Need To Make A Lid To Stop Fish Jumping Out?

[Colin_T]

sorry, not sure what you mean by return to its normal level.

The sodium bicarb will increase the PH and you keep adding it until you get to the correct PH that you want. Then you monitor the PH a couple of times a week and add more bicarb if required. You want to try and keep it stabile at around 8.4 for a marine tank.
You might find the PH doesn't drop very rapidly and you only need to buffer it once every couple of weeks. However, the opposite could be true and you might need to raise the PH several times a week.

 

[SkiFletch]

I'm gonna have to disagree that a marine tank requires a pH of 8.4. That's higher than natural seawater and a little beyond the realm of a beginning aquarist's experience. Much better to strive for the 8.0-8.2 area that's stable (ie not swinging wildly morning to night). This is especially so in a new tank full of various biological cycling processes going on. It is exceptionally common to have lower pH in newer tanks. As it matures over a course of months, one can be concerned with pH, but so long as it's not drastically low, I wouldn't loose sleep over it.

 

[Colin_T]

I'm gonna have to disagree that a marine tank requires a pH of 8.4. That's higher than natural seawater and a little beyond the realm of a beginning aquarist's experience.

I'm not sure which ocean you test to get a reading of less than 8.4 but the Indian Ocean where lots of aquarium fishes come from has a PH of 8.4

 

[SkiFletch]

Well Colin, every scientific paper I've ever read about the pH of Seawater indicates that it is 8.2 +/- 0.1... This can and does change for certain extreme environments in the ocean (upwelling, extreme depths, near river deltas, etc) but the average is in fact 8.2.

I'll say again, to achieve an aquarium seawater solution with a pH of 8.4 is no small feat. The aquarist must have tremendous gas exchange to eliminate CO2 entirely, and must have a solution that is near the saturation point for Calcium, Bicarbonate, and Magnesium. Having such high concentrations of these 3 ions near saturation in seawater does make the small enclosed system somewhat unstable and prone to precipitate reactions which can quickly lower their concentration and the pH of the aquarium. Keeping 8.4 is a delicate balance requiring more than just dumping baking soda into the system

 

[Colin_T]

the sea water around my place is 8.4.

I spose the best thing for chris348 would be to keep the PH of his tank at the same level as his LFS. That way anything he buys from there won't suffer PH shock when it's added to his tank.

 

[chris348]

Thanks for the info again fella's.

Added a cup full of Bicarbonate Soda slowly and now taken further tests. Gone up slightly to 7.8

Will do another test in the morning and perhaps add another cup through the day.

Done a bit of reading on the PH levels etc and am aiming to get to 8.0 or 8.2 for now, let the thing settle down.

Thanks again though guys.

 

[Hi there]

Hi, I am not in favor of using glass with Metal Halide lighting. It distorts the light going into the water, it creates a pressure cooker between the water and the glass. Water surface is very important for oxygen exchange. Anyway, I will stop preaching. My husband cut some galvanized (green so it looks good) wiring, I think you could make small fences with it. It has 1/2 in square holes in it, is flexible and cuttable (with wire cutters). He cut it to fit every tank I have, including a 92 gal corner bowfront. To get into the tank, all I do is lift it up. For the 120 gal he cut two sections so I only have to lift up one side if I need to. Just be sure that the cut part is not the part you are lifting or putting your arm under. Many scratches! So far, so good.

 

[jeasko]

Colin

Gonna have to go with ski on this one, both PH and SG can be greatly different from one area to the next for a multitude of reasons, my interpretation of the 8.3 PH was the approx average PH of our oceans, besides that as ski points out a stable PH is far more beneficial than trying to acheive the perfect value, my tank sits happy at 8.0 and I would never try and get it higher as all it will do is unsttle it and start going all over the place, also if you look around there are lots of people (both individuals and companies) that keep thier PH at below and sometimes above the 8.3 figure with no problems at all.

Having said that If I my tank was on 7.8 I would just keep a close eye on it to ensure it doesnt drop lower but certainly wouldnt be worried about it until then.