Maintaining ph

[Craig2051]

Hello,

Does anyone have tips for maintaining ph in the aquarium? I used 80 lbs of live sand and have had my aquarium cycling for a week and a half now. When I first started the cycle the ph was 8.2. After testing today it has dropped down to 7.4. I thought the live sand and live rock would help regulate ph to stay within the required range? Any tips on how to raise ph?

 

[theMeat]

Aragonite type sand is best for that. Reef tank? What's calcium and alkaline? There's many things you can supliment to raise ph. For now increase surface water movement in tank and sump. Give it a day or two and re test

 

[marrone]

The Ph dropping right now is a result from you cycling the tank, as the die off created a lot of waster which lower your Ph. Once the tank is completely cycled you can do a water change to remove/lower the nitrates and the water change should help to bring the Ph back up.

Going forward good water movement and water breakage will help keep the Ph up. Other things that you need to take into account is the room that the tank is in. You need to make sure the room has good air flow into it, otherwise CO2 can build up which will lower the Ph in your tank.

 

[Craig2051]

To give further water parameters - Temp - 76 , Ammonia - .25 ppm , Nitrite - 0 ppm , Nitrate 5-10 ppm, Calcium - 400 ppm, KH - 143.2 PPM , Phosphate - .5 ppm.

 

[marrone]

If you have ammonia, and no nitrites but you have nitrates, it's that you bacteria isn't strong enough to handle the load at the moment and it playing catch up.

At this point you need to wait until the tank fully cycles, no ammonia or nitrites, at that point do a water change, which will bring down the nitrates, then check you Ph.