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Water Quality

Octohk

Blue Ring
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Jun 16, 2009
Messages
33
I am sure this has been covered before, but I am having issues keeping my PH above 8.0.

I do weekly water changes and supplements as well as use a PH buffer. I am at 14dKH which is the very high end of the scale.

My Nitrate and Nitrite levels are very low. I do calcium supplements as well.

Any thoughts?
 
8 for the pH is fine, is this a new tank? If so it may just be maturing. Make sure what you're doing isn't also pushing the alkalinity up because that is very high. The frequent water changes may be what's effecting this and you may want to make the water changes less volume. Test the pH and alkalinity of the new water and see what it turns out as.
 
Actually, octopuses like a pH closer to that of sea water, so you should aim at about 8.2-8.3.

pH changes during the day. It would be useful to do readings at various times to see what you get. Usually it's lowest at night when the lights are no longer on. The 8.2 to 8.3 pH would be the highest level,

If you aim your water outflow so it's cutting the surface of the water, this will add oxygen and raise the pH.

Nancy
 
I am not very experienced with marine aquariums (less than a year), but I have a couple of thoughts. As Nancy mentioned, I found extra Oxygenation to help with a low-ish pH. Do you have a sump or somewhere (other than the animal tank) you could add an airstone or two? Also, I don't know if your tank is cooled or heated, but the oxygen saturation curve can be fairly steep, so it might be worth bring the temperature down just a little (slowly, and obviously NOT to the point where it is inappropriate for the beast!). Finally, I have had much less trouble with pH range since I switched to using Instant Ocean to make my seawater, but I must point out this could well be co-incidental, as the tank is more mature now, and I'm somewhat more competent generally!
I hope others will correct me if I have suggested anything stupid or inappropriate...............
Good luck!
Lene.
 
Hi,

Thanks all. More info here.

My tank temp is 24.5c

I have 2 PH computers so I monitor the PH continually day and night. At peak it is hovering at around 8

I have 2 airstones in the tank (on each end) as well as 2 wave makers and 3 canister filters (lots of water movement)

The tank is mature (6 months+)
 
TBH, 6 months isn't very mature, especially with that bio load. My bet would be maturing issues... Also, do you have a skimmer? If not you should with that amount of animals, also, a skimmer goes a long way in terms of oxygenation... Definetly check the parameters of the brand new salt water. It may be that you've gotten a "bad batch".
 
When was the last time you calibrated your pH meters? How old are the probes? Where are the pumps supplying the airstones pulling air from?

In any case, I would stop adding the pH buffer. IME, trying to buffer pH in saltwater is a losing proposition and only results in yo-yo readings or throwing off other parameters.
 
Thanks all. I do have a skimmer on 24/7 and have two PH computers I calibrated recently (one is newer and the other is older). They show similar readings (about .1 PH difference on both). One hovers at about 8-8.1 and the other 7.9-8.0

I have also tried 3 or 4 different salt mixes with the same result.
 
I changed one sensor today and recalibrated both computers. One is a Weipro and the other is a Fadtech.

Airpumps are in open area under the tank.
 
You could try the skimmer and the pumps sucking air from outside - sometimes inside air is heavy with CO2.
IF all your animals look fine, I wouldn't bother. As I said above, buffering to correct pH issues is a losing proposition IME, specially on a newer tank.
 
Thales and I disagree :sagrin: on the use of buffer and I will still claim that the originating water is much of the difference in spite of RO/DI filtering (Also, I believe Thales does not need RO treatments on his water where with my source it is required). If I do not buffer, my PH will drop below 7 (we are smokers and that may be a contributing factor). I have tried different buffers and Seachem's Reef Buffer is only one that I would recommend (I particularly do not like Kent's by a similar name).

I have also found that I could cut my buffering by 50% after I changed to a thin argonite substrate and the tank has been in operation for several years (the later may be an accumulation of buffer as our 140 reef has not had a substrate change but the PH is stable using the same water I use for my other tanks). To minimize your use of a buffering agent, you may want to try buffering only the top-off water but my freshwater bucket is the source for both my salt and fresh water so all my water contains the additive and I have very stable PH in spite of weekly 5 gallon water changes on each of my 8 tanks (which may constitute as much as 33% of the water in the smaller aquariums). I rarely have a loss (those that I do have are after more than a year) but I do not keep hard corals or many difficult to keep species so my experience and suggestions my not apply to more sensitive critters.
 
FYI, I should have mentioned this before.

I am not using RO\DI water.

I guess I need to take a reading of the PH and Akalinity of the water I am using before it goes into the tank.

So far I have been ok using just normal water and treating it with a chlorine remover first.
 
Octohk;138572 said:
I guess I need to take a reading of the PH and Akalinity of the water I am using before it goes into the tank.

Really? You actually think it's worth while after I told you how long ago? And I would really suggest using RO/DI water. It's not necessary, but it's really something you should look into. In the whole scheme of things, it's really not that much.
 

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