My tank is at a constant PH of 7.8

[SumpinFishy]

Sorry this is so long, but I want to give you all the facts. My tank has been up and running for 2 1/2 years now, and I just bought a Pinpoint Calcium meter and PH meter only to find out that both PH and Calcium were off. More on that later, for now I will tell you a little about my tank.

46 Gallon bow front reef tank
Coralife Salt <--- will be changing to Tropic Marin Pro-Reef
about 4" of Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite (80 Lb I do believe)
80 Lb of live rock
assorted Corals and fish
1 cap full 2 times a week of Seachem Reef Calcium, Reef Complete, Reef Plus
In makeup water alternating, Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium, Reef Builder, and Reef Buffer

Well after buying the meters I found out that my Calcium was at 850 (didn't think I was using that much calcium, but I prolonged all calcium for 3 days and it is now at 457.7 and dropping. My PH was also at 7.8 so I started to use Reef Buffer to get my PH back up to around 8.25 and for the past couple of days, I have put about 1 Teaspoons 3 times a day in to maintain the PH at 8.2-8.3 until I guess I put to much in, and it came out of suspence (cloudy water) and in 1 hour flat the PH went down to 7.87 and is stable there for now. Here are some other paramemeters that I got from a test kit NOT the new meteres I just bought.

Po4 - Phospate .25mg/L
No3 - Nitrate 10 mg/L
Nh3/Nh4 - Ammonia .05
PH 7.85
No2 - Nitrite .1mg/L
Kh - Carbonate Hardness > 125 mg/L
Fe - Iron Non-Chelated 0 mg/L
Fe - Iron Chelated 0 mg/L
Ca - Calcium according to the test below 20 mg/L (false reading)

All of this info was tested AFTER a 10 gallon water change. Could it be the salt I am using that is cause the system to be at a constant 7.8 or do you think it is something else? Any thoughts would greatly help. Thanks in advance!

[Tech Support CH]

A calcium level of 850 is hard to believe, especially with any level of alkalinity. I would suspect that your calcium monitor was not calibrated properly. If the calibration fluid is colder than the aquarium water, the monitor will read inaccurately high. You may want to read the many reviews of these types on monitors.

Please test your aquarium with a working test kit. I recommend our Reef Status Calcium kit because it has a reference sample that you can check the test kit against. This way you know that the test kit is reading properly.

I would also recommend that you test your alkalinity with a more accurate test kit. Test kits that test in mg/L or ppm tend to not be very accurate for alkalinity. According to that your alkalinity is >2.5 meq/L. We recommend a level of 4 meq/L. A low alkalinity could be the cause of your low pH. And a high alkalinity will cause calcium to precipitate. Dosing 3 teaspoons of Reef Buffer a day will raise your alkalinity 1.5 meq/L (4.2 dKH) a day. We recommend a maximum of 1 meq/L a day to prevent precipitation. The white cloud is a precipitation. Make sure you are mixing the Reef Buffer with freshwater not saltwater. Look carefully over your aquarium. Is there any fine white dust on the walls or the heater? Is your sand clumping up like kitty litter? Also look at the impellers on your pumps, are they getting a white build up on them? (your impellers you will want to soak in an acid, like vinegar, to remove the buildup. Otherwise your pumps may burn out.)

Here is a great article on pH control in the marine aquarium: [url]http://www.seachem.com/support/Articles/MarinepH.html[/url]

I have heard of one brand of salt having a calcium level of 600, but it is not the brands you mention. Also if you are having a pH problem you may want to look into our Reef Salt. It gives you a starting pH of 8.4. This is because of the components of the alkalinity. We have Borate, carbonate and bicarbonate in the alkalinity of our salt.

[SumpinFishy]

Well after a change to a new brand of salt I have noticed after 2 water changes (10 gallons total) that my PH is around 8.12 and my Calcium is now around 400. I will do more tests and post more about it.

[Tech Support CH]

Glad to hear things are looking better.