Help! Alk drop & pH through the roof!

[agiacosa]

Help!

On 8/3/02 my 58 gal reef had the following water parameters:

Salinity of 1.020, KH of 10.4, Alk of 3.7115, Calcium of 400, nil on NH4, NO2, and NO3, pH was 8.3.

Today, the parameters are as follows:

Salinity of 1.023, KH of 7.4, Alk of 2.63, Calcium of 400, nil on NH4, NO2, and NO3, pH is over my pen's range.

In a panic, I just added 1.25 teaspoons of Seachem's Reef Buffer.

The tank has been set up about 1.25 months and I am dosing 10 ml. of B-Ionic daily.

What could be wrong??

Thanks.

Art

 

[danmhippo]

ph over your "pen"'s range? Recaliberate your pen and retest. Keep your finger crossed while you are at it.

 

[agiacosa]

Tried it. Figured the pen was broken. Bought another one. Same thing.

 

[reefland]

Dilute a sample of the tank water by 50% with RO/DI water and see if your pen will work then. Test pH of you tap water as well just to see if it can read something.

 

[Henry1]

Agree with above.

Does the organism appear stressed, closed up, withdrawn, colour darkened etc. If not, then relax.

It will be useful to get someone else to confirm the measurement . .. LFS, friend . . .

 

[agiacosa]

The only thing that appears stessed is my mushroon rock. Then again, I only have it, green star polyp, sea mat and 3 Blue Reef fish. If the pH were through the roof, I would imagine the fish would have passed on.

The troubling thing is that I calibrated the pen twice. Used it on freshwater and it read fine. I am beginning to think there is something in the reef tank water that is making it go crazy.

Someone in another forum mentioned that when you mix 2 brands of salt, you sometimes get a weird witches brew of water. Something about different ions used by manufacturers. I think I'm going to do some large water changes with IO salt and see what happens.

Thanks.

Art

 

[Henry1]

About the pen pH pen you're using, something to look out while taking a measurement;

1. Make sure the immersed electrode DO NOT have any trapped air bubbles on the bulb. Give it a shake.

2. Batteries are fresh and the on/off contact switch is responsive (bad contact problem)

3. If you are taking the measurement directly from the aquarium itself, leaking current, if any, might interfere with the electronics. In this case, draw out some water into a container and measure from there.

One last point, check if your pH pen measurement range cover the span from pH 0 - 10 and beyond or otherwise.
Is there a selector that switches from broad range measurement to narrow. If so, set it to the range that measure 7 - 10 or whatever in the alkaline region.

Cheers