Alk going up on its own? Remedy?

Andyf30 · Jun 3, 2021

Hi everyone, after scanning the various threads about Alk going up, I was curious what fixes there might be. The major issue is that my nutrients are low and I am struggling to get them to go up and am also struggling to get my alk to go down. Therefore, I am in a bit of a bind here as certain lps and sps just slowly waste away due to the disparity between nutrients and alk.

I have been feeding more and also dosing nitrate and phosphate (tropic marin) and am using red sea blue bucket salt. Alk will dip to maybe 9.5-9.6 after a waterchange, but then will slowly creep back up to 9.8-10 over a few days and sit there. Ideally, I’d like to work my alk down to around 8.

The tank was started with caribsea special grade reef sand and with marco dry rock. Tank is 8 months old. Any advice is appreciated!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 3, 2021

Do you know if nitrate is accumulating or declining?

Declining nitrate will boost alkalinity.

lapin · Jun 3, 2021

Are you adding any sort of 2 part or additive like kalk?

Andyf30 · Jun 3, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Do you know if nitrate is accumulating or declining?

Declining nitrate will boost alkalinity.

Nitrate has been slowly declining with the addition of a refugium, but even a month or so ago when nitrate was steady at 15 ish it kept going up.

Andyf30 · Jun 3, 2021

lapin said:
Are you adding any sort of 2 part or additive like kalk?

I am not. I only have to dose mag sometimes, I haven't ever dosed anything else.

lapin · Jun 3, 2021

You could try adding some orgainc acid (vinegar) to your salt mix to bring down the alk in water change water.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 3, 2021

lapin said:
You could try adding some orgainc acid (vinegar) to your salt mix to bring down the alk in water change water.

That will only be a temporary fix. All of the alk comes back when the vinegar is metabolized.

Andyf30 · Jun 3, 2021

Just did a water change with red sea blue bucket as normal (this batch has been testing consistently at 8 dkh) and alk dropped to 9.5. I will report back tomorrow with what alk is sitting at.

atlantean · Jun 3, 2021

I have been having weird things happening with my alkalinity too (either inexplicably elevating to 9.0 or staying stable and not falling). I had switched from Neophos and Neonitrate to the Tropic Marin about a month ago. Saw symptoms of high organics but coral colors were continuing to fade. After a week from switching back to Neophos and Neonitrate and maintaining a consistent regimen, my colors have started to improve and my alkalinity has started to fall again (slowly).

Andyf30 · Jun 4, 2021

cives said:
I have been having weird things happening with my alkalinity too (either inexplicably elevating to 9.0 or staying stable and not falling). I had switched from Neophos and Neonitrate to the Tropic Marin about a month ago. Saw symptoms of high organics but coral colors were continuing to fade. After a week from switching back to Neophos and Neonitrate and maintaining a consistent regimen, my colors have started to improve and my alkalinity has started to fall again (slowly).

That’s interesting. Maybe I need to makw a concerted effort to continue dosing nutrients and things will start moving again?

The only other thing I can think of is that some thing is leaching alk, either rocks or sand, but I’m not sure how to rememedy that if that is the cause. Does anyone have any thoughts? Do I just keep fighting it down with 10% water changes? I can do another one tomorrow.

Andyf30 · Jun 4, 2021

Update: after around 24 hours since testing alk is at 9.6, so given hanna’s range of error is still fairly stable. I have increased dosing of the tropic marin np and nitrate is still testing at 1 and phos at 0.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 4, 2021

Andyf30 said:
Update: after around 24 hours since testing alk is at 9.6, so given hanna’s range of error is still fairly stable. I have increased dosing of the tropic marin np and nitrate is still testing at 1 and phos at 0.

going forward, the easiest thing is to add muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate to the water change water, and change water more often in smaller amounts to keep the alk down.

Sodium Bisulfate to Reduce Alkalinity in New Salt Water or in Display Tanks

I just want to record these calculations in their own thread to refer back to in other threads. When alkalinity is too high in new salt water or in a display tank, acid can be used to lower the alkalinity. You can easily use muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid), or sodium bifulfate (e.g...

www.reef2reef.com

Andyf30 · Jun 4, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
going forward, the easiest thing is to add muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate to the water change water, and change water more often in smaller amounts to keep the alk down.

Sodium Bisulfate to Reduce Alkalinity in New Salt Water or in Display Tanks

I just want to record these calculations in their own thread to refer back to in other threads. When alkalinity is too high in new salt water or in a display tank, acid can be used to lower the alkalinity. You can easily use muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid), or sodium bifulfate (e.g...

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks for the info Randy. Do you think whatever is leaching will eventually just slow down? Or am is this a chronic problem I will just have to deal with,

Andyf30 · Jun 10, 2021

Bumping this again. Did 5 gallon WC’s every other day for a week and fought the alk down to 9.2. Left it for two days and its back at 10.0 which is even worse than before.

Honestly I’m at a loss here. This issue is pushing me to the point of saying screw it starting over and just using new rock and sand and the tank is only 7 months old. Does anyone have any advice? Will this issue go away on its own eventually?