So I want to do a freshwater dip of a sick chromis. I adjusted the pH of some RO/DI water with API proper pH 8.2, mixed overnight, brought up to temperature, and used the API saltwater master kit high pH test to measure pH. It said it was well above a pH of 8.8? Is the test wrong or did I just add too much buffer?
Can API Saltwater Master Test kit be used with fresh water?
- Thread starter Newms118
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heathlindner25
New member
It should say in the directions.... even if it was fresh water capable, I still wouldn't trust it.
Gah, its like anything else in this hobby, theres always something else to buy. I get purchase fatigue at this point.
Potatohead
New member
It's the same kit other than the nitrates colours are very slightly different, and the saltwater kit comes with kH.
heathlindner25
New member
Yeah buying the right stuff the first time is a bit tricky in this Hobby
Well I tested my saltwater tank and got a pH of 8, and the freshwater was at least 8.8. Is that a huge difference for a fish? Not sure why my freshwater was so much higher in pH, I weighed out the proper amount of proper pH 8.2.
To lower my pH, can I just add more freshwater?
disc1
-RT * ln(k)
The pH of the freshwater you start with has very very very little to do with the pH of the water after you've mixed the salt. The salt mix sets the pH not the water you start with. The freshwater has almost zero (or in the case of RODI exactly zero) buffering capacity. It doesn't get any say in the pH equation. In the seawater the pH is set by the ratios of carbonate, bicarbonate, and carbon dioxide.
I wouldn't trust a reading of 8.8 on freshly mixed saltwater. I would be looking for a different way to test it. Although it is possible that by trying to buffer the water before you mixed the salt you threw the whole chemistry off.
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