water test levels

[apexkw]

i just did a water test and boy was i surprised!!!
ammonia = 0
ph = went down to about 7.8
nitrate = 20 ppm
nitrite jumped to 1
well how do i get my ph back up? maybe by using a buffer?
and do i have to just wait out my nitrite again. i recently added about 50lbs of live rock."almost a week ago" any ways thanks
ps
have any of you ever seen the movie duece bigalow male gigolow. because in that movie the detective's name is detective FOWLER.....thats right Fish Only With LivE Rock. my girlfriend and i were so surprised. ok i just thought it was interesting. anyways l8r

 

[fshhub]

yeah, saw it, and ironically i remember that now, just never associated the 2
yes you should wait til your nitrite and nitrates fall, the only accepatable level for trite is 0
to brung the ph up, use a buffer , but first, how is your alkalinity?, this can affect how well you can maintain your ph

 

[kris walker]

If you use a buffer to bring up pH, be careful. They don't always work for that purpose. I've heard stories where they don't seem to move the pH up, the person gets another brand of buffer, tries it, same thing. Then they check their alk level and it is through the roof. As I understand it, a sure-proof way of rasing pH and not alk is by using baking soda. Then you can raise alk to right level with the buffer. But this is only based on what I heard, I've never had experience with that stuff.
sam

 

[fshhub]

sorry, i menat a phbuffer, which can raise alk., now sam, it had to happpen sooner or later, IMO, and IME(with water, not tanks), you are close but backwards, almost, if you raise the alk through the roof, your ph should almost deinitely go up, it your alk is low, you will not be able to maintain adn keep your ph up,a nd if it is real high, you will have a hard time keeping the ph down, i would use something like positive ph 8.3 or rreef builder ph 8.3, but in any case, when adjsuting these, you wnat to monitor ph alk and calcium levels, and never move any of the 3 fast, do so very slowly, now as i said that is from several years in the pool industry, not tanks but i would hafta believe that water chem still works the same,
now sam is still righ tin that you need to moniter your alk(check it before adding any ph adjusters)
HTH

 

[apexkw]

in my saltwater test kit it says that my nitrates should be between 20-40ppm. sam you said i should wait until it falls to zero. <img src="graemlins//confused.gif" border="0" alt="[confused]" /> i am somewhat confused. as for my alk i will test that today after i buy a test kit so i will get back to you guys with the results. later

 

[fshhub]

fish will survive at 20 to 40, but ideal is zero, and this will help with some algaes, but if you have any inverts at all, you really want ot try to get them to zero
HTH