High Alk Problem

[Myka]

Originally Posted by straightrazorguy

Thanks Mindy. I had no idea. I do have Muriatic acid, ; I may add it to the new water if the Alk doesn't go down soon.



Yesterday it was at 430. Normally I keep it between 410 and 430.

That's odd that your calcium didn't dip down. Usually it does, and then if you raise it up you can get the alkalinity to go down a bit. If your magnesium is around 1400 ppm you could increase calcium to about 465 ppm (Mg 3x the value of Ca). If it was me, I'd try to get all of the "big three" raised up so that they are closer to balanced, and then stop dosing and let them fall on their own.

[Slyguy00]

Originally Posted by Myka

That's odd that your calcium didn't dip down. Usually it does, and then if you raise it up you can get the alkalinity to go down a bit. If your magnesium is around 1400 ppm you could increase calcium to about 465 ppm (Mg 3x the value of Ca). If it was me, I'd try to get all of the "big three" raised up so that they are closer to balanced, and then stop dosing and let them fall on their own.

+1. Thats what i would do as well. 11dkh is a bit high but not dangerously high. I usually keep my alk around 10-10.5. Hope you get it figured out.

[Animal-Chin]

If you add a lot of calcium with your alk that high and your mg isn't high too, its going to calcify all over the place including your pumps! Be really careful if that's the plan.

[straightrazorguy]

Ha; the alk is now sitting at 7.9. Ca at 425. Mg at 1410. I stopped dosing Alk for less than 48 hours, but left the Ca doser on its normal schedule (dosing for 9.5 min every hour, 20 times a day). So, in less than 48 hours, my corals burned through nearly 3 dKH units of Alk.

Do plants have anything to do with Alk consumption? I have a 55 gallon refugium that growns cheato and caulerpa like a champ! Because I like my fish fat and happy!

Let's hope the SPS don't suffer from the spike...

[orangetang]

Bumping an old thread here, but it seems to be the place to discuss...

My alkalinity measures 22 dKH, confirmed on two different branded tests, on a freshly mixed pail of Instant Ocean from RO water at 24 C.

I bought some snails from a marine pet store and but their water to the same tests, which came out to 28 dKH.

Both of my aquariums seem to run at ~20-22 by these tests and all inhabitants seem to be happy.


What is going on here? Is it as simple as dividing by 2 ?

[GoFish]

Originally Posted by orangetang

Bumping an old thread here, but it seems to be the place to discuss...

My alkalinity measures 22 dKH, confirmed on two different branded tests, on a freshly mixed pail of Instant Ocean from RO water at 24 C.

I bought some snails from a marine pet store and but their water to the same tests, which came out to 28 dKH.

Both of my aquariums seem to run at ~20-22 by these tests and all inhabitants seem to be happy.


What is going on here? Is it as simple as dividing by 2 ?

What brand of test kits are you using and how old are they? Sounds like they belong in the garbage

[orangetang]

An API and a Hagen. Both are new.


The API test strip shows ~180 ppm "ISH". So ~10 dKH.

[GoFish]

Originally Posted by orangetang

An API and a Hagen. Both are new.


The API test strip shows ~180 ppm "ISH". So ~10 dKH.

If they're new and you have a receipt then maybe you could take them back for a refund? I'd suggest Salifert if you can find one locally?
Both of those brands are notoriously unreliable