I need pH help!

Thanks Billybeau1 I will try to do that asap. I may just hold onto the Oceanic on the side as I plan to increase my inverts as well as corals as soon as my sump and skimmer are installed and the water levels stabilize for a while. Little bit at a time.

mbbuna I am due up for a water change very soon if not now. I am currently running skimmer less, though I have no bio load to speak of. What factors will be pulling down the Alk naturally? If it has anything to do with organisms using up calcium then I can not wait.

Alk, Ca, and pH buffers and additives are all going in my bottom drawer and I won't be touching them for a long while.
 
:thumbsup: Well if you're gonna do that, maybe Reef Crystals is a better choice. I just bought a bucket. Tested 420 cal at 1.026sg

Its made by Instant Ocean. Very consistent. Its a few more bucks a bucket but worth it IMO. :)
 
the rate of Ca and Alk depletion is directly related to the number of calcifying organisms you have in you tank. if you dont have many or any hard corals the drop will be slow although coralline algae can use Ca/Alk quickly. my concern with using a water change to correct your Alk is shock. i would rather see you do a few small (5%) water changes over the next few days then one large one
 
Water changes are definitely going to be smaller and spread out. Perhaps 2.5 gallons every three to four days. Sound ok?

Also this tank has what most people would consider 0 coralline algae. I have two rocks that I recently added, but before that there was none. The lighting I had before I moved here was very old and probably barely enough for algae when it was brand new. I have one coral, well one that has broken up, a small Yellow Gorgonian. My clean up crew is even small by comparison to most. This is why I brought it up because the Ca and Alk will not be used up quickly by any means. These are two, mostly empty tanks. I will see if I can get photos.

The tanks were far away from me where I could not take care of them so I never added much to them. Since I've moved in with them I have not added a significant amount as I was worried about the chemistry and waiting for the money for my sump.

I have a really odd ball case and need to put 3D diagrams, photos, and descriptions on my website to explain it all, but I simply have not had the time. I'm working on it though because I spend a lot of time explaining what's going on and get a lot of advice that does not apply to my system.
 
I temporarily posted some photos at the bottom of this page: http://www.gordonious.com/H2O/SaltWater.html

Those are older photos, but not much inside the tanks has changed. The photos were took while I was still working on moving in so you will see wires all over and a real mess. It is not like that anymore.
Also the tank below is not connected. Any time I do a water change I add the water to that tank which I hope to add on at a later point, but will need to drain it and move it to slide my real sump in behind it.
 
The tanks look good. Yep you've got the same exact stars I have too :).
Mbbuna is right too.
If your going to make any changes, make them small, and also keep track of them.
It's easier to tear apart small variables (steps) that you've already made than to try and figure out which if your big ones had the best overall improvements.
Put the pH buffer away and make your small water changes over a period of time. The tank should level itself out to where it needs to be. If it's only going to be a FOWLR tank you might even want to do away with dosing it for Ca for right now? As you start adding your inverts, the tank should be more stable and then you can slowly start and increase your dosage, as needed.

Ugh test strips are a lazy and inaccurate way of verifying anything. I think they're probably useful on a simple positive or negative type test but not for accurate measurements. That's why you won't see them in very many stores anymore. They are convenient but that's where it ends.
 
I try to record all my measurements on note cards and then later transfer them to an excel document on a PC. It will be a reef tank, or at least half of it will be. Dosing Ca will be decreased to eliminated for a long time. I had never dosed Ca in the past and just read all over that the absence of Ca contributed to the absence of coralline algae. When I wanted to increase the algae, keep a larger creep up crew including many inverts, and start taking in corals I thought I might need to dose. When I got my Ca kit and found it was horribly low I began to add a good amount over a two week period soon finding the results of my test were getting worse and not better. Of course I found out I looked at one thing backward.

I made one simple mistake and that was reading the test kit wrong. I've hard years of science courses, worked in a lab, and read for many hours online, I just never had experience testing Ca and dosing Ca before.

I agree with the test strips and never use them. The LFS used it and confirmed what I was getting in my Alk test at home. (In thinking about adjusting my tank I think I may do even a smaller change more often, if the time is available.) I think if doing 2 gallons every other day would be decent then 1.5 gallons a day would be even better. The more the steps are smoothed out and less bumpy they are the better. The, I’ll call them, medium sized changes would be acceptable and work in the long run however I am hurting the coral and my inverts in my tank by waiting longer. They need to get out of this wacky state that has been created asap.

Two of my hermits have been frozen on a piece of LR for 3 days now. I put food in front of one of them and it wouldn’t budge. For a scavenger to turn down food you know something is up. My only coral had made a huge recovery, but is on itss way out again. The polyps are getting smaller and smaller and a third I had a week ago are now gone.
 
I really should have been clearer with what I said about those pictures. Most of them are years old. The bottom two are the only photos on there took this year. I don't have near that much life any more.
 
I am placing an order at foster and smith and was wondering if I should pick up some of <A HREF="http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=4747&N=2004+2032">"Kalkwasser Calcium Supplement 1 lb $9.49"</A>
Do I need a reactor or anything for this or should I just get some for when my chemistry gets to where it should be?
 
and what do you think of the <A HREF="http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=14790&N=2004+2035">"Mardel LivepH test meter"</A>
 
Kalkwasser? I've used it alone with a drip, mixed with white vingar, and two part ionic. To be honest I've not seen any difference between any of those applications but it does appear to help your inverts to use it.

I've never used that test meter(?). I use two different liquid pH test kits to get an accurate measurement. If you wanted pinpoint accuracy you'd probably have to go with a probe but the cost for me is hard to justify. Eventually though, I'd like to get an Aquacontroller unit.
 
EEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRrrrrr Aiptasia!! I have never ever had aiptasia in my tanks and have tried hard to keep it away. I haven't brought anything home for two months. Now I've got one and my chemistry is a little messed up to go messing around with removing it. I've been looking at Copperband Butterfly fish for a couple of months now. Perhaps soon it may be the time to get one.
 
Use your kalk when you get it!

Simply make a slurry of it and then inject it ONTO the open mouth. It'll be gone within a day or two. Just apply carefully if there are any other animals near it. Has worked like a charm for me.
 
It is near my yellow gorg which is just starting to make a come back and was moved and had cuttings took from it a couple days ago. So, it is a bit ricky. Might have to be done though, not sure if I can afford the copperbanded.
 
As long as you've got 1" - 2" you should be ok. I've applied mine carefully around my shrooms and zoas and never lost anything yet. I used one of those syringes you get at K-Mart in those crappy ink jet refill kits. Apply one small drop and your done.
Keep it focused on the open mouth though and don't try to inject it into the body or insert it into the mouth cavity. It'll retract pretty quickly but at that point the job is already over :).

If your gorg is too close you may want to turn your rock from the flow so the gorg won't catch any possible residual effect. It only takes enough to fill the mouth of the Aptasia which in most cases if caught early is one drop.
Remember to make it liquid enough that it will flow out of the syringe. You don't want a clump blasting anything.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7836736#post7836736 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gordonious
and what do you think of the <A HREF="http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=14790&N=2004+2035">"Mardel LivepH test meter"</A>
Click to expand...

Wow quite the poster! Welcome aboard! I'm going to give my opinion on this product even though I have not used it and i'm technically biased because it is a competitors product.

First off I would imagine it is not much more accurate than a strip test..b/c that is what it seems like to me.

You have to change the "strip cartridge" every month or so...so you can imagine the integrity degrades from moment one in the tank.

One thing that I don't believe you find on the package is the advice of keeping that unit as far from the tank light as possible b/c light will also degrade the test. With bright saltwater lighting maybe the problem could be acute.

Stick with your reagent tests or probes.

BTW good luck with ecology...ecology made my head hurt many times! Its pretty cool though!
 
Lol, I love ecology. I'm just kind of P*$$ed off that the University it making me take Ecology next semester. I have took Forest Ecology, Wildlife Conservation & Ecology, and Elementary Evolutionary Ecology, however it seems I missed Ecology some how. Why not send the senior math major back to basic math. {roles eyes} (Sorry needed a vent)

I am going nuts with these tests and I am going to get a PH probe. I hoping not to just get a probe I am going to buy a PH probe, humidity probe, salinity, several temp probes, and what ever else I can find that I can attach to my PC. I am going to make the computers do the work. I am tired of having test kits failed and trying to decide if this color is the same as that color. As I am barely passing general chemistry I also do not trust myself any more with mixing chemicals especially when it comes to the lives of my animals.

Oh and as for the aiptasia I found a copperbanded at my LFS, they received about 4 of them not to long ago and have one left. The shop owner told me they had been eating brine. Seeing as it is only a couple of days till my birthday I am hoping I can convince my parents to let me get it for my birthday. Cross your fingers everyone.
 
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