JCAB Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 My ph keeps going up (currently at 8.57), it even goes up at night. I was dosing kalk but stopped because of it. I've tried lowering it with carbonated water. It goes down, but comes back up after a few hours. Using a lab grade ph probe on my apex to measure. Calibrated it less than a month ago. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Only thing I've noticed is that the tentacles on my RBTA are shriveling up and falling (it basically doesn't have any). My other RBTA is fine. The RBTA didn't start losing tentacles until after a week of the ph increases. KH about 9.3, Magnesium at1400 and CA at 555. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 first thing to do is to double check your probe. use some pH 10 and pH 7 solution to see how accurate your readings are. i can spot you some (today even) if you need it. you want to make sure your measurements are correct before you start chasing a problem that may not exist. also, at first glace your calcium is very high. i don't think that the parameter in and of itself would irritate the RBTA, but are you getting any precipitate or hardening substrate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCAB Posted November 24, 2013 Author Share Posted November 24, 2013 I'm not getting any precipitate, and I stopped dosing about a week ago (started refilling the ATO with R/o) so I'm not sure why it's so high. I'm testing with Red Sea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCAB Posted November 24, 2013 Author Share Posted November 24, 2013 Thanks for the offer, I ordered some calibration fluid and will hopefully have it by end of week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 If you don't have a problem with the probe I would start doing larger water changes. This article by Randy Farley-Holmes is very good on helping troubleshoot pH, Alk and Calcium problems: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCAB Posted November 26, 2013 Author Share Posted November 26, 2013 Thanks, Timfish. The link wouldn't open, but I assume it's the same article that is in reef central. That's where I got the idea of using vinegar and carbonated water to lower it. Unfortunately, it goes right up. I'm thinking it's probably the probe, so hopefully my calibration fluid comes in soon. I have the old packages from when I calibrated a month ago - should I wait on new fluid or test with the old fluid in the meantime? When I started using the probe (month ago) it was around 8 and started creeping up from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 Your welcome! Yeah, it looks like the website is down for some reason. Delbeek and Sprung use Randy's article in their book "The Reef Aquarium" Vol III, it's available in ibooks now and I would encourage you to get it if you haven't already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 wait on the new stuff. if you calibrate with a bad standard, your data is worthless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpowell490 Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 Sounds like you have been dosing reef buffer pretty hard. Your ca and mg is pretty high, actually very high. I would say that your dosing burnt your RBTA a bit. It might recover, but I agree with what they said above, you need to do a lot of water changing, STAT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCAB Posted November 26, 2013 Author Share Posted November 26, 2013 Thanks for the responses. I rechecked today and KH is down to 8.6 (it was at 7 on 11/19 so I used BRS sodium bicarbonate to raise it to 9.8 on 11/22). Magnesium is at 1440 (up from 1440 on 11/19 - testing user error?) and CA is down to 540 (from 555 on 11/19). I did a 20 gallon water change on 11/18 (it's a 100 gallon tank), but I usually change about 10 gallons weekly (I have an oversized skimmer and about 160 lbs live rock (thinking of taking some out at some point). I've had problems with alkalinity going down/being low, so about 2-3 months ago I dosed magnesium and started using 1/2 teaspoon of Kalk per gallon of water in the ATO. CA and KH were still going down so I started adding vinegar to the kalk and increased to 1 teaspoon/gallon. That's about when I started noticing the increased ph. Other than that, I dosed the sodium bicarbonate when the kh was below 8 and calcium chloride when the CA was under 400 (haven't done this in over 2 months). I stopped dosing kalk since last week. I'll start water changes and hope that helps. Again, thanks to everyone for their time. BTW, the RBTA seems to be growing back its tentacles, so fingers crossed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 I'll be at aquatek today at 2 pm and I can spot you some 7/10 if you want to calibrate sooner than later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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