Coral freak out after dosing with Marine Buffer?

[SkyJunkie]

I just dosed my tank with Seachem Marine Buffer to help my ph. I dosed the proper amount into a cup of fresh water and put it in my sump. As soon as it pumped into my tank my corals closed up and look puffy. Is this normal? It looks like they are hurt or traumatized somehow.

[MiracleFish]

This is a little odd to me, I don't believe this happened to me when I first added buffer to my tank. However, I wouldn't get used to using this stuff because it will sky rocket your Alk levels to maybe 18 dkh. Happened to me and am still working on bringing it down.

Its funny though I bought this stuff too, dosed it maybe 6x, pH went to 8.3 as proposed, saw my Alk sky rocket and stopped dosing and my tank has remained 8.3 for a month and still going.

Edit: They are probably shocked, and will recover, yet keep a watchful eye on them

[SkyJunkie]

Yeah they seems to be opening up and relaxing now. Not planning on using this regularly, just a little help for now.

[brandon429]

sure that was stressful for them. All dosing should ideally be in the mornings before lights on, before polyp inflation. If you add a pH raising agent to the highest pH time of the day, the afternoon, thats stressful even though many people drip things like kalk 24x7

I suspect your dose was a larger increment the occupants weren't used to.

[disc1]

You shouldn't be using an alkalinity supplement to chase pH numbers. The pH effect is temporary at best but the alk spike is permanent. After the pH goes back down after a couple of hours the higher alk serves to make the pH even harder to move.

[SkyJunkie]

Marine Buffer specifically says its for ph. I have reef builder for alkalinity, is that not correct?

[HumbleFish]

I've had the same thing happen. It's best to drip that stuff into your sump. Don't just dump it in.

[Palting]

Originally Posted by disc1

You shouldn't be using an alkalinity supplement to chase pH numbers. The pH effect is temporary at best but the alk spike is permanent. After the pH goes back down after a couple of hours the higher alk serves to make the pH even harder to move.

Originally Posted by SkyJunkie

Marine Buffer specifically says its for ph. I have reef builder for alkalinity, is that not correct?

Seachem is just playing with words for marketing purposes. If you read their own write-up on the product here http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...ineBuffer.html , Marine Buffer is essentially an alk or buffer agent. This supports disc1's statement. Not a good product to chase pH with.

OTOH, not a good idea to chase pH in general, anyway. Here's a recent thread by Sk8r: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2295007 . Here' a more in-depth article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.php .

Bottom line from both articles and IMO/IME: not a good idea to chase pH for pH sake alone. Alk is a better measure, and if your pH is still low despite normal alk, look for other reasons and correct those first. Most common reason in this type of scenario is CO2 retention or poor aeration.

[reefshadow]

Originally Posted by SkyJunkie

I just dosed my tank with Seachem Marine Buffer to help my ph. I dosed the proper amount into a cup of fresh water and put it in my sump. As soon as it pumped into my tank my corals closed up and look puffy. Is this normal? It looks like they are hurt or traumatized somehow.

As others have stated, chasing Ph is a losing battle and will probably only result in a skewed alk:ca. I get annoyed with a lot of these companies and their additive schemes (scams?). For instance, what is the "proper amount"? To dose properly you need to test parameters to get a baseline, then calculate the amount based on the increase and tank volume after re-testing. So many of these supplements simply state to add [insert amount] to achieve [insert supplement]. They have no idea what the starting value nor tank volume is. End rant.

In the end, keep up with regular WC's, test ca and alk and supplement according to what is needed. Everything else will follow.

Just out of curiosity, what is your Ph?

[disc1]

Originally Posted by SkyJunkie

Marine Buffer specifically says its for ph. I have reef builder for alkalinity, is that not correct?

There is no thing on earth that you can add that will raise pH and not raise alkalinity. It is a chemical impossibility. The only way to raise pH without raising alkalinity is the removal of the excess CO2 that is depressing the pH.