favorite Salt Mixture

mjweber

mjweber

Member
Hi everyone,
I've been having a hard time keeping my pH at the proper 8.2 ish. It seems like every time I check its at ~ 7.8-9. Currently I have MH, so I keep my lid off which means I am constantly adding fresh water. When I do I always add PH up, but still it seems like i'm adding a disproportional amount of the stuff. Im thinking that maybe I'm using sub standard salt. Any suggestions on salt brands or keeping my pH up.
I have an oceanic 30 gal cube, ~35lbs live rock 4 little fish, sunpod 150 MH, two korolea's (1 and 2) and an awful magnum filter and aquaC skimmer.
Parameters are all within normal ranges. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
nordy

nordy

Active Member
I have used Reef Crystals and the PH is right on target, about 8.2 or so everytime I mix it up. It's kinda hard to tell with my high range PH API test kit exactly which color matches the sample, but it's right in the neighborhood.
Your test results also beg the question-are those test results accurate or is your test kit off? I suggest having your water tested at your LFS so you can compare/confirm test results and then take the next step-use a different salt mix, or maybe get a new test kit.
 
mjweber

mjweber

Member
Thanks guys, I've heard a lot of people swear by Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt, so I stopped by my favorate LFS and got some. Hopefully my PH will stabalize now. As for my test kits, I actually work as a research biochemist, so I brought in some of my tank water to work and used their pH meter to test it after I calibrated it, and it showed my pH was low. I am due for a new test kit soon, What do you guys use?
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
I used IO to start up my 125 because I thought I was just doing a FO. Well, now that my 29 is down and I want to keep corals as well, I'm paying for it, and using Reef Crystals at the moment. I always used Tropic Marin Pro on my 29, and will switch to it on the 125 as soon as levels are up to maintain (TMP is asinine $$$ to do 20gal weekly water changes with).
 
topfins-mj

topfins-mj

Member
I used to use Reef Crystal and switched to tropic marine pro, but I might have gotten a bad batch because I can never raise the Ph high enough. I am going to switch back to Reef Crystals once my bucket is over. I really can't see spending mucho $$ for TPM and then end up with a bad batch again.
 
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