Nitrate And Ph Question

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Well one of my QTs is just finishing cycling and the nitrates are about 20, but the pH went really low, 7.4 or below [I cant know because I dont have a low range pH test 4 SW, if they even make 1 i doubt.] Now, ive had this happen b4 and it was b/c of an ammonia spike, but the tank has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20 nitrates. Could the pH thing have anything to do with the nitrates? Im so confused.

What is the best thing to do to raise the pH? Ive already got some caleurpa in the tank and in the filters of both my tanks to reduce nitrates. I dont have time to make RO water, so should I just do changes with tap until it gets high enough, or put in some aragonite, or Im even willing to add baking soda, but have heard that this isnt the best way, but if its the fastest then what have I got to lose? Need Help!

 

[Donya]

Baking soda is a quick way to raise Ph if you make sure it's 100% dissolved in a cup of tank water before hand, and add it slowly like you would any other buffer. It's the main ingredient in a lot of Ph raisers/buffers out there.

 

[crazyelece]

you can add crushed coral to your filer to try and help buffer the PH.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Yeah I already added some aragonite, but wont it take a week to work?

 

[Lynden]

No, it (aragonite) should work fairly quickly.

Also, what kind of salt did you purchase? Good salt regualtes pH very well, very fast.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Ive tried both coralife and kent and they only raise our naturally 6.8 water to 7.9. I guess I should try instant ocean sometime and see if that will do it.

 

[crazyelece]

using tap water may also be your problem. Salt mix is meant to mix with pure water and anything else can cause problems. Pure water has a PH of 7.0 but also can be altered very quickly. If your tap water is lower than 7.0 it also probably has something in it that is buffering to the low side that is butting heads with the buffers in the salt and aggronite. Try using some RO water or filterd water and test the PH of it.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

using tap water may also be your problem. Salt mix is meant to mix with pure water and anything else can cause problems. Pure water has a PH of 7.0 but also can be altered very quickly. If your tap water is lower than 7.0 it also probably has something in it that is buffering to the low side that is butting heads with the buffers in the salt and aggronite. Try using some RO water or filterd water and test the PH of it.

I do use RO water. I didnt know that RO would also make the water neutral on the pH scale. Wierd, because id think the pH would be higher than the normal 8.2 after I did like a 30% water change with RO water.

 

[crazyelece]

I would test the following: amonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, Kh, Gh.

Test the tap water, the RO water, and the fresh salt water. List those here and we might see the reason why the ph is so low.

Personally I think maybe your RO filters might need changed but without testing you won't know for sure. Do you monitor your RO system with a TDS meter? If so what are those readings?

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

No I dont minitor it but its new and has only made 30-40 gallons so far. Our natural water isnt bad at all, its from a well if that matters.

 

[crazyelece]

Well water is usually worse than city water as far as purity goes. How much have you used the RO unit? depending on what is in your water it could clog up very quickly if you don't have a flush kit. I would test everything and then you'd know for sure. Let us know the results.

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Out of the tap, there is a pH of 6.7, KH of 3, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates, copper right after the water is turned on-.3, copper after running for 15 seconds-.2. I do not have a GH test kit at this time.

We have good water quality around here. It isnt recycled, just purified then put into the river. My dad [who has lived here for his entire life and has been a plumber on all new buildings around here for 33 years!] was only convinced that I needed RO because I told him that SPS corals that I will eventually raise need perfect water, and we know that all tap has some heavy metal deposits and minerals that are unnecessary for SW and the salt mix adds everything you need anyway. Plus I was paying for it.

I have only been using the RO for the last two weeks, and there is no way the filter could be very clogged.