Hi PH

My PH is 8.8 is this bad? My other levels are...

PH 8.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

 

Anything above 8.6 would start to cause precepetion events but 8.8 isn't deadly or horrible. Keep an eye on your Cal, alk, and mag. I would let the pH go down on it's own.

What did you do overdose kalk?

 

Thats the thing. I haven't done anything. I've just finished cycling my tank. It's been 0-0-0 for about a month now. I use bottled RO/DI water to compensate for evaporation. I use natural sea water for water changes... Thats it. I haven't added anything or taken anything out for a long time. Well I did remove one fish. But that's it.

 

BTW what are "precepetion" events?

 

When your pH is over 8.6 or your cal or alk are very much over NSW levels it can start to force chemical reactors that would normally happen at lower normal levels.

Example 2 years ago I had my float valve fail and it dumped 5g of freshwater pH 12.5 Kalkwasser in the tank in the matter of a few hours. There was 10TBS of Calcium hydoxide in that mix. That would have been enough cal/alk for a week but after getting home from work and seeing everything ticked off I started testing. The cal was at 380ppm and the alk at 6dkh. The elevated pH forced cal/alk and mag out of solution and the levels ended up below my normal levels.

In extreme cases it can even case a white out in the tank.

Both of these examples are case where the pH is alot higher than in your case but that would be a precepetion event

 

Does anything looked stressed?

 

Covey is spot on, check your levels. Alk, mag, cal......as stated. Do you have this system connected to a fuge? Any recent algal blooms?

 

What is the pH of the ocean around you that you are getting the water from?

 

Mine comes from Catalina at ~8.3 every time. Haven't used it in a while, but I'll bet it hasn't changed.

 

NSW here is 8.2. Yea the tank is cycled and I had a brown diatom bloom and now it's starting to turn green all over. Even on the sand. The tangs look happy enough but most inverts die pretty fast. Corals die even faster. Yes it is connected to a fuge. Nothing but mud and sand in there though. Trying to get the chatomorpha to grow at this point.