User error or uneducated user

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nfored

nfored

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2008
2,597
14
68
Missouri
I have been trying to watch my ph on a daily basis as I have been having some issues with my buffering. wellI tested yesterday and it was 8.0 pertty good since it had been there for some days now, and was stable so I thought.

I did a 30% WC last night woke up this morning did a pH test, it looked like my pH was about 7.8. I did another test this after noon and it was like 7.2, so my quesiton is can pH change that much from morning to afternoon or did I botch one of the test.
 
what's the pH of your tap?
 
It can. It is also temperature dependent depending on what you are using for the test. If you have a very weak buffered tank, changes can be drastic. In distilled water, a few drops of PH up or PH down can change the PH several numbers.
 
I only use R/O so I had a problem with droping pH below 6.0, but all that stopped when I used live rock. Within 1 week i went from below 6.0 to staying around 7.8 to 8.0, so I figured the live rock was doing its thing, until today? my r/o water has a pH of above 8.6 so I would expect my pH to raise not drop. I will watch this for about 2 or 3 more days, and decided if i need to add some crushed coral, I guess if all else fails I'll start mixing R/O with tap.
 
I am a little confused here. Your signature shows all freshwater fish. What tank do you have your live rock in. If it is in a salt water tank then use aragonite sand to buffer your ph. If your putting live rock in a fresh tank it will just die and you will get an ammonia spike.
 
You need to test the carbonate hardness (kH) of your water. This is also known as alkalinity. If it is too low then your water has no buffering capacity and you can see large pH swings.
 
Ok the live rocks are dead as can be, dryed for 1 month then soaked in tap water, they are used to increase the gH and kH. I will have to order a test kit fo kH and gH, I know they are working at some level as my ph is above 6.0 with no chemical or water chages. I seem to confuse a lot of people with the live rock stuff, but I assue your I have research this, I could have used crushed coral, but this way I get decorations and the buffering.

I was really just woundering if a swing in pH of that level could happen in a matter of a couple hours? if so I may need to start checking pH more then once a day until I get it stable.
 
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