Refugiums/ pH

[CPDavis3818]

Hey friends. So have been in and out of reefing for three years. I've always battled nitrates. I've read about water changes, changed me rock work and now I've ventured into starting a refugium. Put about 20lbs live rock and some macro algae in there with a light so we'll see. In the meantime I dosed my 80 gallon tank with that Red Sea nitrate stuff and it knocked my ph down to 7. So what's the best way to get my ph back up to the 7.8/8.0 safely?

Also just curious if someone can tell me how long before I see a drop in nitrates with starting my refugium?

Few more tidbits, I just tested water. 1.025 salinity, 440 calcium, 8.8 alk and 1340 for mag. According to new Red Sea kit, nitrates are still off the charts.

I went through a spell about two months ago where I lost about 8 fish and now down to a red hawkfish. I'm starting to think those are mean as I've seen him recently pick on my turbo snails.

Anyway alot of rambling, but how to raise ph AND how long does it typically take for newly implemented refugium to drop the nitrates?

Thanks

[pledosophy]

I do not understand how your pH could be 7 with an alk of 8.8 and a Ca of 440 unless your tank has a significant amount of C02 being fed into it.

I would retest your pH. A pH of 7 would be death to everything.

To raise pH you can increase aeration and 02 levels to remove the C02, or you can increase alkalinity. Baking soda is commonly used to increase alkilinity, but several over the counter methods can also be found at fish stores.

Nitrates will reduce as soon as the algae starts growing. Whether you see a noticeable drop will be dependent on the amount of food going into your tank. The algae will start growing fairly quickly if the conditions are right. The amount of nitrate drop will be dependent on the size of the refugium, and quality of the light, as well as presence of phosphate (macro algae needs nitrate and phosphate to grow).