Suppressed pH

[tinmanunited]

I've been dosing Aquavitro eight.four to raise my pH for about a week now. And according to directions I should have seen my pH level at aroun 8.3 by now. I realize something must be suppressing this from happening as it stays around 8. What should I be testing and or adding to address this?

Additionally I coming to the end of my tank cycle. I used the fish less cycle approach where I used ammonium chloride as an ammonia source. Could the cycle have affected my pH?

Edit: I actually found some good information here, but if anyone has anything further to add that'd be great.
http://www.aquavitro.com/products/eightfour.html

 

[rdnelson]

I believe that PH will fluctuate durring a cycle. Could be wrong. But regardless, 8 is not bad. I wouldn't be chasing numbers by adding suppliments or chemicals at this point. PH is not that big of deal until you start getting into corals more. Stable PH is much more important than hitting a number.

 

[shanepike]

Which reminds me of a question I had: What is "stable"? I realized this week I have no idea. How much can it fluctuate and still be considered fine?

 

[picoreefguy]

im no expert on ph but i think you could define "stable" as a swing of .2 or less throughout the day

Edit: oh and as for the op's question i think you may not have the right combination of carbonate, and bicarbonate so try using balence instead of 8.4 balence changes ph by manipulating levels of the diffrent chemicals instead of adding more of them to raise the ph. if im not mistaken bicarbonate has a higher pk than carbonate and seachems magnesium test kit has the ability to test for total alk or just carbonat or just bicarbonate so you can check and see if that is the case

 

[tinmanunited]

Thanks, that's pretty much the advice and information I managed to find out as well. I actually had my hands on some balance but decided to wait a little while until my cycle was fully complete.

 

[ralph atl]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php">http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php</a>

read that.....


I would just do large weekly changes with a good reef salt, and add Alk & Calcium daily and insure Mag is above 1300.

use these calculators:

[IMG]http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator">http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator</a>

[IMG]http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html">http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html</a>

 

[tinmanunited]

@mysterybox thanks for the link. My calcium and alkalinity are within range, but my magnesium was high. Over 1600. Tested with a Seachem test kit.