Does any know of a product that will safely raise pH without increasing alkalinity? My pH is stable but it is steady at 8.1. I have added a buffer by Seachem but it increases my alkalinity. Calcium is around 450. Alkalinity is at 5.5 meq. Thoughts... I haven't used the buffer in over a week and have pretty much stopped using it.
I read a related post on RS... asking the same question... one reply said this.... "No matter how you want to look at it the low pH is from CO2. And with a pH that low and a Alk that high you have crap loads of CO2, on the order of 3.25 ppm and NSW is 0.50 ppm. A high Alk does not mean high pH. CO2 will drop the pH no matter what the Alk is" Just a thought... but how often are you doing water changes & in what %?
First off, there is NOTHING WRONG with a 8.1 ph. When you run a calcium reactor ph usally runs in the area of 7.6 to 8.2, night verses daytime. 8.1 is nothing to get excited over. Mine runs 8.1 to 8.2 in the day time, because we keep the house closed up with the AC on, so there is a little more co2. Your MUCH more concern right now is 5.5 meq/l of alk. QUIT dosing for ph. as what you have read is true, anything that raises one well raise the other. The ph buffers well raise the ph more then the alk and visa versa, BUT both well be raised with eaither system. If you have any acro's they well probably start to STN with a alk that high, because your calc. is way out of balance. I don't know what size tank we are talking about but you need to do water changes slowly lowering the alk and not more then 1 dkh or 1/2 meq/l a day or even better every other day and get it down in the low 4's meq/l or high 11 dkh and then let it lower on its own for some weeks. Your calc is way low in proportion to your alk, but don't try to raise the calc., as with that high of a alk it won't let you and you don't want to anyway, just drop the alk slowly. As long as the PH stays above 7.8 or so don't worry about it, it may not be what the ocean is, but everything well be fine, so 8.1 is very fine. Get your levels back down more to natural sea water levels, 400 to 420 calc. and 7.7 to 8.2 dkh alk. and don't worry about ph being perfect, the OTHER 2 are more important as long as the ph is 7.8 or better. PS also make sure your salt mix that you are doing water changes with doesn't have high alk content so you can get the alk down, I think it was Oceanic that had alk levels of 14 or 15 dkh. and people were having issues a few years back.
+1 First off, there is NOTHING WRONG with a 8.1 ph. I have always been told in my reek tank 7.8 - 8.2 is all fine if everything else is in balance... PS - if it helps... I have been having great success doing weekly water changes of 10 - 15% My tank is only 34 gals... minus the rock and equipment really only about 30 gals, I do a 4 gal water change weekly & it works well for me. A key imo for smaller tanks...
