What does it mean...?

[LeonThePeon]

So I'm finally making some progress on my 12' office build. I put freshly mixed salt water in last week - throughout the week about 80 gallons at a time - checking for leaks and letting my RODI filter refill, mix more, dump more in.

I've used nothing but Red Sea Coral Pro Salt (commercial sized bags).

With a week's old freshly mixed water (still cycling - no live rocks) - what does it mean when the PH is at 8 - when Red Sea states "Red Sea Coral Pro Salt will produce stable seawater with a pH of 8.2 – 8.5." ?

https://www.redseafish.com/red-sea-salts/coral-pro-salt/

Just curious. At home, my tank sits at around 7.8-7.95 without any help from Kalk and is stocked. And I'm just keeping up with that level with 20% WC.

I figured in a new tank - I should have around 8.3 or so if the entire tank is full of fresh salt water?

Thoughts?

 

[FartyParty]

I believe PH is driven more by gas exchange than a solid state of your salt mix. For example, mine goes up and down drastically with the refugium lighting phase overnight.

If you are using fresh salt mix, what is the concern? Are you trying to mimic your other tank?

 

[LeonThePeon]

I believe PH is driven more by gas exchange than a solid state of your salt mix. For example, mine goes up and down drastically with the refugium lighting phase overnight.

If you are using fresh salt mix, what is the concern? Are you trying to mimic your other tank?

I'm just curious what to expect. I'm guessing the way I'm thinking of it is that if the tank is new with all freshly made water - then whatever PH I'm getting now is my baseline. And that from here, if I want to raise it, I'd have to consider some artificial alternative/additive to make the change? I.e. If I want to have a slightly higher PH for corals.