Alk is sitting around 5 or 9. Will test it to be sure. I haven’t gotten the other tests and I probably won’t be able to move as a storm is heading my way, which can complicates me from moving.
I just tested today and my nitrates are 5, which has lowered a bit since the beginning of my tank. Alk is at 7 right now with a ph of 7.6. I'll feed my fish everyday to raise my nitrates and pull out some of those hair algae/bryopsis out of there cause that's what eating my nitrates away.
Canister that I emptied out of all media because of a noise problem. It started to make noise again, so I’ll try to clean the impeller component again. I do clean it every 3 weeks or so. I had a noise problem for months, so that’s why I emptied it out of all sponges.
Thanks! Will keep my window open the whole day and see what it does.I would not assume a pH test kit is accurate since there's no easy way to check it, but if you think it might be, try this aeration test. If the pH does not rise considerably with outdoor aeration, the kit is not accurate.
pH and the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION
by Randy Holmes-Farley For many aquarists, pH is not something that they have much experience with aside from their aquarium. For many, pH is almost a black box measurement: something to be considered, but whose physical meaning makes little sense to them. This article will Read more here...www.reefedition.com
The Aeration Test
Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.
