Extremely high ph

Wizard

Wizard

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I am quite concerned about my ph. i am getting a reading of 8.8 to 9, IN THE MORNING!!!. i just checked my ph with a tropic marin test kit and it is showing 9. i have a shit red sea kit too wich can only read up to 8.6 and this is showing 8.6. now if it was the red sea kit i would just put it down to a crapy test kit. but the tropic marin?????? i am dosing up to 15l of kalk in a night from a am stirrer and auto top up and my fuge ( 300l filled with chaeto ) is on a reverse light cycle from 7pm to 7 am. all my other tests are 100s ( although they are red sea so i dont really trust them) I was using tropic marin buffer for the last 2 months and i was getting ph readings of around 8.6 to 8.8. i ran out about 2 weeks ago and havnt got my hands on more yet. but the question is......... surely with this kind of high ph i would find my inhabitants really stressed. the ph is constantly high though (at any time of the day) not dipping below 8.8. EVERYTHING IS THRIVING and my sps pe, growth and color is fantastic.
 
my system is 1000l. this is the part that i dont understand tho, calcium +/- 450 and alk 2 meq /pl (bear in mind that these are tested with red sea kits)
 
Quite a complex interaction on the go there, but I think the main cause is too much kalkwasser being added and not enough buffer.

Although hydroxide can be converted to bicarbonate, it is a bit of a slowish process and not 100% reliable IMO.

Couple this with the observation that alkalinity consumption is usually higher than calcium consumption (kalkwasser adds these two in equal quantities) you can get an imbalance. With you not having added the additional buffer for two weeks, you have lost some buffering power allowing your pH to shift.

I would try adding good balanced buffer (try get to around 3 dKH) and decrease the strength and/or the quantity of the added kalkwasser.
 
thanks, i will start adding buffer again. i didnt realise how big an impact it had. dont really want to drop the amount of kalk that is added as i think i can attribute my serious growth to this. ( is this correct ). and i have been adding in this quantity for over 6 months now. would just correctly buffering alone resolve this problem. are there any other possible issues with adding this much kalk.
 
Yip, 3mql or 7-8 DKH
 
Wizard said:
thanks, i will start adding buffer again. i didnt realise how big an impact it had. dont really want to drop the amount of kalk that is added as i think i can attribute my serious growth to this. ( is this correct ). and i have been adding in this quantity for over 6 months now. would just correctly buffering alone resolve this problem. are there any other possible issues with adding this much kalk.
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Yeah that should have been 3 meq/l, Thanks Viper.

Wizard, I just recommended dropping kalk additions until pH is back to your normal range not permanently. Since you have been doing this for a long tiem already there is obviously not a problem withthe quantity.

I'm sure once you start adding buffer things will come right again. Remember a buffer buffers shifts in pH both downwards (the ones we usually experoence) but also buffers upward shifts in pH. I suspect at this stage most pf what you are measuring as alkalinity is hydroxide ions from the kalkwasser which do not have any buffering capacity, and that there is a shorateg of bicarboante and carbonate.

So no real worries, just add buffer as per manufacturers recommendations and things will come right again. I would consider a water change, and a reduced kalkwasser dosage just to help reduce pH in the interim.

Clinton
 
Hope it works for you bubby :) (dont try this) When my tanks PH went up to 9.5 due to lime stone in the rock i bought (luckly no fish) But i got it back to normal by water changes...Clinton would is this ok?
 
is it it true that the that a ph oh 8.6 is safe crew?
 
cool, thanks for the advice. i didnt run any kalk last night and bang! the ph was down to 8.2. i think everyone in the tank must hate me atm. right, I NEED TO GET SOME BUFFER!!!! and sundays my water change day in any case. i also didnt realise how quickly the buffering capacity get "used up"
 
Mekaeel 8.6 is fine for the tank but i would rather keep it at 8.0-8.2
 
im using synthetic. i think that the kalk was just pushing the ph up really high and really fast. when i didnt dose for a night ( effectively 24 hours later that i tested ph again ) it had dropped to 8.2. anyway got some tropic marin tripple buffer and will start to buffer properly again. can anyone recomend a good buffer that isnt as expensive as the tropic marin.
 
Kent marine buffer is quite good and not as expensive as Tropical marine...Where do you buy from?
 
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