Alk Increase

[inetjnky]

Oops... ok so I tested my alk tonight and it dropped to 6.8dkh. I have Esv bionic two part here and I went to the reef calculator to determine how much I should dose. It told me to go from 6.8dkh to 7.8 to dose around 35ml of part 1. For a 20g system. Every time I dose it always reads higher then what it should be so I opted for 30ml instead of 35ml this time.

3 hours later I test again after adding 30ml of part 1 and equal part 2... yeah my alk is reading 9.9dkh! I have both sps and lps and softies... checking my sps with the lights off and I have really good PE... might I luck out and not lose anything? I normally just use kalk in my top off which has been enough but lately I've not had as much evaporation and my levels dropped.

 

[reefwiser]

In a small system like yours I always go up very slowly. If I was dosing 20 ml a day and my alk dropped I would raise it by 5ml and then test the next day and see what I was reading. Then add another 5 ml if it was still low. Best to move very slowly than really fast. As the corals do not like fast changes. Your alk levels drop because corals are growing removing more elements from the water.