Bare Bottom Question

[atmmachine816]

My question is, if I take my aragonite out of my tank and go barebottom, will the pH stay at 8.2? I'd like to go barebottom and ditch my thin layer of substrate like andywg originally suggested I do, but I"m wondering will my pH stay up. If it won't I could always throw some in my HOB filter or would that create a problem?

thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

You'll loose buffering capacity for sure. How much will really depend on how many hard corals you have... Most people who run barebottom also run calcium reactors or kalkwasser reactors to help keep the chemistry on-target.

 

[atmmachine816]

I won't have any hard corals due to my lighting, I'm only going to have softies and lps. If I put some in my HOB filter would that help?

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh it'll help, unfortunately I can't really begin to fathom how effective or ineffective it'll be... You really just have to try it and find out

 

[andywg]

There will be some buffering by the salt in the water as well (to a limited extent) so frequent water changes should help control the pH.

There are other chemical buffers you can use, but obviously there is a cost issue involved there.

 

[atmmachine816]

OK, thanks. I shall try putting some in my HOB filter and monitor the pH and see how it goes. I believe it's baking soda that you can add to raise the pH but I would perfer to not have to be messing around with pH. I'll just have to see how it goes.

 

[steelhealr]

You will definitely lose SOME buffering capability, however, that may not be a huge problem. Other issues can be factors. Eg, frequently, the barebottom can get covered with coralline algae and this can increase the uptake of calcium, part of the buffering system. However, as andywg and ski imply, you may simply have to stay on top of regular water changes and, if necessary, supplement calcium.

SH

 

[atmmachine816]

hmm since you bring up calcium I may hold off on doing this. I have not bought a calcium and alkalinity test kit but plan to later so I can get more corals. I will have to keep that in mind since the goal would be to get coraline growth on it. Keeping up on frequent water changes would not be a problem at all.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, and pH are all inter-related and USUALLY, when pH is spot-on the others are all at least reasonable. This is an EXTREME generalization, but proves true most of the time. If pH is defficient (or too high) it could mean an imbalance of one or all of calc, alk, and mg...