Low PH

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What is considered a low and dangerous PH ? I bought a Milwalkee PH600 pen today and tested my water, it was 7.9 earlier today and I just checked now and it shows 7.5 Did a test with my seachem test kit and the water does not even change colour. Did the reference test on the seachem kit and it is fine.
 
Have you caliberated the Ph pen Brent?
 
normal PH is 8 to 8.5 after lights out the PH can drop a little, i don't think 7.9 is dangerous, but if you ran a kalkwasser top up over night (i.e. only top up at night using a kalkwasser mix) it is supposed to keep the PH stable.
 
Checked again this morning abd its now 8.1 both with the pen and the seachem test kit. Have put in some more reef carbonate.
 
I don't know this device - can you please explain how you calibrated it (one or two point calibration, what buffers were used, procedure...)

Please remember if the head was dry you need to soak it for a couple of hours, then check calibration. Don't let the head get dry as it will mess with the readings.

Excellent advice. Best is to keep the electrode submerged in KCl, but pH 4 or pH 7 buffer solution will also work very well - just NEVER keep it in RO water.

Hennie
 
I got some PH7 solution with the deice and there is a small screwdriver to set the unit to PH7
 
So then it would appear to have only a one-point calibration - not ideal, as one would also like to calibrate it at either a high (pH 10) or low (pH 4) level to ensure maximum accuracy. I would suggest that you either make a borax solution (3.8 grams of borax dissolved into 1 liter of RO water = pH 9.18 at 25°C) or use a pH 10.01 standard buffer to confirm that the instrument is actually reading correct.

Hennie
 
Checked again this morning abd its now 8.1 both with the pen and the seachem test kit. Have put in some more reef carbonate.
If both are giving the same reading, then the chances are that the pen is correct.

What is Reef Carbonate? And why are dosing? By trying to raise your pH using buffer is not advisable.
 
Reef Carbonate is a seachem product I dose with. Here is a write up.

Reef Carbonate™ is a concentrated (4,000 meq/L) optimized blend of carbonate and bicarbonate salts designed to restore and maintain alkalinity in the reef aquarium. Calcium and carbonates are essential to all coral growth. If either becomes deficient, coral growth will cease, followed by a rapid decline in coral health. To prevent this you must provide carbonates (Reef Carbonate™) and calcium (Reef Advantage Calcium™ or Reef Complete™).
Used as directed, Reef Carbonate™ will not deplete calcium, magnesium, or strontium which usually tend to precipitate with increasing alkalinity. Reef alkalinity should be maintained at 3–5 meq/L (8–14 dKH). Alkalinity should not be allowed to fall below 2 meq/L.
 
Reef Carbonate is a seachem product I dose with. Here is a write up.

Reef Carbonate™ is a concentrated (4,000 meq/L) optimized blend of carbonate and bicarbonate salts designed to restore and maintain alkalinity
This is a buffer. It does not supply calcium. So before you do anything else measure your calcium and alkalinity, and identify the shortfall. Then dose accordingly, to restore the imbalance.
 
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