Finally screwed everything - Please advise
 

For a year the tank was in perfect conditions. SPS and LPS were growing. Probably not as in the other tanks, but it was good for me.
Never tested anything, beside PH. It was always 7.8 -8.0 and I was using IQ without any dosing
In January decided to get smarter and started to test alkalinity and calcium.
beginning of the January:
ALC - 6
Calcium 490
Magnesium - not tested
PH 7.8

At the same time switched to Reef Crystals and started to add Part 2 Alc - 60 ml daily for the total of 180G of water. Slowly got Calcium 430 and Alkalinity 10,
wanted to start using Kalkwasser, but PH was going up and 4 weeks ago it was 8.4 during a day and 8.6 at night.
I was able to reduce PH temporary using vinegar (1ml per gallon) and of course alkalinity got down
I swapped my 120G tank for the 150G with 50G of the new water last week, but PH is relatively high.
At 9PM after light are on for 7 hours I have 8.59 (calibrated probe last week)

Finally after 5 months of headache, I am the same position were I started but just with high PH
I know, I should maintain magnesium, but I scare to screw tank completely. Was reading all smart articles from Mr Holmes, but looks like my brain does not accept all this terminology
Please help
Thanks.

On the good side new tanks looks good :spin3:

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...rgstank006.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...rgstank018.jpg

Wow
Really does not look like your having any issues!
Maby just step back and take a deep breath!
If it looks good probably good! Only thing you are having problems with is the numbers.

Im not the pro that mr. Farly is, but i would suggest to simply set back and enjoy the tank and stop fiddling with parameters. The paremeters didnt look too terrible to begin with. The alk was pretty low, but not low enough for coral growth to cease. IMO a lot of people tend to grossly over due it on alk and calcium. For example, there is really no need to have you alk at 12dkh. Natural saltwater is not that high. I would suggest that you check the magnesium though. It does tend to run a little low on some of the batches of IO from time to time.

Go slow target small changes first. Raise the mag to proper levels, then the calcium then the alk. Remember slow and steady is better than big ups and downs.

I have read some things saying a balanced high end readings of alk, calcium and mag can increase growth in corals. However from my readings it seems the largest part of it is balanced. However I have not see the research backing up these claims so I do not know if it is true or not.

8.59 is acceptable for pH, and there's a reasonable chance that the measurement is incorrect. If the pH actually is high, the tank might just need a bit more aeration. I might go for a bit more rippling on the water surface, if that was easy to do. Does the tank have a skimmer?

The 8.6 at night is unlikely to be accurate unless there's a lot of Kalk going into the system.

Keeping parameters higher than natural sea water doesnt necessarily boost growth, it just costs you more money on suppements. :) it can creat the aquarists a "buffer" to keep parameters from falling too low if they are being consumed very quickly, or if regular testing and water changes arent being performed.

Just what I have read, again I have seen no research behind it. It makes logical sense if you increase the phosphates which the zoo....algae uses and keep a higher mag/cal/alk level (I think mainly because the the algae causes a higher growth rate thus more mag/cal uptake). However I have no clue if there is any research will backing this up etc... just have read that is the theory.

I do not dose anything in the water fo a month at least. I have 4 powerheads ~1050GPH and return line for the 72x27x19H tank. Hole surface is moving and skimmer is Octupus for 180G

Thank you all. will try to calibrate the PH probe again tomorrow

Even if the calibration method and the calibration solutions are okay, electrical interference can cause problems with pH meters. I'd be careful about doing anything drastic when the animals are okay. This article discusses a simple sanity test:

http://web.archive.org/web/200210150...io/default.asp

you were right. I do not know how I calibrated probe last week ( wasn't drunk), but today did it again twice two packs of 7 and 2 packs of 10 and PH is 7.83
thank you Sir

You're welcome! Okay, that pH makes sense! :)