Cary Meredith
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Ok alk was 220 ppm when I started and now 283 had started dosing vinegar and won't come down, please help
Alk question - trying to lower
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Vinegar doesn't lower alk. Vinegar will spur bacterial growth as it is carbon dosing (lowers nitrate and a little phosphate) and requires a skimmer.
I would just do some water changes or let it drop on its own if your tank has decent alk demand.
I would just do some water changes or let it drop on its own if your tank has decent alk demand.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Vinegar dosing may actually raise alk if it spurs nitrate reduction.
Are you dosing anything else?
Do you do water changes?
It is easy to lower alk in the salt mix, or use a naturally lower alk mix.
Are you dosing anything else?
Do you do water changes?
It is easy to lower alk in the salt mix, or use a naturally lower alk mix.
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Cary Meredith
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I stopped dosing everything, to try and lower the alk, I plan a water change this weekend but haven't done one in awhile. I have very few corals mostly just fish right now.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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What salt mix?
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Cary Meredith
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Red Sea Coral pro salt but it's been a very long time since I did a water change, the tank was neglected, and I am trying to get it back into shape for corals and such. I just read that this salt is already high in Alkalinity, so probably not my best bet for lowering it even though a water change should help.
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Right, it’s likely the worst for that. lol
ZombieEngineer
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Cause he did big water changes with really high Alk salt and vinegar dosed which also raises alk. I agree if his salinity is high that would make it even worse.
ZombieEngineer
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Just grab some instant ocean (regular, not reef crystals). It's pretty low alk, super cheap, and readily available in store like everywhere so it won't feel like a waste to use a bucket just for this time period.
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laverda
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He said he was going to do a water change, and that "it's been a very long time since I did a water change". I do not recall Red sea Salt being that high in alkalinity. My recollection is it mixed pretty much right where you would want Alk to be. I agree the vinegar possibly raised it further. In my experience, Oceanic salt is low in ALK and High in CA and Mag. Instant Ocean is the opposite, although not as high as Red Sea. I used to mix IO and Oceanic salts to get the best of both inexpensive salts. Granted I imagine Salt mixes have changed over time and there have been batches that were off.
Chortanator
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Red Sea Coral Pro mixes at 11-13dkH. I usually get 11 out of it
ZombieEngineer
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You're 100% right. I mixed those two up.
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Cary Meredith
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The salinity is at 1.026 it was at 1.024 when I first checked it and I got that stabilized quickly. When it first went into neglect I probably still had alk mixture in the dosing container, and my magnesium is way low as well so thing probably just got out of correct ratio.
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Cary Meredith
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Yep going to pick up some instant ocean tomorrow and use that for the water change.
ZombieEngineer
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It's oceanic you want not IO. I got the two mixed up in my head.
ZombieEngineer
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It's oceanic you want not IO. I got the two mixed up in my head.
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Cary Meredith
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oceanic is in low supply picked up some IO instead, mixed up a batch of what I had in the bin to see what levels were at, going to use that and then clean it really well and mix up another batch and just keep doing small water changes till I get it down.
homer1475
Figuring out the hobby one coral at a time.
IO is not low on ALK.
My recent batches have been mixing up to around 11DKH.
Which is actually quite odd, as I have never had it mix up that high until recently. I don't know if they changed something, but these "new" bags (first few batches with a 200G box with these new bags in them) are definitely mixing up higher then they used to.
My recent batches have been mixing up to around 11DKH.
Which is actually quite odd, as I have never had it mix up that high until recently. I don't know if they changed something, but these "new" bags (first few batches with a 200G box with these new bags in them) are definitely mixing up higher then they used to.
