My water test ☹️

jophwalo · Nov 9, 2017

Thanks randy

Victoria M · Nov 9, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Boron biochemistry is poorly understood, but I’d be very skeptical of claims that elevated borate in seawater encouraged the growth of a particular pest algae.

That said, I’d stop using any Marine Buffer for other reasons anyway.

Thank you.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 9, 2017

Victoria M said:
Thank you.

You’re welcome.

Happy reefing.

Victoria M · Nov 10, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Boron biochemistry is poorly understood, but I’d be very skeptical of claims that elevated borate in seawater encouraged the growth of a particular pest algae.

That said, I’d stop using any Marine Buffer for other reasons anyway.

I reread this thread and I looked at the products I used. I used Reef Builder. To bring my dkh up then used kalk in my ATO to maintain calc and dkh. I understand the use of pH buffers will temporarily bump the pH up but with out enough hardness to resist acids the pH will just swing up and down. All in common language of course... Is this why you said avoid buffers overall?

jophwalo · Dec 9, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 9, 2017

Victoria M said:
I reread this thread and I looked at the products I used. I used Reef Builder. To bring my dkh up then used kalk in my ATO to maintain calc and dkh. I understand the use of pH buffers will temporarily bump the pH up but with out enough hardness to resist acids the pH will just swing up and down. All in common language of course... Is this why you said avoid buffers overall?

I missed this question. Yes, that's basically right except the "acids" of concern are really just CO2/carbonic acid.

When a buffer with a lot of sodium carbonate in it is added, it takes up some of that CO2, but CO2 re-equilibrates pretty fast from your home air and respiration in the tank.

Together CO2 and carbonate alkalinity mathematically determine the pH.