low alcalinity dh 5.9, high ca 480, high mg 1470, low ph 7.85

[achille66]

hi there,
my readings are as follows
dh 5.9
ca 480
mg 1470
ph 7.85
no2 = zero
no3 = zero
nh4 = zero
po = zero
temp = 27.8c
salinity = 1.025

red sea max 250 modified
kalkwasser dosed via ato at low dose
other supplements = kent marine purple tech, chromaplex, tech 1 iodine, special blend
filters include active carbon, purigen and rowaphos
chiller teco tr15

do you believe i should dose something for low alcalinity???
thank you.
achilleas

 

[jrbass]

I am sure you will get a lot of people weigh in here but I too have had this problem and ended up dosing seachem Marine buffer to raise and stabilize my ph and KH.

 

[alexpsy]

Αχιλλέας open your windows more and give your tank some fresh air.
You can use sodium bicarbonate ash(baked at 200C for 1 hour in the oven) This will boost up your pH and your dKh at the same time.Works wonders in low pH tanks.
You can install a refugium with opposite lightperiod so it can maintain your pH during night.
You can put a powerhead or a wavemaker pump and raise more your circulation in the tank.
You can overfeed your skimmer with fresh air from outside with an airline tube.This will help your low pH a lot.

Try to monitor pH with a more trusted instument it might be wrong...The pH value involves 2 values one peak and one low.If your low value is 7.85 and your peak is 8,2 you are ok.

Although is hard having low pH in a tank that uses Kalk...Your problem might be more complicated.
Allso if you are dosing bacteria daily do it when lights are on peak of your lightperiod and never at night.Bacterias consume oxigen and lead at low pH problems,reduced calcification and might crash your tank.

 

[achille66]

hi there,
providing more air by opening the top is problematic since we have 2 lovely cats which would certainly try to get a fish or two, so thats dead.
the bicarbonate will do asap, i also read an article by randy fowles on that
refugium on rsm250 not likely
powerhead i already have a vortech 10 which is operating nicely
overfeed the skimmer with fresh air - can you be more specific on how to do that, you mean connect an extra air pump to the skimmer?
my ph meter is electronic and calibrated regularly so i trust it, i also have a sera ph kit that confirms the result
bacteria are dosed once every week and measurements are taken just about before dosing

thank you for the assistance, read some of your articles too...
achilleas

 

[achille66]

sodium biocarbonate in over at 200c (about 25gr) for 60 min so that it converts to washing soda (sodium carbonate)
plan to add 7gr per day slowly until i get to 8dh, then well see from there
im also interested to see what happens to ph
thank you
achilleas

 

[alexpsy]

Download a reef calculator so you can get the excactly amount of chemical you need to get to desired values more easily.
Try to cook 1kg of sodium bic. in the oven.You will get about 600gr. of Sodium Bic. ash.Then dissolve 200gr in 2lt of osmotic water.This will be your dKh+Ph buffer.Try not to raise dKh all at once but slowly because you will stress your corals.1,5dKh for a day is preffered.
Sodium Bic is very cheap in chem.stores I get it for 3 euros a Kg.

If you want to overfeed your skimmer with fresh air you just have to expand the air tubbing of your skimmer.Maybe a hole in the wall or somehow.It does help a lot.A protein skimmer is mixxing air with water(venturi).The air outside your house has less CO2 then the air your skimmer gets ATM and it does impact the status of your entire system pH/Calcification on corals also.
This is a usual problem that heavy smokers have when they dont open windows.Another solution is to put plants in the house near aquariums for better CO2 exchange.

 

[reefer gladness]

Don't worry about adjusting your pH, it will rise when you correct alk. Slowly raise alk to 7-8 dKH if you're running carbon - do not raise by more than 1dKH per 24 hours.

Buffer is too cheap to manufacture IMO and it's not the same. Read the ingredients on a marine buffer product and you'll find it includes not just bicarbonate but also carbonate and borate salts. I buy Kent superbuffer dKH, paid $16 for 1 kilo about 2 years ago and still only used half of it.