Ph?

[mx51]

I just added water and salt to my tank last Tuesday. Then bought some live rock from a lady here in town and put it in my tank on Friday. Saturday my buddies and I traveled 3 hours to another town and I bought some more live rock there put it in my tank the same day.
Sunday I added my sand (aragonite special grade). My question is before I added the sand my ph was around 8.00 to 8.10 now I'm lucky if I hit 8.00. And when I turn on my lights (ATI sun power dim able 6+54) my ph slowly drops as low as 7.79 am I doing something wrong or is my tank to new to worry about?

[Crooked Reef]

I wouldn't worry about chasing ph. It is something to test if you wish, but if you get your calcium, magnesium and kh correct it will regulate ph. Also keep in mind that ph levels will fluctuate throughout the day depending on a few factors. It is a natural thing for it to raise and lower some in a 24 hour period.

[Pife]

In Salt water you don't have to worry about ph like you do in fresh water tanks.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Too new to worry about anyway.

pH is controlled by teh alkalinity in teh water and the CO2 levels in the water/air.

This has more:

The "How To" Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 3: pH
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/rhf/index.php

[Uncle Salty 05]

Having your skimmer drawing outside air will help immensely.
If you tank is near an exterior wall, just drill a hole and run tubing outdoors.
Just be sure to put a carbon filter on it to catch insecticides and other pollutants.

[disc1]

You're cycling the tank right now and that tends to depress pH a bit. It's way too early to start worrying about that.

[mx51]

Thank you for the replies that is good info...

[mx51]

This may be a dumb question but does temperate have anything to do with PH? I have been running my lights 5-6 hours a day while cycling my tank, but my water temp has been rising about 2 degrees.
So today I bought a fan and put it in my canopy to blow between my lights and water. Now my water temp is dropping and my PH is rising. Thank you for any info.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Temperature only has a very small impact on pH measurement. You wouldn't notice the effect of 2 degrees against the normal pH variability of a reef tank.

The fan may have impacted gas exchange, which might alter the pH depending on the situation. It also likely increased evaporation, if you dose anything in top off water.

[mx51]

Temperature only has a very small impact on pH measurement. You wouldn't notice the effect of 2 degrees against the normal pH variability of a reef tank.

The fan may have impacted gas exchange, which might alter the pH depending on the situation. It also likely increased evaporation, if you dose anything in top off water.
I'm not dosing anything in my auto top off as I'm still cycling my tank, it's only a week old as of today