The reef tank uses up cal and alk in equal amount and dosing different amounts will cause issues with both. Figure out why your at 550 calcium and fix that. Either you are overdosing it with bad salt /dosing or your test kit is wrong.

ok i will check it out,thank you for the help.

Your salt will puffer the water when added. Ph is based on alkalinity, check out the updated ph video in the beginner playlist.

Check Out the new ph video

Thank You

It was a custom one made out of a pill bottle, carbon, filter floss and pvc fittings.

No everything is normal with the skimmer

I would say get a better test kit to get a better reading 8.0 and 8.8 is to big of a gap. Now if your dkh is truly 7 your ph couldnt be 8.8 even with no co2 in the system. I stay away from all ph buffers they are a waste and do more damage overall. Doing equal amounts of two part will ensure you stay within a good range of both. You system can only use equal part so you have no need to chase number by adding more of one. Stop the buffer and dose equal parts and make sure you are using good test kits.

I think your alk reading is off. Even with the tank had no Co2 gas a alk reading of 8.4 wouldnt get to to 8.5 ph. I would first check into what you are using to read alk and then if you are dosing any buffers id stop. If you are not dosing anything I would make a fresh batch of saltwater and check your waters alk, cal and mag you might have a box of salt thats off. Let me know what you find out and we can move forward in fixing the problem.

+Reef Medic How are things going did everything work out?

+Reef Medic 500ppm cal from salt is kinda high i would look into getting a different salt or try something else with closer to natural sea levels. I would look into getting a new probe or try calibrating it again to see if it helps. Good luck let me know.

+FishOfHex cool man thx for the advise. Ive used Kent salt from the get go. New batches of saltwater have a calcium range in the 500ppms. Plus one I need a bigger salt bin cuz I can only make 35g at a time. Jus strapped for space. My ph probe is lab grade but it's 4 years old. Might get a new one. I say that cuz I've used test kits in comparison to the probe and their always high then my probe read out. I'll try out the things you where saying n see what happens.

+Reef Medic I strongly believe in dosing equip parts of both cal and alk, My reason behind this is corals pull equal parts of both out of the water in order to grow. So dosing different amounts will only cause problems. The reason why you are running into issues with calcium being so high is due to over dosing it. Every time you do it causes the alkalinity to lower. I recommend you do the following:
1. Get a good quality salt i personally use reef crystals its not the best but it works great for me.
2. Make a fresh batch of saltwater and then test cal, alk, mag. (Make sure you mix the salt before adding it to the water) Also: Make sure your test kits are not outdated it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a friend check the water.
3. Do a few 30% water changes over the next three to five days to help get the tank back to normal.
4. STOP DOSING EVERYTHING for now :) Lets focus on getting the tank stable just being in normal ranges.
5. Dont dose kalk and alk together. Kalk also adds calcium to the water further making problems.
6. Once you have around 380-450 cal, 7-11 dkh and 1300-1400 mag its time to get started.
7. If you are auto dosing make sure the pump is calibrated if its a POS and is having any kind of issues not dosing equal amounts stop using it until you are able to get a better one.
8. Start off dosing 15ml per 25 gallons of tank water of bother brs alk and cal. That is after you have subtracted rock, sand ect. Dont worry about dosing mag at this point.
9. Test water once a week and only once to help prevent chasing numbers. Be advised it will take some time to get on track but i recommend you take this time and DONT use any calculators to get your numbers at what you want.
10. If say in a week your calcium is at 500 and alk is at 7dkh dose 20ml per 25 gallons of water. The tank will even itself out as long as you are dosing equal parts.

Depending on how much hard coral you have it could take a few weeks to settle. just take your time and go slow with small equal addition of cal and alk. I hope i was able to help you pleas keep me in the loop on the status of the tank.

+JJ reef No Problem

Good idea thx

+JJ reef I'm glad you figured it out. I would re-calibrate the ph probe just incase.

+JJ reef Glad you are getting closer to figuring it out. I just re calibrated my ph probe after only 5 months it was reading 8.37 when the ph was really 8.27. The equipment is here to make things easier but sometimes you just need to go back to the basics and look at the tank to really know whats going on.

I do have a refugium

+JJ reef Ok ill check out your videos soon, but one more question do you have a refugium? i do see you have good flow within the aquarium but whats your surface agitation look like? With good agitation you can release a lot of co2. If your dkh is truly that high and your test kits are good along with the test being done correctly, then the only real reason why your ph is so low would be to much co2 in the tank. We just have to figure out what that reason is. Before you change anything i think you should get your ph tested from multiple sources, Take some to your LFS or have a buddy test it. If your ph is still showing low numbers on other test we have to dig a little deeper. Let me know

+JJ reef Ok I have a couple questions before we can find out whats wrong. What test kits are you using for alk and Ph also how long have you had them. If your DKH is truly at 11 and you are removing the co2 as it sounds like you are your ph would be around 8.35-8.4. Also is your tank open top? do you have enough water movement at the surface? These two things allow co2 to leave the tank quickly. What brand of two part are you dosing and are you dosing equal parts of alk and calcium daily? Do you have alot of people in the room that you have the tank? Can you open a window? Sorry for so many questions but this will help me get a better idea of how your system is setup and what outside factors might be causing the problem.

Thank you and no problem glad to help