New Saltwater pH = 9.0

[williammuk]

Hi all, I would like to seek your advise, please.

I prepared a batch of new saltwater yesterday so that I could do a water change today. The mixture using AquaMedic SeaSalt with tap water treated with Seachem Prime.

This morning, I tested the saltwater and the results for pH was off the scale's upper limit of 8.7 using the Seachem MultiTest. I test again using JBL testkit with a range of 3.0 to 10.0. The result from JBL shows 9.0.

I'm quite sure the testkit is OK because my tank water tested shows 8.2 (Seachem).

I would like to know with the pH of 9.0 and considering that the new water is about 10% of the tank volume, is it safe to proceed with the water change? Will it have significant impact to the tank's pH?

Thanks very much for your comments.

[williammuk]

OK, nevermind. I threw it away already. Better to be safe than sorry.

[roidan]

it would have been

(0.9 x 8.2) + (0.1 x 9.0)

= 8.28 after the 10% change

[williammuk]

it would have been

(0.9 x 8.2) + (0.1 x 9.0)

= 8.28 after the 10% change

Hi Roidan, thanks very much.

That is very useful.

[RAV-65]

it would have been

(0.9 x 8.2) + (0.1 x 9.0)

= 8.28 after the 10% change

Roidan the best when it come to mathematics/statistics!!

[Achilles Tang]

Strange that brand of synthetic salt can mix up to that high PH! Hope it didn't get contaminated with something! Are your test kits working fine?

Anyway, you need not panic if you mix it in slowly, it should be fine for your tank... dosing kalkwasser with the PH of 12 can cause a worser PH spike than than PH 9.... the key is to mix it in slowly into your tank.

However, unless you suddenly placed the corals from 8.2 in your tank to the tub that's PH 9.... than that's bad!