Will lowering salility raise pH?

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kr8om

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I need a refresher coarse I guess. At one time I had 15 tanks, 7 were reef tanks. I was just gifted a 29 bio cube from a friend that liked mine so much he got into the hobby, but since had to move and gave it to me. I still have thousands of dollars worth of chems and equipment too. I'm starting fresh at lvl one again and haven't even put cured live rock in it yet, just old rocks from my many buckets of dead rock, cleaned up of coarse.my question is,Will lowering salinity raise pH?
 

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Fresh water holds more oxygen than salt water. i assume it would. i know brackish fish are often switched to fresh water for the aquarium trade for this reason.
 
pH is rarely a concern with a saltwater tank, why do you want to raise your pH? If it is problematic there are better solutions than lowering your salinity.
 
my pH is at 7.35 now and have salinity lvl at 1.035 and was going to to a water change with RO/DI only in an attempt to get it down to 1.024. I wasn't sure if it would raise or lower pH. no livestock yet, so no biggie.
 
kr8om said:
my pH is at 7.35 now and have salinity lvl at 1.035 and was going to to a water change with RO/DI only in an attempt to get it down to 1.024. I wasn't sure if it would raise or lower pH. no livestock yet, so no biggie.
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1.035 is really high. Salinity should be between 1.019-1.026. Ideally 1.025-26.


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How are you testing salinity? Refractometer? Hydrometer? Where is the tank placed in your home? It needs fresh air to exchange on the surface with the co2 building up in the tank. Open the lid, increase surface agitation, or add an air stone to the back chamber. I had to put a air stone the the back of my biocube to get its pH up after trying everything I could. Go natural DON'T BUFFER unless it's a last resort. If you are checking you salinity with a refractometer, check its calibration, and try to get into the 1.023 -1.026 range for a Reef tank. That will help some. I know we shoot for 8.1-8.4 but close to that range and stable is more important. Follow the "breath of your tank" throughout a day. Test the tank right before the lights go out at night and right before they come on in the morning. Then you can see how far it swings daily. If you are testing daily test the same time every day. I know most of this is probably review but I like the whole picture when I try to figure things out.

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My PH was 7.7, I was able to get it up to 8.1 by just opening my basement windows and running a tube from my skimmer air inlet to the window. The more fresh air getting to the tank the better.


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NeilFox said:
Fresh water holds more oxygen than salt water. i assume it would. i know brackish fish are often switched to fresh water for the aquarium trade for this reason.
Click to expand...

Since oxygen has absolutely nothing to do with pH, this line of thinking is a false start.

Lower salinity won't directly affect pH one way or the other. It could go either way. But it may mean lower alkalinity which makes the pH easier to change so the same issues like CO2 in a closed up house may have larger effects.
 
I got my pH and salinity to a happy place. MY 29 gal nano is only 2 weeks new at this point with new led light and Im already dealing with a huge cyanobacteria outbreak. I went to work and came home to it all over the sand bed and some rocks. I have plenty of water current and lights are on 8 hours a day. It looked great this morning. No bio balls, only cleaned rock ruble, most of middle compartment is filled with it. I used a bag of coral life salt that was 5 yrs old but the bag was still sealed and the salt was not rock hard and no moisture in it either. Maybe i should put a carbon filter on it and then hook up skimmer. I thought about drilling a couple holes in the back [ Ive built a few tanks and know how to do it ] and add one of my old sumps to the system. Added note: This hobby will take over your life.
 
One thing I did not do was remove the old sand bed that had been sitting for months and I'm sure that is the cause of the out break, with all the old detritus and rotten organic matter. Remove, clean it, dry it, and start again I guess. Could I still use the same water with the old salt mix I used? or just get new salt or water from my LFS. What are your thoughts?
 
Reusing a sand bed full of gunk is way more trouble than it's worth, IMHO. You're pretty early in the game to have a huge cyano outbreak so that sand is highly suspect. Siphon it out and rinse it very well. Hopefully you're using RO/DI and not tap water, since that can lead to algae problems as well.

I'm not sure what the shelf life of salt mix is. At the very least it needs to be stirred up thoroughly.
 
Mercury

Mercury

Soooooooooooo. I was draining and cleaning out the tanks, and I was siphoning sand out when I ran across the remnants of a broken thermostat. That has lead pellets and Hg, our good friend MERCURY. My big concern now is am I safe and other chemistry questions, like does Hg dissolve in salt water, would it look like oil and water and separate from each other and how will it effect my liverock after I clean them or if it will even matter. I want super powers if I get it in my system.
 
None of the thermometers we use in this hobby contain mercury. They all have that red alcohol stuff in them. And the shot isn't lead, it's steel. Try grabbing it with a magnet.
 
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