PH question

[gggrizzz]

I have had a 110 reef set up for over 8 years, and am still learning from all the forums and LFS, etc. The most important thing I have found to be true, despite what whoever wants to sell you whatever, is that your most critical water parameters (NSW) are kept in check. My advice would be not to chase the pH around with buffers - anywhere between 8.0 and 8.5 are fine. I used to have bioballs and live rock, and found that slowly taking away the bioballs, and letting the live rock and live sand do the biological filtration works best. Calcium: 400-450 ppm
Alkalinity: 8-12 dkH
Magnesium: 1300-1400
Strive for these values, but if you are a little over or under, don't sweat it, and overdose chemicals. Patience is very important with this hobby...
Have fun at it, and don't become addicted like I am -

 

[hatessushi]

Ocean water has a pH that runs from 7.6 in the open ocean to 8.4 in the reef areas where the average is 7.8. Most systems are run at 8.2 to 8.4. the most important thing about pH is that it should be stable and should not change more then .2 in either direction. When performing water changes a lot of system will change more then .2 but that should be ok since you know what caused it.
Mine runs about 7.81 at night to about 7.93 in daytime and I would love to have it higher but there is nothing wrong since it is pretty stable. My concern about using additives is that they are misleading since most say to raise pH but in reallity they also raise the alk which can be a bad thing. Lets say you used and additive and got your pH to 8.3 yet you check your alk and it's way to high. After a few days you have to add again to get the pH to 8.3 again. Now your pH is getting dangerous.
Joshradio, I will disagree with you also. If you add Seachem's Marine buffer sure you will get the pH where you want it but your alkalinity will skyrocket also. I know this since I've done and and finally fixed my situation and no longer put those pH additives in.
Whatever additives you add to your system you better be able to test for first otherwise something your not testing for will go whack.
IMO 8.6 pH is to high and will most likely cause a precipitation event. At some point things start to get serious when the pH goes outside the range of 7.6 to 8.4. Although 8.5 or 8.6 is not far out of range I would not leave it there. Also because of the nature of our closed artificial systems pH will normally go down as a result of our daily maintenance like feeding, nutrients and just having it. When we perform the water changes it helps bring that pH back to normal.