PH in new tank

"unclenorm" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi George,
Your problems are in no way related to the use of RO or DI or
RO/DI water for evaporation top of, a PH of between 4 and 5 is quite
normal for an efficient RO/DI unit, commercially produced RO/DI water
has a buffer added to it as the law in most countrys requires drinking
water to be not less than neutral i.e. PH 7.0. My 300g system has an
evaporation rate of 20 litres per day which is replaced daily with
RO/DI water at PH 5, taken before the buffer is added (we have a
commercial RO/DI water plant in the family), my PH is constant at 8.3
or 8.4 in all my tanks, I do occasionally add 'Kalk' to my top of water
as as when it is necessary. Your problem is in your tank water, as has
already been stated and you should know evaporation does not remove
buffers or anything else. (leaks will though !!). For someone claiming
to have done a 2 year chemistry course and hold a masters degree in
Hydro geology and was it 30 odd years in the hobby? you are not talking
much sense, a lot of your statements are 'iffy' to put it mildly.
regards,
unclenorm.


Plants and animals will cause changes in the tanks buffer system, particularly
plants. The buffers don't stay in solution indefinitely, whether there is
evaporation or not. Some of it gets used up. And yes I've been in the aquarium
hobby all of my life, though have only had a salt water tank for 14 years.

George,
That's rather an odd reply from someone with all your
stated experience, while your statement is true the changes are
insignificant and would take along time to show in a salt water system
unlike fresh water.
regards,
unclenorm.
PS. I've been n the hobby for more than 50 years.

"unclenorm" wrote in message
oups.com...
George,
That's rather an odd reply from someone with all your
stated experience, while your statement is true the changes are
insignificant and would take along time to show in a salt water system
unlike fresh water.
regards,
unclenorm.
PS. I've been n the hobby for more than 50 years.

That has been the assumption for a long time by a lot of aquarists. I'm not so
sure that it is insignificant. I guess I'll have to wait and see how things
change in the hobby over the next few years. Remember, things have changed
tremendously over the last few years alone. We are finding things ouot all the
time. I'm still open to the suggestion that it might be insignificant, yet my
own experience suggests that it may not be.

Hi again George,
Here's an example of my experience with
one of my smaller tanks. It's a DIY 111g system :- 68g display with 30g
refugium/13g sump, this system was set up about 3.5 years ago using
RO/DI water, 'Marinium' artificial sea salt and some Sodium Bicarbonate
about days 3,4 and 5 to raise the PH to 8.4 the display has a 3"/3.5"
live sand bed with 140lbs live rock, mostly dead corals in large
pieces, sitting on a 1/2" PVC pipe framework closed loop at the sand
surface, drilled with small holes like a spray bar and fed by a
2000L/hr power head to give good circulation through the live rock. The
display tank has a total flow of 2,560g/hr about 37 tanks per hour made
up of the return pump, the closed loop mentioned above and 3 power
heads, one of which is quite small, 600L/hr it's function is to keep
the 2 overflow bends permanently primed by drawing any air out of the
top of the bends via air line tubing and fitting glued in the highest
points. (fool proof and fail safe). The refugium has a 7" live deep
sand bed. I also have a Jebo quadplex spraying protein skimmer in the
sump processing 2,000L/hr. this system evaporates about 8 to 10Lt per
day depending on the ambient temp. ( today at noon it was 37C (98F) the
tank runs at 29/33C. My top of water is straight RO/DI PH5/6. In 3.5
years I've added very small amounts of Sodium Bicarbonate 3 times and
1.5Kg of salt mix once to make up for salinity lose through salt creep,
I also add Limewater every couple of weeks to repace consumed calcium
and essential elements when required. I do not do water changes because
I don't think they are necessary in a well managed system, ( also the
cost would be prohibitive in my case with my total volume of water).
My water parameters a-
Flow 37 tank
volumes per hour
Temp. 32C
SPG 1.023
(about 35 PPT)
PH 8.4
KH
115mg/L
Ca
430mg/L
Fe Less
than 0.1- more than 0.0mg/L
NH3/NH4 0.0
NO2 0.0
NO3 Less
than 5mg/L
PO4
0.25mg/L
PS. I do use activated carbon for about a week maybe twice a year to
polish the water. Also I have 5W/G lighting via 20,000k MH, 10,000
Fluorescents and O3 actinic's and 10,000K on the refugium on reverse
cycle to stablize the PH.
regards,
unclenorm.