Should you buffer top top off water?

[jaythenoob]

Dear Long time tank owners,

Do you ph buffer your top off water? If you do, say the ph of your tank is 7.8-8.0 and your top off water is 8.3 if you add a gallon of that top off water to a 36 gallon tank will it hurt anything ? I’m using Seachem marine buffer if that makes a difference!

 

[92Miata]

Evaporation is basically pure water, so you want to replace it with pure water. Anything you add to topoff will accumulate in the tank.

If you're worried about ph, etc, do less topoff more often (or buy an ATO and let it do an ounce or two every couple hours)

(that being said, some people dose kalkwasser as part of topoff to maintain CA/Alk - but thats a more complicated subject).

 

[Joedubyk]

dont F w/ any pH buffer.... there are like 5 different ways to get your pH higher

 

[SPR1968]

I wouldn’t concern yourself about pH at those levels, and there is also test error to account for, their hobby grade test kits and of course human error (in my case anyway!)

pH is quite complicated and your don’t really want to mess around with trying to buffer it when it’s not necessary as all sorts of things can happen (generally bad)

And welcome to R2R as well!

 

[Biglew11]

ph buffers also usually contain things that will show up as increasing your alkalinity without adding the carbonite needed for coral growth