ph up

[Bretts05jeep]

what is the difference between saltwater ph up and fresh water ph up

my ph is 7.8 and i cant get it to go up, I have been useing proper 8.4 for about a week and no change.

the reasion i want to know the difference between saltwater and freshwater ph up is becaues i have two bottles of ph up for freshwater.

[julie180]

7.8 is fine. If its stable, then don't worry about it. I spent several years and a lot of money on trying to raise my ph until I figured out that it does not have to be perfect.

Make sure your alk, calcium and mag are in line. If either of them is out of whack then it will affect your ph.

Julie

[Bretts05jeep]

my alk is 8dkh, my calcium is 400 and i dont have a mag test kit, it was 8.0 for a long time and when it went down a little i started to panic. I dont want it to keep going down

[julie180]

If you have your house closed up and the ac on, it will tend to go down. Fresh air can be helpful. You can also put kalk aka picking lime in your top off water and it will help keep your alk, calcium and ph stable.

I am not a chemistry person, this is just my experience. If you want the technical side, go over to the chemistry forum and they will give you ALL the gory details ;)

Seriously, I would not panic. Just keep and eye on it and make sure your mag is good.

With regular water changes, you should not have to add anything unless you have super high demand like a tank full of sps corals.

Julie

[crvz]

I'd also question how you're testing pH. A test kit usually provides inaccurate data. Unless you're measuring with a recently calibrated probe, I wouldnt trust the information.

[Bretts05jeep]

If you have your house closed up and the ac on, it will tend to go down. Fresh air can be helpful. You can also put kalk aka picking lime in your top off water and it will help keep your alk, calcium and ph stable.

I am not a chemistry person, this is just my experience. If you want the technical side, go over to the chemistry forum and they will give you ALL the gory details ;)

Seriously, I would not panic. Just keep and eye on it and make sure your mag is good.

With regular water changes, you should not have to add anything unless you have super high demand like a tank full of sps corals.

Julie

what is picking lime? I tried to read causes and cures an the online reef mag, but having a hard time understanding alot of the technical lingo

I do have 6 lps corals, not full at least not yet lol

[Bretts05jeep]

I'd also question how you're testing pH. A test kit usually provides inaccurate data. Unless you're measuring with a recently calibrated probe, I wouldnt trust the information.

i got another test kit so now I hava an api kit and instant ocean and they read the same.

im going to get a mag kit and test that tomorrow

[julie180]

Pickling lime is the same as kalkwasser that people use in their top off water. Its a very high ph powder.

I buy kalkwasser because then I know its meant for the aquarium and it has mixing instructions.

As with all changes, you don't want to dump a bunch of kalk in at once. You want to raise things slowly. If top off every day, or have an auto top off, that will be fine.

If you have been reading and stuff is confusing, it would be better to ask specific questions of what you are having trouble getting. I know some of that tech stuff is hard to understand (been there, done that), but its truly the best way to get the best results.

Hang in there. We were all in your shoes at one time. Well, ok most of us anyways :)