Alk rising

[IrishReefer234]

Hi all.



Looking for some advice on Alkalinity. My Alk is rising without any dosing. I usually keep my tank from 8-8.4 dkh but it’s rising to 10.5 dkh since 9 November 23.



I am not dosing anything. I have turned off doser and taken the dosing lines out. My tank is set up since mid September 23 but the rock and sand is being used since the start of summer. I am running full Moderm Reef system.



My parameters are as below:

Alk 10.5

No3 11pm

Po4 0.03ppm

Cal 450

Mag 1490

Salinity 36ppm

 

[Miami Reef]

How are you testing?

 

[Jekyl]

Have you gotten a second opinion?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you do water changes? With what?

Is nitrate falling or being dosed? (that adds alk)

 

[blecki]

How has your nitrate changed over that same timeframe?

 

[IrishReefer234]

How are you testing?

Testing Alkatronic, Hanna and Salfert. Bit overkill but cannot understand it.

 

[IrishReefer234]

Do you do water changes? With what?

Is nitrate falling or being dosed? (that adds alk)

Doing weekly water changes with Modern Reef salt. Nitrate is falling and not being dosed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Doing weekly water changes with Modern Reef salt. Nitrate is falling and not being dosed.

Falling nitrate (from consumption) boosts alk. A drop of 50 ppm adds 2.3 dKH of alk.

 

[IrishReefer234]

How are you testing?

Testing using an Alkatronic, Hanna checker and Salfert.

 

[EricR]

I'm in the same boat for many months now and haven't figured it out (yet).

There's quite a few threads on similar but here's one if you're up for some reading:
Alkalinity Rising

FWIW, I'm just doing small water changes about 2x per week with low alkalinity saltwater (using Sodium Bisulfate) to counteract the rise -- definitely not ideal but all I've got right now