complete water parimeter test, tell me what's wrong

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

you need to understand this.

FORGET about what your ph is. its the alk that is important, not the other way around. if you keep your alk and calcium in line, and are providing good gas exchange through surface agitation, skimming and fresh air in the room, your ph will be fine and you dont even need to test it.

you never want to dose alk to raise your ph. you dose alk to raise your alk

Very much agreed

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

I also try and keep my Alk between 9-10 but really with all the SPS I have a hard enough time keeping it above 8,.. My CA reactor just doesn't have the power!

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

500 calcium is fine. Its not dangerous or anything. Its just unecessary and hard on equipment.

keep your alk at 9 -10 and you will be fine. soem people like to keep it as high as 11 even.

I also agree with this

Whiskey

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by Wiskey

I also agree with this

Whiskey

well arent we MR agreeable tonight

[nobody]

i shouldnt use the seachem marine buffer to do this though right. its a ph buffer but raises alk also in turn with ph

[Elegance Coral]

Originally Posted by ionracing

ph is now 8.2-8.3 after seachem buffer
alk is now about 3.9 effected by seachem buffer

i just read the sailfert alk test paperwork. it says naturnal sea water is around 2-2.9 so mine was not low before?

I am no chemist, so this is just my opinion.

Nitrogen binds with hydrogen and oxygen to form nitric acid. When nitrogenous compounds (nitrate) is allowed to climb in our systems nitric acid is formed. This is why elevated nitrate levels are usually accompanied by lower PH. In order to offset this build up of acid it would take an elevated amount of buffer (base, baking soda, what ever is used) to bring the PH up to normal range. As long as the nitrate level is elevated, this will be an ongoing battle. Continually buffering the system to offset the acid being produced and keep the PH within normal range. If the nitrate is reduced I believe the problems with alk and PH will be reduced as well. Just my . Good luck.

[nobody]

um well i will test every few days and see what happens. from what i read natural sea water is 7-8 kdh so why would i keep it there a not the 8,9,10 that you are suggesting

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by ionracing

um well i will test every few days and see what happens. from what i read natural sea water is 7-8 kdh so why would i keep it there a not the 8,9,10 that you are suggesting

because the ocean isnt a closed system and the alk and calcium of the ocean doesnt get depleted rapidly by coral and coralline consumption.

that and most of us think we get a little better growth at slightly elevated levels than that of NSW

if you notice I said earlier that I do keep my BB tank a little lower than my tank with sand. reason for this is I have found it is easier to maintian there, and simply doesnt use it up like my dsb tank. I have no idea the science of why, I just know that it is

[nobody]

so if i need to raise my alk how fast should i do it. i got seachem alk buffer

[YLChik]

ion,

well you really want your alk and calcium to be balanced. so depending on what your calcium runs at depends on where your alk should be.

I don't know the formula for that, but I do use a web site to figure it out.
here it is
http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

I would slow down a bit and do some more reading before you strating dosing.... WHen I first starting dosing this summer I really did a number on the calcium on my tank... no snow but it was insanly high!

Your getting a lot of good information and doing a great job so far.