high ph with alk at 9.6

[jjoos99]

Help, I am seeing quite a bit of stn on both acros and millis and tested tonight and found my alk to be at 9.6 and my ph is high at 8.33. What should I do to bring this down. I am afraid of loosing my 3 year old corals that have grown quite large. Would this high of a ph be causing the stn? I decreased my co2 rate tonight as soon as I found the higher ph. Any suggestions? I have been fighting this stn for quite some time off and on with my alk ranging between 8 and 10 which I have seemed to have trouble to keep it steady.
thanks
Jeff

 

[wfournier]

Neither of those numbers are outside of "normal" levels, I would be concerned about your alk fluctuating. What are your other parameters and flow?

 

[mcoomer]

Neither of those numbers are truly bad. Tell us about your other water parameters and what equipment you're using to maintain calcium and alkalinity.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

What's is your pH swing? 8.33 is pretty good for your high pH if your low pH is 8.20 or higher. Now, if you low pH is 7.9 or 8.0, than 8.33 doesn't sounds as good.

 

[t4zalews]

I wouldnt blame the Ph for a problem with your corals..my tank sways from 8.5 to 8.0 recently with no problems at all. I'd look for other reasons why your corals are on the downhill. I'd check your salinity first..I had some corals start to stn on me and my salinity was way low. I brought it back up and they recovered. That would be my first bet.

 

[jjoos99]

I just performed a battery of tests. Boy was I surprised at the results. I have never read any phos or nitrates in my system. My nitrates showed all the way up to 40ppm and the phos was reading at .1 mg/l. I also recalibrated my refractometer and found it to be reading .003 high, so my actual level was low. Lesson learned, never get too comfortable with things. What is confusing for me is the almost total lack of algae growth. I usually only have to clean my glass once a week. I would think with nitrates that high I would be seeing hair algae growth. With the lack of algae growth I was actually thinking that I was running a ultra low nutrient tank, and had started to feel more, and cut my water changes down to ever other week. I have my r/o water running to make a water change tomorrow. I have been using seachem salt for some time now.
Jeff