ph kh and ca.....

[psycho]

ok so just did my weekly checks and Ill lay it out for everyone as im confused as usual
ph 7.8
ammonia 0.0
nitrite 0.0
nitrate 0.0
calcium 360 ppm
kh 140 ppm
I thought if your calcium was low chances are your kh is to high....?
and my ph is kinda low also... just confused and ive been doing weekly water changes just not sure why i cant get ph up and also why calcium is low. the kh im not sure about but on the API test kit it took 8 drops before it changed to yellow, and it shows that as being 140 -200 ppm good for marine fish and invertebrates. any suggestions on what to do to get ph up and the calcium too? dont want to add anything till i find out what to add...

 

[psycho]

 

[psycho]

 

[psycho]

 

[psycho]

 

[bang guy]

I don't really see any problem there.
Calcium:
How heavily stocked are you on corals? They could simply be consuming the calcium.
Do you ever add anything to the water other than salt when you mix saltwater?
Do you use cold purified water when making saltwater?
PH:
What's the PH at the end of the day vs first thing in the morning?
Do you have enough waterflow?
Is your skimmer operating properly?
Any clogged filters? Any recent deaths?

 

[psycho]

 

[psycho]

no only corals are what you see in my pic. plus the tank is somewhat new i up graded my 12 g nano to this and its only 2 1/2 months old. one fish... protein skimmer is kinda old, was on here getting ideas about a new one and looking at the octopus skimmers, ..... ph is 8.0 by night time... i guess ph swings could me more dangerous then just a steady on the low side ph range? also I have 2 1300pgh power heads you see in pic plus a maxijet 900 .... I ordered those two additional 1300 power heads thinking it would help rise the ph but so fare no luck, they been in the tank for a week now. I use sparingly DT's to feed coral... but I was using the reef buffer to raise ph a month ago but have since stopped and just been focused on doing water changes every week of about 10 to 15% ... just curious about the ph and also what to use to get that calcium up in the 420 ppm range.

 

[psycho]

this is my 6 stage rodi system i ordered, it came with the holding tank also which i like so this has worked out better for me since i started the tank using tap water... now i just been using this system, I have it set up to do auto top offs when Im gone away and at work for several days in a row.

 

[psycho]

the sump / tank that came with this tank was literally just a 10g tank, no baffles or anything so I built this last week and Im ready to put it in I decided to put in some of the egg crate and leave room between them so that I can but in chemi pure, and phos guard if needed between the eggcrates so the water will get maximum flow over it as it goes over the baffles. I also added room in the center for a refugium as i have cheto just floating around in the bottom of the old sump now... also I picked up a bag of arigonite sand to make a very deep sand bed too.... Im gonna cut holes out of the top of egg crate to run hoses through and put my light on top of the eggcrate for the cheto

 

[psycho]

 

[psycho]

 

[bang guy]

The Reef Buffer is fine for raising your Alkalinity, don't use it specifically to raise your PH. A KH of 175ppm is about as high as I would recommend. Nothing really wrong with 140ppm though. If it were me I'd probably boost it up closer to 175ppm.
For the Calcium I would use Calcium chloride but any commercial Calcium additive will work fine for maintaining Calcium between water changes.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Besides that one candycane LPS coral, you really shouldn't worry about not having your calcium high enough. Do you have glass tops? Are you using a protein skimmer?
You will want to be able to take that egg crate off as quick as you possibly can. I don't see why you even need egg crate on top, TBH. IT looks like you built a pretty good sump - though I am concerned that your last baffle will create some bubbles for your return pump to suck up unless you keep the return pump chamber always topped off.
Until you start getting a few more corals that rely heavily on calcium, I wouldn't worry about it. pH on the other hand has to come up just a little bit. Try putting a powerhead to run across the top of the water instead of pointing up at the surface or down to the coral. If you have glass tops - remove them and replace it with egg crate if you are worried about jumpers.

 

[psycho]

ok cool thanks for all the info everyone. I also have an auto top off from my rodi holding tank, so Im not concerned with bubbles over the last baffle going back to the return pump. I dont have glass top it is a wooden canopy open in the back I also have a fan in the back to keep water cool. I was gonna use the eggcrate on top on the sump to put light on otherwise i have no way to hang light over sump for cheato to grow. unless you could suggest a different idea there.?

 

[snakeblitz33]

A little clip on lamp from Wal-Mart does pretty well. I have one clipped onto my little 10g. It hasn't moved from it's spot or fallen into the water and I doubt it will. They usually sell em' for less than $10 and I'm sure you have a 40w bulb laying around somewhere...