water question

[jwhockey23]

I have a Kent Marine HI-S RO/DI system and i have a problem when i am making saltwater, I use Red Sea Salt and mix it with my RO water i make with a powerhead in a 5 gal. bucket, the specific gravity comes out good but my ph in that water is real low about 7.4 what am i doing wrong, and the plain RO water ph should be 7 right

 

[jwhockey23]

can noone answer my question

 

[Ocicat]

You might try asking in another forum like Reef Discussion.

I have had trouble keeping my tank pH up, but I haven't tried testing my newly mixed saltwater. I will do that out of curiosity. It's frustrating that even with regular water changes I seem to need to use buffer regularly. I have yet to get it over 8.1.

 

[Shooter7]

Double/Triple check your tests. Could your test be off? If not, ask in Randy's chemistry forum. Lots of good info there.

 

[beapeams]

Try Dripping Kalc, that really helped my PH problems. I stay around 8.2. Also, buffer at night when the lights are off. That is when you have your PH drop, that could help to bring your PH up.

Shooter is right,
The Chemistry forum is packed full of info. definitly check that out.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8351291#post8351291 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ocicat
You might try asking in another forum like Reef Discussion.

I have had trouble keeping my tank pH up, but I haven't tried testing my newly mixed saltwater. I will do that out of curiosity. It's frustrating that even with regular water changes I seem to need to use buffer regularly. I have yet to get it over 8.1.

 

[Mykayel]

Teh same concept as buffering at night... what time of day are you doing your testing?

Also, you can't really test the ph of your RO water (or at least not with our testing methods) as it shouldn't really have any ions in it (ph is the measure of H+ ions if I remeber right).

 

[DrBDC]

Using "buffers" is a waste of time, money, and energy. Just get your alk to proper levels and if the pH is still low then you have a CO2 issue which is easily fixed as well. This can be accomplished by better aeration of the house, possibly running a tube for the skimmer intake outside. Aeration is the better choice as I'm not sure you want to be around elevated CO2 levels either. Sure helps if you want to take a nap though! :lol:

 

[DrBDC]

Another thing too is if you are using a test tube style test it's probably wrong.

 

[Ocicat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8356927#post8356927 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DrBDC
Using "buffers" is a waste of time, money, and energy. Just get your alk to proper levels

How, without using a buffer?

 

[Ocicat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8356944#post8356944 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DrBDC
Another thing too is if you are using a test tube style test it's probably wrong.

I am using a Salifert test, so I hope that is my problem. I just ordered a digital pH meter, and we'll see how the two compare.

 

[Shooter7]

Oci, have you messed with the chemistry calculator and seen some of the various things you can do to fix water parameters?

Here's a link...you can look at the choices in there for things like Randy's recipes, baking soda, washing soda, etc. I'm still working on getting all my chemistry stuff right myself...with the help of the good doc, of course.

http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/chemcalc.html

 

[Ocicat]

Thanks, Shooter, I had not seen that. I will see where I stand once I get my digital meter and then make use of that calculator for sure.

 

[rottielover]

I have yet to find a saltmix with a high enough alk already in it. I've used IO, Kent, and Coralife...

I eventually settled on Coralife salt (usually the cheapest I can get in this area)... If I'm making up a new batch of saltwater I know that after it's mixed for 2 or 3 hours I go back and do a CA and Alk test on it. Then I mix in enough buffer (usually Seachem Marine Buffer) to bring the alk up to acceptable levels for me (I run my alk around 13-15 dkh or 4-5 Meq/L) let mix for a couple more hours, then if needed, mix in Seachem Calcium (powdered form) to bring the water up to around 400 ppm.

Like I said, I have yet to find ANY saltmix that comes out too these numbers "out of the box".

Anyway, I'm sure glad I got my Ca reactor, things have been much easier since I got that thing