Alk at 4.6 everything looks good tho

hsosa · Nov 4, 2022

what up reef addicts . I have a established reef tank with a high bio load . I haven't checked my alk since may of this year . I was dosing triton but I ran out of the all part and just started dosing all for reef for alk . I also dose kalk as my top off. yesterday I tested my alk with the Hannah egg. did two test one was at 4.4 and the 2d test was at 4.6

all my corals are doing great and growing and ive proprated some corals . I mostly have stony chalices .and montiporas. my question is should I just ride the low alk train and dont fret about alk. I have been thinking of going B ionic alk because its readily available and less expensive than triton . so I would use b ionic alk and triton calcium till my triton calcium runs out . any one run low alk in their tanks ? I know I should be at 6-7 . looks like the all for reef s and kalk isnot keeping up with the alk demand in my tank . I also dose 6ml of triton calcium via a kamora x-1 doser thanks for any inputs .

here are my current parameters
salinity 36ppm
calcium 470
mag 1470
alk 4.6
Temp 77
no3 7
po4 under .1

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 4, 2022

4.6 dKH or 4.6 meq/L?

The former is low and the latter is high.

If you think it is 4.6 dKH, I'd confirm it as alk rarely drops that low.

Try that same kit on some new salt water. Old Hanna reagents do go bad.

wcharon · Nov 4, 2022

I had something similar, tank looks good and ran out of Red Sea Alk Pro so decided to invest in the famous Hanna and the test came out at 6 DKH several times.

As it was weird to me decided to double check readings with a new Red Sea Alk Pro and the tests came out 9KH. Huge difference so i decided to stick with only 1 test and work with that readings.

By the way i use Reef Crystal salt which is high in ALK and will make a fresh batch tomorrow and read with each test kit.

hsosa · Nov 4, 2022

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
4.6 dKH or 4.6 meq/L?

The former is low and the latter is high.

If you think it is 4.6 dKH, I'd confirm it as alk rarely drops that low.

Try that same kit on some new salt water. Old Hanna reagents do go bad.

Gm Randy 4.6dkh great thanks yes I have a new batch of saltwater mixed up and I didn't even think to check the date on the reagent bottle. ill update soon thanks again ! I still need to get a alk supplement since im almost out .

Cali Reef Life · Nov 4, 2022

I had the Hanna alk fail on me after a year and was saying 4.8 dkh. It was one of main causes of my tank crash. In relativity my alk was almost 13 dkh kept trying to bring it up. Learned if everything looks good double check the test kit or in my case if numbers are off check before trying to raise them.. Took me 6 months to get my tank back on track.

Potatohead · Nov 4, 2022

I do agree with double checking the tester. However if it's correct, I'd increase my dose obviously but I wouldn't really worry about it either. I recall several years ago before Jake Adams (

) had his studio he had a little cube in his house with some nice looking acros and what not and that tank ran in the 4's also.

nereefpat · Nov 4, 2022

Testing new saltwater is a good plan. I would also both new saltwater and your display with a titration test kit, like Salifert or API.

hsosa · Nov 4, 2022

ok guys I just tested the new batch of saltwater Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt . Hannah alk egg test . came out at 5.3DKH which I suspect is way off . the HI772s Regeant expires on 10/2023 . now I suspect that the regent is bad . amazon return. I do have a ati test kit I can send off to verify my DKH and it looks like im going to use a different test for alk . and I still need a new alk supplement . im leaning toward B Ionic because its readily available and less expensive than triton . again Randy and for u guys chiming in on this . of course im not making any changes right now to alk keep riding everything looks great .

nereefpat · Nov 4, 2022

hsosa said:
I do have a ati test kit I can send off to verify my DKH and it looks like im going to use a different test for alk .

API as in Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. They make an Alk kit.

ATI's ICP kit will tell you alk. But keep in mind how they are measuring it. ICP can't measure alk, so they are just performing a different test specifically for alk, which may or may not be better than your own kit at home. And I would trust my own sample being tested on the spot over one that I send in the mail, where biological and abiotic processes likely change the water.

hsosa · Nov 4, 2022

nereefpat said:
API as in Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. They make an Alk kit.

ATI's ICP kit will tell you alk. But keep in mind how they are measuring it. ICP can't measure alk, so they are just performing a different test specifically for alk, which may or may not be better than your own kit at home. And I would trust my own sample being tested on the spot over one that I send in the mail, where biological and abiotic processes likely change the water.

thanks for the advice. Yeah I just had this ati ICP test that I won a a few months ago that was kicking around I figured I used it now to just check in on my tank parameters. ok cool ill take a look at the API alk kit . I did check the Tropic Marin salt that I use and it says 7-8 dKH. mixed. im thinking im in that range of DKH. what s crazy is the Hannah egg being so off . All I can say is that I can just go by my observations everything is doing fine . if I was trusting this Hannah Checker I would probably ruin my tank soon. thank god I have you guys to double check me . thanks again everyone !!!

hsosa · Nov 5, 2022

just a follow up if anyone is this situation , I brought a API KH test kit at my local LFS for $9.99 plus tax. Got home tested a mixed batch of saltwater Tropic Marin Pro reef. the API kit tested at 6 KH (pro reef label states 7-8kh) next I tested my tank water and the API KH test kit came out at 6KH. I also brought B ionic ALK . I cut the Kamora x1 alk dose in half to make sure im not overdosing the B ionic now monitoring KH .

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 8, 2022

Thanks for the update.

nereefpat · Nov 8, 2022

6 is more reasonable, for sure. Since the new makeup water tests at 6, you might double check that your salinity is high enough, by checking with a refractometer recently calibrated with a saltwater standard.