# PH level - need help



## Zee (Jan 10, 2011)

Hi everyone, I have new saltwater setup running just over a month now and soon will add fish. Today i tested water levels and found some problems;

PH: 7.8 - 8
Amonia : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Kh/Gh: 125.3/89.5 ppm
Calcium: 340 ppm

can you please tell me what i'm missing and what is the best way to increase/decrease the missing part.

Thanks,


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

I am not a expert, but I was told before that you should not really care about PH in the new tank. the level also changes based on the time of the day

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## Zee (Jan 10, 2011)

The tank is now running just over a month. Normally how long does it take to cycle completely?


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

What salt to do you use? I assume you don't have many corals in there yet.

Ph level isn't too bad, although it's on the low side. Ca is also low. You want to measure Alk level as well.

You can boost Ph by dosing Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda)..

Ph will normally rise during the photoperiod when you have photosynthetic creatures (corals, algaes)..


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

PH has nothing to do with cycling. 
I think cycling time depends on several reasons (stage of the LR, sand, water...
Do not forget also that every time you add or remove something from the tank, it will go trough the cycling again, since biological balance was changed. 
The longest cycle period for me was 10 days, but I started with LR from the runnig tank and new sand from the store

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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Do you have substrate in the tank (what type?)
and do you have live rock (lbs of rock?) 
and how big is your tank (gallonage)?

Generally this isn't a problem, but if you have a hugely imbalanced ratio of these, then you may have difficulties keeping the ph above the 8.0 mark.

But as whats been said, ph flucuates naturally during the day. Test the PH again with lights off for a few hours, and then again after they've been on for a few hours, you'll probably see a slight difference.

Have you been dosing any products? Some liquid calcium and some ph booster would help, but so would switching to a high quality salt, as it would contain higher calcium, and stabalize the PH.

The baking soda is a good quick fix, but it needs to be dosed practically every couple days. A proper Marine buffer product would be dosed weekly or near monthly.

Here is an article to read if you really want to get into PH info, it is a bit biased I supposed, but I tend to like Seachem. http://www.seachem.com/Library/Articles/Marine_Water_pH_Control.pdf


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