hello ok this is long but please bear with me . I have a 400 gallon fish only tank running for about 8 years. I bever really paid attention to levels since no corals but the tanks fitration was only 300-400lbs base rock seeded with live rock and a skimmer an okay one. it had a shallow sand bed my nitrates were always 50ppm and phosphates would climb over 2ppm I had about 12 fish about 6 months ago I had a tank crash or im guessing that's what it was one fish my dory about 5 inches died I could not find her in the rocks , so im pretty sure the tank started a recycle from her rotting body then more fish started dieing some of these fish I had 8 years in the tank just started dropping I did a nitrate test and it was off the charts on salifert . so I stated adding prime to help I ended up with 2 fish left my 12'' naso and 7'' sohal . I added an algae scrubber before the dory death around dec. its been doing good bringing my phos from 2ppm checking this week is now .06 I have marine pure like block before the scrubber its been a year and kept the nitrates around 50 ppm so I added another thinking it would drop them at least by half but 4 months later its still the same. before adding the scrubber and the blocks I removed the sand band slowly within two weeks and that where my nitraite got to 100 after the block with all 12 fish it was down to 50ppm . so as of today we have 2 fish nitrates are at 50ppm with two blocks and a scrubber that I clean ever two weeks and grows dark green alge like 5 lbs of it and a 8000 diablo scrubber . I wanna get the tank back to good levels so I can start putting fish and finally some corals but doing testing yesterday here are the levels mag 1300 alk 7 and cal 375 ph 7.1 so I did a small water change and added some cal and alk wanted a few hours tested again alk is now 9.2 cal is 425 and ph was 7.9 not bad. now I checked ph dismorning and with the lights off I keep my scrubber on 24/7 my ph was back to 7.3. this afternoon I checked and its 7.4. I did the arretion test outside and the water after an hour goes from 7.3 to 7.6. I thought at first since we have 5 dogs and 4 adults in the same house that its access co2 but after the arretion test im thinking it might be something else I think I covered everything so far I don't know what should I do now.
ph issues
- Thread starter yudruln8
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I wanna add the tank is in a screen patio the doors open and close multiple times a day so it does get fresh air I also added a outdoor hose to my inlet on the skimmer but its not really doing anything
pluikens
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What are you using to test ph? Have you tried testing it with another kit/reader? Have you brought it to your LFS for them to check? I'm curious, you said you did a small WC in your first post. How many gallons was the WC? Do you have a regular schedule in which you do a WC? Which ATS did you add?
hi im using a milwakee ph600. I am going to place an order from brs so I was thinking of buying another one just a different brand. I haven't been to the local shop in a while. the water change I did was about 50 gallons and now I hardly ever do them. the ats I have is from 302 aquatics its been running since dec.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Test error. [emoji3]
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Did you try recalibrating the meter?
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A new meter will still need calibration. Most meters with 2 point calibration are acceptable.
ok I checked only solution I have is 6.0 I calibrated it with that it was at 6.2 I adjusted it to 6.0 and retested the tank im at 7.1 and I have a cup outside to retry the aretion test cup is 7.1 i'll check back in about 50 mins to test it
if you don't do water changes and all your doing is adding food and ro to the tank the ph would go down ? since you have no corals your not adding alk or calcium or kalk so would I just need to do a few water changes a week until the ph climbs back up or use a buffer?
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pH 6 buffers are certainly available to scientists ( I have some) but it is pretty unusual to use. Are you certain it is a pH 6 buffer?
I have a question I made about 20 gallons of new salt water using coralife sea mix its in a 30 gal trash can with lid outside the house I went out dismorning I wanted to see what the ph was and its 7.1 I don't know what to do
pluikens
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Until you recalibrate your meter or get a new meter calibrated, I think any pH readings will be pointless beyond knowing if a sample increased or decreased from a previous reading. I wouldn't even trust the amount that it increases or decreases, just which direction it's going.
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