euromomtx
10/12/2009, 11:07 AM
I've been making my saltwater from purified (RO) water in a 10 gallon trash can with 1 water pump for circulation and 1 heater.
Up until now I have been using Oceanic salt and it did have a lot of precipitation so I just bought some Reef Crystals.
My pH was hovering around 8.0 in my display tank and low in alkalinity so I added over the course of some days some baking soda. That brought up alkalinity and pH to 8.4.
Then I did a water change and pH dropped down to 7.6 (from just a 10% water change!)
How can that be? Isn't new water supposed to keep pH stable or even raise it?
I had used up most of the Oceanic by that time so refilled with a batch of Reef Crystal water (still had some Oceanic water and all of the precipitation left in the trash can though).
I probably should have completely cleaned out the container before making a new batch.
This time I remembered to check the ph of the freshly amde water though and it is 7.5 pH.
I don't understand why my freshly made seawater from two different brands ends up being so low in pH. What's going on?
At this point the alkalinity in the display tank is at appropriate levels so I am hesitant to add any more baking soda.
Up until now I have been using Oceanic salt and it did have a lot of precipitation so I just bought some Reef Crystals.
My pH was hovering around 8.0 in my display tank and low in alkalinity so I added over the course of some days some baking soda. That brought up alkalinity and pH to 8.4.
Then I did a water change and pH dropped down to 7.6 (from just a 10% water change!)
How can that be? Isn't new water supposed to keep pH stable or even raise it?
I had used up most of the Oceanic by that time so refilled with a batch of Reef Crystal water (still had some Oceanic water and all of the precipitation left in the trash can though).
I probably should have completely cleaned out the container before making a new batch.
This time I remembered to check the ph of the freshly amde water though and it is 7.5 pH.
I don't understand why my freshly made seawater from two different brands ends up being so low in pH. What's going on?
At this point the alkalinity in the display tank is at appropriate levels so I am hesitant to add any more baking soda.