new to reefing

Uncle Eddie · Apr 30, 2017

Hello everyone,
I am new to the hobby and to online forums. I have had a few fish only tanks and am ready to try reefing as well as forums. I find the forums more intimidating.
I am starting with a 54 gallon corner tank, 65 gal. with sump, that has been up for about 3 months now and am adding livestock.
Looking for advice on, well everything.
current parameters:
ph-8.5 consistent
Alk-6.9 dkh
cal-450ppm
no2-0.2
no3-0
nh3-0.003
bio load- 4 chromis and 4 softie frags.
So my first question would be how to lower Ph while raising Alk?
thanks to all and good reefing

Katrina71 · Apr 30, 2017

You have come to the right place. I'm newer than you are. Incredibly knowledgeable people on here.

Katrina71 · Apr 30, 2017

Posting a picture is a must.

Ty Hamatake · Apr 30, 2017

Welcome to a great place with great people, I think you'll find your worries of using a forum won't apply here!

First question, why are you trying to lower your pH? One thing that is vital in this hobby is consistency. If everyone is healthy and happy, I would personally just leave the tank be. You run into problems when you start chasing numbers. To answer your question though sodium bicarbonate (you can buy it online or just use baking soda [make sure it's soda and not baking powder]) can be used to raise alkalinity and will have a temporary lowering effect on pH. You can bake the soda and turn it into sodium carbonate which has little to no effect on the pH, if I'm not mistaken... either way good luck! Keep the updates coming! And don't forget the pictures!

stevo01 · Apr 30, 2017

Agree its a little off right now. Are you seeing the ph swing? How often are you checking it? What salt are you using? What salinity do you maintain? What are you using for substrate and rock? Any pics? Good choice on fish and corals. I would say once your seeing big algae blooms snag 8-10 Astrea snails, couple blue legged hermits, bristle stars, and before all of this beef up on the pod population. Small phyto additions and bags of pods are good.

Frop · Apr 30, 2017

Uncle Eddie said:
Hello everyone,
I am new to the hobby and to online forums. I have had a few fish only tanks and am ready to try reefing as well as forums. I find the forums more intimidating.
I am starting with a 54 gallon corner tank, 65 gal. with sump, that has been up for about 3 months now and am adding livestock.
Looking for advice on, well everything.
current parameters:
ph-8.5 consistent
Alk-6.9 dkh
cal-450ppm
no2-0.2
no3-0
nh3-0.003
bio load- 4 chromis and 4 softie frags.
So my first question would be how to lower Ph while raising Alk?
thanks to all and good reefing

Are you using anything to get your pH that high? Mine is always on the low side. :/

Uncle Eddie · Apr 30, 2017

Thank you Katrina. and Ty
I will get some bi carbonate and I wanted to lower Ph because I thought anything over 8.5 was bad. I will add photos when I figure out how to

dbl · Apr 30, 2017

Welcome to R2R Uncle Eddie. At the bottom of the text block where you type, you should see a button labeled "Upload a File." Click on that and choose the picture you want to post.

Ty Hamatake · Apr 30, 2017

Uncle Eddie said:
Thank you Katrina. and Ty
I will get some bi carbonate and I wanted to lower Ph because I thought anything over 8.5 was bad. I will add photos when I figure out how to

Lol my coffee must not have kicked in yet, that is fairly high. What are you using to test with? Also one thing to remember when dosing to raise alkalinity, is do it slowly. I actually recently used some baking soda to bring mine up a bit and it worked as advertised. I think the recommended daily increase is 1 dKH. The more you can spread it out the better too. I mixed 1.5 tsp with 1 cup RO/DI water (BRS has a calculator to determine what concentration to mix your solution at) and I dosed it over the course of a day 1/8 cup at a time.

KJ · Apr 30, 2017

Welcome to R2R !!!

jsker · Apr 30, 2017

Welcome to R2R, and the community

You have a newer system and as your alk comes up you PH will drop. Adding baking soda will raise your PH link

Edit: need the link

Uncle Eddie · Apr 30, 2017

stevo01 said:
Agree its a little off right now. Are you seeing the ph swing? How often are you checking it? What salt are you using? What salinity do you maintain? What are you using for substrate and rock? Any pics? Good choice on fish and corals. I would say once your seeing big algae blooms snag 8-10 Astrea snails, couple blue legged hermits, bristle stars, and before all of this beef up on the pod population. Small phyto additions and bags of pods are good.

HI Stevo, My ph. stays at 8.45 - 8.59. I test with red sea twice weekly and with seneye continually. I get premade salt water from local reef shop and I do 30% changes monthly. Salinity is 1.026 by refractometer. I have 60LBS of coral sea Hawaiian live sand, makes a 3inch bed, and 48 pounds of the manmade purple live rock.
Where is a good place to find the phyto and pods?

Uncle Eddie · Apr 30, 2017

Frop said:
Are you using anything to get your pH that high? Mine is always on the low side. :/

it has always been that high

Uncle Eddie · Apr 30, 2017

WhooHoo,

rcpalmer1 · Apr 30, 2017

I have had reef tanks on and off for 20 years. The information on here can let anyone be successful. Thing have change so much. If you go to you tube and search for "BRS160" there is a 52 week series that answers most all reefing questions. I am using the BRS two part. I have been able to keep my AlK +or- 0.1 DKH. I do not use a dosing pump but will be adding one soon. My tank is similar to yours (55 gallon tall).

As far as the forum don't be intimidated. This is one of the nice forum I have seen. Do a search and most all question have been asked and answered before. If not ask and you will get some good answers but no one will criticize you or be negative.

Frop · Apr 30, 2017

Uncle Eddie said:
it has always been that high

Usually oxygen, lights, supplements make it go up from what I've seen. Mine moves a lot and some times hits under 7.7 but it averages 7.8

kschweer · Apr 30, 2017

Welcome to R2R!!!

stevo01 · Apr 30, 2017

Uncle Eddie said:
HI Stevo, My ph. stays at 8.45 - 8.59. I test with red sea twice weekly and with seneye continually. I get premade salt water from local reef shop and I do 30% changes monthly. Salinity is 1.026 by refractometer. I have 60LBS of coral sea Hawaiian live sand, makes a 3inch bed, and 48 pounds of the manmade purple live rock.
Where is a good place to find the phyto and pods?

I buy from algae barn on amazon. I would Slow down on WC's, add sump lighting to oposite DT light (9pm-5am) schedule, increase aeration, and seed tank with pods/phyto. Mostly looking good though

OceanMagik Live Phytoplankton Blend - Tetra x Nanno x Iso x Thal Phyto Food for Coral & Copepod (16oz) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LF4DKGQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_P1HbzbN87A84A

5280 Pods :: Live Copepods :: Three Pod Species Tisbe + Tigriopus + Apocyclops :: Clean Your Tank & Mandarin & Finicky Fish Food (5,280+ Pods) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GGU7RLM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_a3HbzbYR7P6CQ