Can’t Keep any Corals. Here are my parameters ....

[Acrofiend]

Lower your alk to 8-10.
Do you dose 2 part? I’ve noticed great corraline growth when I started dosing ESV bionic.

 

[DaveyD]

Lower your alk to 8-10.
Do you dose 2 part? I’ve noticed great corraline growth when I started dosing ESV bionic.

Thanks for your suggestion mate.
I was only putting a PH buffer in. That may have put my Alk up. Did a water change yesterday so will test tonight.
I don’t have any corals now. Just fish and live rock and in the sump weed, miracle mud, balls, filter medium and copods. I want to get this right before I buy anything. I have a second hand
TMC V2 900 lumenAir
coming next week.

 

[acabgd]

In your situation I wouldn't worry about chasing pH at all. Let it sit where it is, don't measure it at all at the moment. Make sure you open the windows in the room where the tank is - I know it's winter, but 5 to 10 mins per day should be enough to get oxygen inside, which will raise your pH.
By "chasing" pH you have created a way bigger problem. Don't do that.

 

[DaveyD]

Thank you for your advise and time.

 

[DaveyD]

Update: did a 10 percent water change yesterday.
Tested just now.

dKH 9.9 (alkalinity 3.54)

 

[acabgd]

Great, alkalinity is coming down. It should come down more within a week and another water change next weekend (or whenever you have time). The water change will also bring nitrates down and you should be in a much better shape. Don't add other solutions to the tank or ask prior to adding anything. You'll see an improvement within a few weeks.

 

[DaveyD]

Hi.
I did another little 20l change. Guess what ... dKH 11.2 ! No idea why yet. Will update next week. Thank you all.
Perhaps I need to get a new Salifert kit. This particular kit is over five years old now.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Hi.
I did another little 20l change. Guess what ... dKH 11.2 ! No idea why yet. Will update next week. Thank you all.
Perhaps I need to get a new Salifert kit. This particular kit is over five years old now.

What is the date on the sticker on the box that is it date of expiry. High alk isn't good and a cheap Chinese black box off the net is fine, I'm also in Britain down in the southwest and I use natural sea water and the Dkh of that is only 7.7. Merry Christmas by the way.

 

[DaveyD]

Ok. It’s out of date then. Thanks for your advise.
I managed to get a second hand TMC V2 900 light.

 

[garbled]

Alot of people don't really recommend pH buffers. They just add a bunch of bad to the water, and don't fix anything really. You want your pH to just naturally lie at the right point, and you can do that with chaeto, or kalk, or water changes. Even a 7.9 pH isn't really bad. The idea of pH is you want it in the right zone, (7.9-83), and you want it stable. Chasing a number with buffer just adds chemical soup to your tank and doesn't help stability. There are some really good BRStv videos on youtube about pH, check them out.

5000K lights are no good for corals. Way too yellow. You want something like a 50/50 blue/10k white, or even just really heavy on the blue. Corals can't really utilize light in that spectrum. I suspect beyond everything else, that is your base problem.

 

[stacksoner]

Have you considered ordering an ICP water analysis test? IMO it's the best starting place as it gives you an all encompassing look into your water chemistry, and helps you formulate a sensible plan of attack.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Make sure to check the dkh of your new water change water as well first! If you’re not dosing and found it’s at 11.9 then your water change water could have. Higher dkh than your display.