kH and pH and Calcium problems

[moppy]

Can anyone help me with this as it's driving me nuts!!!

My kH and Calcium have been low so I've been dosing with the Reef Builder stuff and I've FINALLY got them both up but....

of course, now my pH is way too high. Any idea what to do to raise kH without causing a spike in pH? or what to do now that the pH is too high? or what to do to get all three in balance without causing this problem?

Start:
pH 8.0
kH 5.5
Calcium 300
Magnesium 1100

End:
pH 8.5
kH 9.5
Calcium 450
Magnesium 1300

THanks

[brotherd]

8.5 ph is nothing to worry about.Seachem recomends 8.3. your numbers look pretty good actually. Watch the tank and strive for consistency/stability.When did you last do a water change?

[Aquattro]

What salt do you use? What salinity/SG do you have the tank at? How often do you do water changes and how big?
450ppm is the high end of [Ca], if you're struggling to get Ca up, aim for closer to 410-420. Really, anything over 380 is good, but low 4's leave you room for slipping a bit.

[bkelly]

try dosing at night when pH is lower, i raised my pH too by upping my dosing to get parameters up, (use 2 part recipe) i think ill dose less more often and try doing any substantial adding in the night.

[moppy]

I use Reef Crystals and have been pretty happy with them.

Water change every 2 weeks. Last one was last weekend. 20 gallons for the 120 gallons that I have.

Everything looks relatively happy although I seem to lose my torches/frogspawn kind of corals.

Salinity is at 1.025.

[Cal_stir]

Check this out.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

[Aquattro]

Something isn't right then. Reef Crystals is pretty high in Ca, and regular water changes should bring it back up to level with moderate consumption. Unless you have a tank overflowing with SPS that need trimming every other week, your Ca shouldn't drop to 300. Can you verify that number on a second test kit?

[moppy]

I did get it checked by JL and my readings were all correct...

[Aquattro]

Any noticeable amounts of precipitation on heaters and pumps? Or, do you have a huge amount of coral that is growing quickly?

[moppy]

No precipitation and no major coral growth (very little SPS right now)

[Aquattro]

I guess, at this point, measure it often and see if you can find a pattern. If it's 450 now, it shouldn't go down significantly before your next water change, which should replace any used up

[moppy]

Thanks for everything so far but no one has really answered the main point to my question:

How do you keep pH from raising when you have to raise your kH? Or can you? I know some of you said that 8.5 isn't bad but my tank used to go from 7.9 to 8.1...

Any solutions or do you just not worry about it? Wouldn't this really affect SPS if you had a tank full of them?

[Aquattro]

To answer your question, based on my experience, toss your pH tester away and don't worry about it. I haven't checked pH since 2004 or so...
Also, to avoid any large swings, don't let the values get that low before bumping them. Then everything will be happy :)

[Casey8]

You can add vinegar to lower the PH. Use 1ml vinegar per gallon will drop the PH by 0.3 units, that the way I had read it. You can google it to do some more research about this or read some of the articles from Randy Holmes about reef chemistry.