john thomas

my pH has been steady at 8.2 for 4 weeks now..two days ago i think what i did was misread the instructions and added 10 drops of buffer...iph whent to 7.6 since then i have done a 10 % water change 3 times, yesterday the ph was 8.2 but today it's back to 7.8.. i did another 10 % change tonight. am i on the right track or have i messed up 4 weeks of beeing patient with this live rock only first cycle.
amon -0 nitrites -0 nitrates-0 temp 8.1 SG 1.026
thank you for your time!

Hypnox

bare bottom or live sand substrate? When I had a bare bottom on my 10 gallon my PH used to swing between 8.4 during the day and 7.6 during the night. With an aragonite substrate my PH tends to stay around 8.3 to 8.5.

cerianthus

My understanding is no FISH?
What kind of buffer?
Was pH test done pretty much about same time of the day (same daily illumination)?
Even w/ no fish but w/ LR, pH can shift thru out the day more so in smaller tank due to activities of /from LR.
8.2 to 7.6 w/ our test kit is bit odd though. Maybe you used to much buffer perhaps (Carnonate ion in equilibrium with bicarbonate ion which is in equilibrium with carbonic acid (CO2in water)). When eqilibrium is diturbed, can/will affect others with so many variable factors in water chemistry.
Did not meant to be more confusing but trying to understand and assist. lmk what kind of buuffer. I usually used, very seldomly though, Kent Superbuffer Only when pH was going down (FO tank). I did not see the need for buffer @ 8.2 in your case.
Cerianthus

john thomas

i have a live sand 2" bottom.
i have taken the readings every day at the same time...about 7:00pm since the 13th of jan... and the ph has been rock solid 8.2 untill this weekend.
i used red sea buff. im afraid that all the water changes will hurt my lr and inverbts
thank you

cerianthus

Sorry! Could not reply last night. Been tied up for few days.
Dont worry. i dont think water changes performed did any harm to LR/inverts. But dont do it anymore. Too much water changes will constantly upset the system w/o being able to find the reason for pH swing, not that we ever will. Since No fish, why dont you just let the tank stablizes by itself as long as pH does not go lower than 7.8.
For all I know, it could be dieing organisms on the LR (suffered from shipping; not all organisms die at the same time) which may have started to decay.
check for NH3, NO2 to see any registering.

Just sit back and monitor and log the results and events w/ dates.
If does not show any NH3 and NO2 and pH has stablized for next week or so, could try adding fish as long as not overload the system all at once.
Not that you should try but have set tank using water, sand, rock, Macroalgae, and fish/invert on same day.

Seen more damages done to fish/nverts when one rush to conclusion.

Hope all goes well.