substrate is buffering to 7.5?
yetee
Aquarium Advice Activist
oops,
didnt mean to double post
didnt mean to double post
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Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
pH of RO and salt mix are both fine, I'm using aragonite sand,1-2 mill, so slightly grainier than sugar grade,
Does drift wood affect pH? I have had a tropical tank for years with a piece if drift wood in, and I thought it could be a haven for nitrogen cycle bacteria so I placed it in my sump, I don't know why I didn't think of it before, I guess I just assumed it couldn't be the problem, after all it's just lignin, I highly doubt there is any part of it left which can rot any more!
Does drift wood affect pH? I have had a tropical tank for years with a piece if drift wood in, and I thought it could be a haven for nitrogen cycle bacteria so I placed it in my sump, I don't know why I didn't think of it before, I guess I just assumed it couldn't be the problem, after all it's just lignin, I highly doubt there is any part of it left which can rot any more!
redfisher1139
Aquarium Advice Freak
How big is the piece of driftwood, because, yes that may be a contributer. I use driftwood in my FW as a means to lower my ph to 6.8 without having to go the peat route.
Henry405
Aquarium Advice FINatic
The piece of drift would wouldn't have any beneficial SW bacteria since it had FW bacteria on it
Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
I think I might remove the driftwood and replace it with something else inert.
yetee
Aquarium Advice Activist
I am betting that removing it will help. you can use live rock rubble in the sump.
Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Henry405 said:
Well surely they die in salt water, and are replaced by salt water inhabitants?
Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
yetee said:
Yeah I will remove it, I have a load of rubble in there already, I just thought the driftwood might help even more, I may have been wrong!
Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
redfisher1139 said:
It's an awesome piece of heartwood from a gnarled piece of mangrove root, about 1.5 feet long and at most 1 inch diameter, so not a huge piece of root, pH chemistry seems to have a few strange differences between SW and FW, but yeah it might help, thanks
I am quite new to all this, so feel free to judge my observations with that in mind.
I had real problems with pH in the first few weeks of setting up my marine tank - well I thought I had problems with the pH, what I really had problems with was reading the pH test kit results.
Test kit 1 = Red Sea Marine Lab pH results gave a colour which didnt match anything on the result chart - ever, still doesnt. We had people over one weekend and all eight of us agreed that the colour in the tube just didnt look remotely like anything on the chart. This test kit was completely unreadable for me.
Test kit 2 - Done by the LFS (sorry no idea what test he used) showed the pH at 7.7. He did say that the pH of the sample would not be the same as the pH of the tank, since the sample had been in a bottle with no water circulation for some time prior to testing.
Test kit 3 = eSHa Aqua Test (dip stick) cheap, cheap, cheap and I got what I paid for! All the colours of the different dip stick test pads ran into each other so not one of them matched anything on the test chart
. Poor test design and poor testing procedure on my part.
Test kit 4 = (I threw the box away, so can't find the brand name, I will hunt it out) was really easy to use and really easy to read ie different pH levels have completely different colours instead of 100 shades of green, meaning no debate about results. It showed a tank pH of 7.9.
I used Seachem buffer once, altered my powerhead to increase surface flow and my pH has settled at 8.3 since then with no fluctuation.
My only other observation on pH was an experiment we did on some RO water we had in a stored in a sealed container for a couple of days. We opened the container and tested the pH = 7.7 then rocked the container back and forth for 5 minutes, retested pH = 8.1, quite a difference when the only changing parameter was water movement.
Goodluck in solving this mystery, I'm sure you will get there.
I had real problems with pH in the first few weeks of setting up my marine tank - well I thought I had problems with the pH, what I really had problems with was reading the pH test kit results.
Test kit 1 = Red Sea Marine Lab pH results gave a colour which didnt match anything on the result chart - ever, still doesnt. We had people over one weekend and all eight of us agreed that the colour in the tube just didnt look remotely like anything on the chart. This test kit was completely unreadable for me.
Test kit 2 - Done by the LFS (sorry no idea what test he used) showed the pH at 7.7. He did say that the pH of the sample would not be the same as the pH of the tank, since the sample had been in a bottle with no water circulation for some time prior to testing.
Test kit 3 = eSHa Aqua Test (dip stick) cheap, cheap, cheap and I got what I paid for! All the colours of the different dip stick test pads ran into each other so not one of them matched anything on the test chart
. Poor test design and poor testing procedure on my part.Test kit 4 = (I threw the box away, so can't find the brand name, I will hunt it out) was really easy to use and really easy to read ie different pH levels have completely different colours instead of 100 shades of green, meaning no debate about results. It showed a tank pH of 7.9.
I used Seachem buffer once, altered my powerhead to increase surface flow and my pH has settled at 8.3 since then with no fluctuation.
My only other observation on pH was an experiment we did on some RO water we had in a stored in a sealed container for a couple of days. We opened the container and tested the pH = 7.7 then rocked the container back and forth for 5 minutes, retested pH = 8.1, quite a difference when the only changing parameter was water movement.
Goodluck in solving this mystery, I'm sure you will get there.
Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
I gave up on chemical test kits for Ph years ago and bought a inexpensive Ph meter on EBay, along with Ph 7 and Ph 10 calibration solutions. I highly recommend this as with proper calibration, you will get accurate results every time. The chemical test kits don't account for temperature of the test water, where most probes do.
Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
So this pH meter, prices? Have you spent more on it and solutions then you would have for test kits?
Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
Mine is a Hanna that I paid $35 for. The test solutions cost another $10. More than a chemical test kit, but not that much. And far more accurate and easy to use in my opinion.
Sebastian_Troy
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Well I guess that lasts a lot longer than any chemical test kit, so it works out cheaper in the end???
Also I've removed the drift wood, and after an initial slight rise in pH it's plummeted again D: I have been adding reef buffer daily, I added some to a small cup and the parameters instantly magically levelled out to their correct levels, but in the tank something is just reacting with all of it, all I have in there now is aragonite sand, live rock, equipment and my homemade rock, which I made **** well sure (easily over more than a year) that it was cured completely!
Also I've removed the drift wood, and after an initial slight rise in pH it's plummeted again D: I have been adding reef buffer daily, I added some to a small cup and the parameters instantly magically levelled out to their correct levels, but in the tank something is just reacting with all of it, all I have in there now is aragonite sand, live rock, equipment and my homemade rock, which I made **** well sure (easily over more than a year) that it was cured completely!
RYANLAWRENCE
Aquarium Advice Freak
The only thing that I can think of is that is is your homemade rock. All of the other stuff should buffer your pH. Even if you think your homemade rock is made out of the right materials, it has to be reacting somehow
krap101
Aquarium Advice Addict
The weird thing is the aragonite should be raising your pH and hardness... and the two things that I can think of that can lower pH is co2 and driftwood (peat etc). But I'm a freshie...
