PH levels

[Str8linespeed]

Hi RC,

My reef tank has been set up for just over a month now and I do have about 5 different corals in the tank (they came with the setup when I bought it). Since day one with new water the PH has been 8.0 to 8.1. My alkalinity is 9-10. I use RO/DI water and I have not used any PH or Alk chems.

I've read that if you have a reef tank the PH should be around 8.3 and the Alk around 9. I have some 8.3 buffer, but Im not sure it would be smart to add that because I dont want to increase my Alk at the same time, if that is how that stuff works. So how important is it that my PH is lower?

 

[AlSimmons]

Your pH is fine where it's at now

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

 

[vikinglord13]

Agreed. I've seen mine at 7.9 and didn't have any problems.

Your pH will swing throughout the day because of the CO2 levels. This is especially true if you don't have a refugium on a reverse-lighting period.

 

[downbeach]

I ran a mixed reef 180 for many years with a pH running between 7.8 and 8.1, so no worries.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Don't know who told you 8.3 for pH, but I'd wager that less than 25% of the reefers in this forum are at 8.3 or higher.

I have 4 tanks and the all run between 8.0 and 8.2 and everything is doing great!

Don't stress. And until you have more lps & sps corals, don't worry too much about alk either. I screwed up big time a month ago and manually dosed alk instead of Ca and pushed my alk to 12 dKH. A few lps weren't too happy, but they survived and the alk is on the way back down.

 

[Jah2707]

Be careful with the PH buffer. If you end up using it start off with small amounts and check often. I followed the instructions and it clouded the water for over 24 hours and boosted it past 8.3 - I add lime water in top off now and it is more consistent.

 

[nereefpat]

Agree with all the others.

Stay away from pH buffer. It's a marketing scam. It's just baking soda (or baked baking soda), and it will only raise pH if you have low alk, which you don't.

 

[hkgar]

Ph is what it is. The only way to have any effect on it is to scrub the co2 from the air - if you have a skimmer.

Here is my chart over the last 7 days.

https://www.reeftronics.net/graphns.php?probe=02&period=week&member=garyk

The big dip happened when the system shut off due to a leak.

 

[Sk8r]

Marine tanks don't depend as much on ph (my tester doesn't even have batteries) as on alkalinity: if that's 'on,' the ph will generally take care of itself unless you have an unusual situation with co2 issues. Test it at first, but if it proves as stable as everybody else's at any acceptable number around 7.9 or slightly higher, you can relax and not worry about it.

 

[disc1]

What's the problem that low pH causes? It dissolves the calcium carbonate skeletons of our corals. It's pretty easy to tell when that happens because the sand starts to clump together and the rocks start to dissolve. If that's not happening then the pH is high enough to be safe

What's the problem that is caused by high pH? It causes calcium and alkalinity to precipitate out of the water as calcium carbonate. This too is easy to spot, it looks like a snowstorm in the tank and everything gets covered in white powder. If that's not happening then pH isn't too high.

 

[CindyK]

Thank Goodness y'all clarified this for me. I was making it way too hard in my head lol.

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk