New Reefer on 3reef

I have a 46 gallon reef looking beautiful. Only question is when I make up new saltwater I was told to put an air pump along with my maxi-jet and hopefully get the ph from mixing at 8 to mixing at 8.2. I use Red Sea coral pro. My ph fluctuates from 7.85 before lighting to 8.0 after 12 hours of lighting. I have a Sunpod with 2 150 watt MH Phoenix 14,000K DE bulbs. I am thing of switching to Seachem Reef salt. They claim that their salt is the only salt that has buffers added that are not bicarbonate. What do others have to say?
Adam

 

One thing that you could use is s good buffer to keep you PH stable. I use Seachem and my PH stays at 8.30. Also running the lights for 12 hours sounds like a little much to me. I run mine for 8 hours at max a day. Running them for twelve hours will cause unwanted algae growth down the roda for you. Just my opinion....Bill....

 

Welcome to 3reef, great looking tank BTW, When I used to do wc, I never used salt mixes, my water came from the ocean.

 

Hi Adam,
Welcome to 3reef!
Best of luck to you and your tank...
Pretty much all the synthetic salt mixes on the market are fairly comparable to each other, in fact many of them are manufactered in the same facility and just packaged under different labels and companies.
You may get a brand of salt that contains a little more calcium than another such as in the case with Oceanic salt. Also, Kent's salt and Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals may contain a higher level of trace elements and vitamins, but at a higher price tag.

 

Glad to see you found way here.

Very nice tank!

Thanks for sharing.


Rgds,

Scott

 

welcome to 3reef! +2 on lights comment seems like a bit too much

 

Welcome to 3Reef>>>>>>

 

Welcome to 3reef.

The only way I got my pH to maintain a good reading in the winter time is to bring in outside air and plumb it to the tanks hood. With the house closed up in the winter and gas fire place running there is a lot of CO2 in the air and not oxygen.

 

They add Borate also you can use Arm and hammer at a 4 to one mix with Boraxo Laundry booster to make the same thing But Honestly P.H sounds fine to me .. As long as you keep the DKH up to proper levels .. As long as you have carbonates available to do the job then P.H means less then Jack.. And if you are testing marine water P.H with a Liquid test kit then you are still just guessing really these kits may will get close oneday and not the next. To many Variables with CO2 temperature and oxygen exchange . If you ever want a good salt P/M me we are going to start selling our shops custom blend to people here on 3 reef . Its perfect right out of the bag. Ca 450 Carbonates 12 DKH and Mag 1450 . Every time .

As for to much light ??? I ran a 40 gal Flat back hex here for a couple of yrs I had 2 175 M/H and 2 24 in VHOs for actinic tank ran great corals went crazy with growth as did the clams . I think you are fine and good to go with the lighting you have posted ..For what ever thats worth