I am new to reefing, only been doing it for about a year and a half. So far the tank is doing okay but can feel it can do much better. My current wild life is doing well but unsuccessful adding new corals. They do okay for a week or so then melt. I started to look more into water quality, thinking I have to start somewhere. Most of my water testing has been with API test kits but now slowly using other digital testing. I am having problems maintaining my pH. I use my own RODI water and pH coming out is about 7.8. I started to use SeaChem reef buffer 8.3 but concerned that I have to add so much to get to 8.3 and what I have added to bring up to 8.0 just in a few days it goes back down to 7.8 or so. I'm sure there is alot more info that I need to give for help so please ask away and please remember, I am new at this. Thank you in advance.
Can't maintain my pH
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First off welcome to Reef2Reef!
I wouldn't worry about your pH. That's almost certainly not why your corals are melting. II'd say the majority of tanks on this forum run around 7.8-8 without any problems. I wouldn't chase a number and I certainly wouldn't use reef buffer. What is hurting your corals is likely something else. To figure that out, can you provide more information about your tank including the rest of your water chemistry results?
Which corals have you tried that melted?
What is your current stocking like and do you have any corals in there that have survived?
I wouldn't worry about your pH. That's almost certainly not why your corals are melting. II'd say the majority of tanks on this forum run around 7.8-8 without any problems. I wouldn't chase a number and I certainly wouldn't use reef buffer. What is hurting your corals is likely something else. To figure that out, can you provide more information about your tank including the rest of your water chemistry results?
Which corals have you tried that melted?
What is your current stocking like and do you have any corals in there that have survived?
NowGlazeIT
Happy to help, Ask away.
Welcome to reef2reef! My PH is 7.8-8 I grow mainly Euphyllia. I think the elevated levels (8.1-8.4) will promote faster growth and maybe coloration but not necessary for survival
Just as a case in point, my current tank runs high (8.5 or so), however every tank I've ever had before this tank ran between 7.7-8.0. People often test it, but aside from some special uses, pH is not an important parameter to keep track of.
Thank you everyone for the welcoming response and responses on the pH. I am glad to hear that my pH should not be a problem at 7.8. To try to answer other questions about parameters and load here goes. testing was done with API test kits. Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 0 maybe 5.0 or less ppm, phosphate maybe .5ppm, hardness 13-14 dkh, calcium 5000mg/l. I do about 20% water changes every 1-2 weeks and use InstaOcean reef salt mixture.I have tried and continue to use Phos-Sorb to help with the phosphate levels which help, but does not bring down to zero. For the Load in the 75g tank; Fish 2 foxfaces about 5 inches, 1 tang about 3 inches, 3 clown about 2.5-4 inches, 2 gobies about 2.5 inches, 1 wasp about 2.5 inches, 1 benny about 2.5 inches and 5 Chromos about 1.5-2 inches. There are also multiple cleaner crabs and snails.. For Coral the ones that are doing great are torches, pulsated xenia, green and purple star polyps, brown mushroom, 1 kenya tree and 1 anemone. The ones that are not doing well are pipe-organ, leather (doing okay but not blooming its white polyps as was in the store), and Zoas well forgot about them, they do not last a couple of hours in the tank, they just melt. Which is concerning because I heard these were the easiest to keep. I hope this information helps and I look forward to the response. Thank you again,
GMay
Active Member
Welcome to R2R.
It sounds like your testing the pH of your RODI. That is not important. You should be testing the pH of your freshly mixed and tank salt water. Reef buffer will mess with your alkalinity, make it artificially high, which appears to be the case since you say, it is dKH 13 -14. Check the pH and alkalinity of your freshly mixed salt water. I would recommend mixing IO salts for 24 hrs before testing.
Happy reefing!
It sounds like your testing the pH of your RODI. That is not important. You should be testing the pH of your freshly mixed and tank salt water. Reef buffer will mess with your alkalinity, make it artificially high, which appears to be the case since you say, it is dKH 13 -14. Check the pH and alkalinity of your freshly mixed salt water. I would recommend mixing IO salts for 24 hrs before testing.
Happy reefing!
Hi GMay, the testing was performed on tank water only. I started to adjust the pH for the water that I was going to use for water change, but stopped that due to the above response of not chasing the pH numbers. You are correct about the increase in hardness as it has risen to this level since adding the Buffer. This was one of the reasoning that I discontinued the process and seeked help. Also regarding your suggestion about IO salts, what is that? Thank you
Reef man 89
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Your dkh is pretty high with no nitrates. I would stop using the ph buffer
Hi cmoore, I measure salinity in a few ways. I originally used a refractometer, but then realized it was not accurate even when zeroed with distilled water. I then moved to digital pen, which seems more consistent with Fluval G3 filter measurements. I think the refractometer was not adjusted for temperature. RODI filters I changed out a month ago or so.
cmoore806
Active Member
the refractometer won't be accurate when zeroed with distilled water because it needs to be calibrated with a known solution. Typically a 35ppt/1.026sg solution is what's used to calibrate the refractometer. where are you running the salinity and is the Hanna Instruments digital pen or another brand?
