Ph

[Scott.h]

The biggest difference in the salts is alk. I would use the one that best suits your alk level. I'm not sure what's in the aquavitro 8.4, but like salty said, I wouldn't mess with buffers. As long as you are 7.8 or above you're fine.

 

[Scott.h]

Wow.. third times a charm. Apparently.

 

[randy4083]

Yeah you posted the same thing a bunch of times

 

[randy4083]

What's the difference between the two in the alkalinity and I only have mostly frags of lps corals and I have a colony of mushrooms and two colonies of lps corals

 

[Scott.h]

What's the difference between the two in the alkalinity and I only have mostly frags of lps corals and I have a colony of mushrooms and two colonies of lps corals

It varies bucket to bucket. If you have some nitrates RC is fine. Reef crystals is in the 10ish range. I believe IO is 8.0 or a little less, and might be a better choice if your no3 and po4 is near zero.

 

[randy4083]

Ok thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yeah but I was told that ph is lowered in ro water so water changes won't raise the ph and this tank is just a small tank but I do have bigger tanks and I have a hob refugium on one of my tanks but I'm trying lps corals and stuff in this smaller tank and like I showed on here my test looks like it reads 8.0 and I took a picture on here and posted my test results but I thought that the ph should be 8.4 in a reef tank that's all

Water changes are never a good way to deal with pH issues, but it has zero to do with the "low" pH of RO water. The pH of the pure freshwater you use for salt water or evaporation top off has no impact whatsoever on the tank pH.

Any pH from 7.8 to 8.5 is OK.

Aquavitro 8.4 is a very poor way to try to boost pH. It's pH boost is small relative to other additives, per unit of alkalinity added, and generally will boost alkalinity too high before it solves a low pH issue.

 

[randy4083]

Ok I'm gonna stop using it and I'm at 8 so I'm just gonna leave it where it's at I just thought that ph had to be 8.2 to 8.4 that's all but now that everyone has told me this stuff I'm gonna leave it alone now