Not going to quote anyone particular, just going to attempt a summary and see if I got some of the points-
- Maintaining a pH above 8.2 is desirable as the higher pH will prevent acidification of the tank's water due to adsorption of free CO2 from the surrounding air.
- If CO2 is adsorbed from surrounding air into tank water, water will become more acidic and mineral stabilization will be put at risk, resulting in greater odds of imbalanced water chemistry, or unusability of said minerals by livestock in the tank.
- Tanks running Macro-algae or Micro-algae filters are different from those not running such systems in that the algae will utilize some of the CO2 before it can negatively affect pH. However in tanks not running algae filters, other methods for stabilization can work quite fine (such as an aerator in the form of a protein skimmer, overflow system, baffle walls with disparate water heights creating water falls (natures best aerator in my understanding,) water agitation of the surface via pumps/powerheads, etc.)
- utilizing Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate) is not an adequate buffering solution for a goal of raising pH above 8.0, as that is it's pH value. Thus if the goal is to raise pH above 8.0, a different buffering solution needs to be utilized to counteract input of acidic water (RO/DI typically, distilled is a potential option (Oh, and Wy, I always understood Distilled<RO/DI<Typical Tap on the softness scale, is that right?)
These are the things I think I've gathered from this thread, please all correct me where i've misread. Based upon these things, my questions are-
Why is pH important beyond measuring calc/alk/mag? What is pH representing that is not covered by measuring these three mineral components? If calc/alk are excessively elevated, solids will precipitate (as the reaction of carbonates and calcium yields calcium carbonates in a solid form.) If alk/calc are not present in sufficient form, corals are not able to uptake these elements as they need to. I know pH can cover books, and I know of many who are obsessed with it's value, but I've yet to hear a simple understanding of what it is actually important to, that is not covered by these other elemental values. If pH is simply a "summary" of these other values (as has been my longstanding belief due to never finding a better answer,) then that's understood, but the pH folks seem to claim it's something more.
If sufficient mineral levels are maintained in the tank via "typical" methods (dosing, calc reactors, water changes) there is not a need to buffer your RO/DI (top-off) water, correct? However, in systems that run without water changes (a.k.a. closed systems, or mainly closed systems) or dosing (due to previous reason of closed system, or due to not having a heavy load of "stony" corals that require mineral supplimentation anyways) buffering of top-off water is required to prevent acidification of the overall tank system-basically buffering being analogous, if not identical, to the dosing of the minerals commonly seen through "2-part" systems or similar. Is this correct?
I admit when I saw the starting post, the tone seemed to suggest that buffering of top-off water was a MUST that needs be done regardless of anything else going on- is it rather that buffering of some sort MUST happen in a tank, and buffering of top-off water is one method to do it, similarly how dosing of minerals is another method to do it?
- Maintaining a pH above 8.2 is desirable as the higher pH will prevent acidification of the tank's water due to adsorption of free CO2 from the surrounding air.
- If CO2 is adsorbed from surrounding air into tank water, water will become more acidic and mineral stabilization will be put at risk, resulting in greater odds of imbalanced water chemistry, or unusability of said minerals by livestock in the tank.
- Tanks running Macro-algae or Micro-algae filters are different from those not running such systems in that the algae will utilize some of the CO2 before it can negatively affect pH. However in tanks not running algae filters, other methods for stabilization can work quite fine (such as an aerator in the form of a protein skimmer, overflow system, baffle walls with disparate water heights creating water falls (natures best aerator in my understanding,) water agitation of the surface via pumps/powerheads, etc.)
- utilizing Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate) is not an adequate buffering solution for a goal of raising pH above 8.0, as that is it's pH value. Thus if the goal is to raise pH above 8.0, a different buffering solution needs to be utilized to counteract input of acidic water (RO/DI typically, distilled is a potential option (Oh, and Wy, I always understood Distilled<RO/DI<Typical Tap on the softness scale, is that right?)
These are the things I think I've gathered from this thread, please all correct me where i've misread. Based upon these things, my questions are-
Why is pH important beyond measuring calc/alk/mag? What is pH representing that is not covered by measuring these three mineral components? If calc/alk are excessively elevated, solids will precipitate (as the reaction of carbonates and calcium yields calcium carbonates in a solid form.) If alk/calc are not present in sufficient form, corals are not able to uptake these elements as they need to. I know pH can cover books, and I know of many who are obsessed with it's value, but I've yet to hear a simple understanding of what it is actually important to, that is not covered by these other elemental values. If pH is simply a "summary" of these other values (as has been my longstanding belief due to never finding a better answer,) then that's understood, but the pH folks seem to claim it's something more.
If sufficient mineral levels are maintained in the tank via "typical" methods (dosing, calc reactors, water changes) there is not a need to buffer your RO/DI (top-off) water, correct? However, in systems that run without water changes (a.k.a. closed systems, or mainly closed systems) or dosing (due to previous reason of closed system, or due to not having a heavy load of "stony" corals that require mineral supplimentation anyways) buffering of top-off water is required to prevent acidification of the overall tank system-basically buffering being analogous, if not identical, to the dosing of the minerals commonly seen through "2-part" systems or similar. Is this correct?
I admit when I saw the starting post, the tone seemed to suggest that buffering of top-off water was a MUST that needs be done regardless of anything else going on- is it rather that buffering of some sort MUST happen in a tank, and buffering of top-off water is one method to do it, similarly how dosing of minerals is another method to do it?
