Ph Dropped

[shah jahan]

Hi again,
I managed to " influence" my friends to join the saltwater community, he had just set his 250 liters aquarium 2 weeks ago.
Here is his specification and test result.
* 250 liters,
* 30 kilograms of life rock.
* sand bedding.
* kH = 10
* pH = 8.8
* NO2 = 0

Recently he stocked with sailfin tang,mimic tang and a couple of clown fish. The questions are ;
*How many weeks to take to his tank to stabile
*Recently his sailfin tang and mimic tang died a few days ago.
Is it because of the pH and why his kH is okay but his ph dropped and how to overcome it.
Any help and opinion much appreciated. thanks.

 

[steelhealr]

The tank is unstable after initial set up and he may have added livestock too early. Those numbers are incomplete...what about nitrate, ammonia, calcium

 

[bunjiweb]

shah jahan, From what you've said it seems like unfortunately your friend has gone completely the wrong way about starting his marine aquarium. May I suggest you invite him to these forums where he can pick up some valuable information before he continues any further with his marine aquarium.

There are many things it sounds like were done wrong, from not having a full set of readings, to adding sensitive fish to a tank that has not "cyled" the period where beneficial bacteria builds up to break down toxic ammonia and nitrites, leaving a healthy and balanced aquarium for it's future inhabitants.

Has he considered what filtration is best? Live Rock? Protein Skimmers etc? To answer the 3 questions you posted...

*How many weeks to take to his tank to stabile

It depends entirely on what filtration is used. If the favoured "Berlin" method of live rock + protein skimmer is used then a tank generally takes 4-8 weeks to cycle to a level where fish will be happy with the water with minimal fluctuations.

*Recently his sailfin tang and mimic tang died a few days ago.

Tangs are generally considered fairly sensitive fish and I would suspect that the current water quality and minimal time the aquarium has been set up are both reasons for this fish's demise.

Is it because of the pH and why his kH is okay but his ph dropped and how to overcome it.

Don't quite understand this question, but essentially from your readings the pH is actually too high at 8.8, it should ideally be between 8 and 8.4. If it is newly mixed up water with additives added, the kH will generally take a while to fully desolve to the water. Other influences such as using Ocean Rock that will leach into the water will also keep the kH at a raised level. To overcome pH issues I would suggest using RO (Reverse Osmosis) filtered water, with salt added to a specific gravity of 1.024. Off the shelf salt will generally give you perfect pH / kH if mixed correctly, but do check the levels before adding it to the tank until you have done water changes many many times and are familiar with the amounts of salt and other additives required.

Hope this has helped in some way...

Ben