PH to low, ALK too high?

[Noober]

Ok I use seachem's reef buffer to raise ph. It also raises Alk a bit. I use seachems reef advantage calcium for mag, calc, and strot. And I use reef builder if my ph is right and I need more alk. Anyway to get my ph right, I have to add reef buffer, i am around 8.0 on the ph scale but my alk is too high. Is this mabe a reason why my SPS montipora isnt extending its polyps since my last water change roughly a week ago. My calcium levels which i tested yesterday were depleted down to like 200 and I broght them back to 400. My acropora still extends its polyps and is growing slowly but is slightly browned out in places. My ora birdsnest frag is extending its polyps fine but it is still very new to the tank. The montipora had been growing fast and it still might be but the polyps look only half extended. Is this due to my alk problem. I got my calcium levels up to 400 in hope that it would bring my alk back down some but it hasnt done it so far. I am just keeping my skimmer on and it will hopefully skim out some of the product of the alk and the calc from being super saturated (if it even is yet). But I am very new to this SPS deal. Anyway I have a 50 gallon bucket of ro water mixing right now that I use the buffer to bring the ph up to 8.2 on with my next water change. Hopefully its alk is not too high when I mix the salt with it. What should I do to fix this problem? I am using Instant Ocean salt. Thanks!

[Noober]

Ok now my calc is showing 320 on a bottle test kit and my ph is 8.0 on a bottle test kit. The only alk test kit i have is a 5 way test strip with nitrate, nitrite, hardness, chlorine, alk, and ph. The ph shows right on the strip, being between 7.8 and 8.4, which is as close as the strip will get. The alkalinity in ppm shows up slightly greenish in color but mostly blue on the test strip with the ideal color on the color chart being light green to teal. The solid regular green says it equals 180 and the other ideal is the teal which is at 300 ppm. My test strip shows almost solid blue so meaning a good bit higher than 300 ppm, but I'm not sure how much higher. I need good test kits but none are available around here. How should I go about fixing my problems? Thank you very much everyone!

[Bill S]

#1 - never assume a test kit is correct. This is nuts, but I've had a bad one before and when I contacted the mfg, they acknowledged that they had a bad batch of kits go out!

#2 - You are testing $50 a piece corals with $5 kits. OK, an exaggeration. Buy some good kits. You can buy salifert on fleabay and they will arrive in a couple of days.

#3 - USUALLY, when you have a low pH and a high Alk, CO2 is the source of your problem. Do you have plenty of aeration and surface flow? Try taking a large cup/quart of tank water, and stick an airstone in it, or let it sit for a few hours. Is the pH now higher?

#4 - Dose Kalk and you will raise your pH without spiking your alk.

[Noober]

Yeah I figured that on these cheapie test kits, thats why I used more than one for the ph. As for flow, I have 5 maxijet 1200's in my 120 gallon two of them that alternate flow so only four is on at once, and the other three have wavemaker type circular nozzles on them taht make the water flow verticaly 360 degrees, along with a 950 gph sump feed, along with a skimmer that pumps i dunno how much, the skimmer is rated for 150 gallons though. Will this alkalinity problem kill my corals. Should I just change water with ro water and leave it to the instant ocean salt to balence my water pramaters. As soon as I get my house taxes paid and get a nice income tax in I can buy some good test kits and some other stuff for the tank. Thanks a lot bstreep!

[corkyGramma]

Noober, Do you use S.A. water? The pH and alk are pretty normal for marine aquariums. It shouldn't be bouncing around.

[Noober]

I live in brownwood, tx. I use tap water that has been filterd by my RO unit.

[chark]

You can't know anything for sure until you have proper test kits. You can also take a water sample to your LFS and they will measure the Alk, pH and Ca. Without proper tests no more can be suggested. I do not think you can be sure of what your chemistry levels are from what you have stated.

[Kyle46N]

I use seachem reef complete and any brand of dkh buffer. Adding these every three to four days keeps my calcium at 420 to 460, alkalinity at 10 to 12, and pH 8 to 8.2. I have mostly lps and softies, so the demand is not very high. Sounds like something is causing your pH to be unstable.

[jrsatx20]

I would say stop dosing. Do 20gal waterchange every other day for a 1.5 wk. Then try and make a trip to a fish store to get ur water tested. Take ur test strips with u so u can test at the store to see how different the 2 are.

[Noober]

Sounds like a good idea, That's what I've been working on doing with all these 1/3 water changes I've been doing every week. I will have to purchase my own testing supplies however because the LFS people in this town don't keep successful reef's, or quality testing supplies. Thanks a lot for all you guys help!