golfsuper,
Read and understand pH and Alkalinity chemistry in our aquarium. It will not be a waste of time. The bare-bone basic is that CO2, HCO3-, CO3-- all exist in equilibrium in our tank according to this equation:
2(H+)+ CO3-- <->H+ + HCO3- <-> H2O + CO2
These chemicals change state million of time per second. Not only they are in equilibrium with each other, they are also in equilibrium with other - and + ions in the water. These ions are the main ones that account for the pH of the water. pH is essentially the inverse log of the concentration of H+.
I cannot go to everything in detail here but if you check into some of Craig Bingman writing online he does a much better in explaining the detail.
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Minh Nguyen
Visit my reef at:
http://sites.netscape.net/austinnguyen/homepage
[This message has been edited by Minh Nguyen (edited 06-11-2000).]