ALK Swing

[Kalendo33]

My tank is a IM Nuvo 25 Lagoon mainly SPS. I currently have now 7 SPS. Other than the bubblegum digi every SPS has been showing PE. I am trying to figure out why my dKH has been jumping a lot imo. I am currently doing the Triton method and started off with 2ml per day than in 4 days dropped to 2ml every two days and than today changed it 2ml every 3 days. I've been testing my dKH for 7 days, well missed 2 days. Here is my readings:

OCT 21 - 6.5
OCT 24 - 6.9
OCT 25 - 7.8
OCT 26 - 7.6
OCT 27 - 8.7 (morning)
OCT 27 - 8.4 (night)

OCT 21-24 - dosing 2ml every day
OCT 25-27 - dosing 2ml every two days, changed it 2ml every three days

Any idea why I would get a big change?

 

[Coralreefer1]

I’m wondering if your calcium level dropped which caused your alkalinity to spike. Do you test for calcium and magnesium? Magnesium interacts with calcium and alkalinity to maintain stability between the two. Magnesium is a key component responsible for reducing the abiotic precipitation of calcium carbonate from your water. Randy Holmes-Farley has written some informative articles on this that you may want to read, if you haven’t all ready!

 

[ReefTeacher]

I would vote testing error. Test 2 or 3 times in a row and see if you get identical results. Sometimes precision of the measurement is not what we would like.

 

[Kalendo33]

I will test it right now, but also i think the reason why i got higher than alk was due to calibriation of my dosing pump, recalibrated everything and before I was around 240 for my dp-4 but now im around 180+ so will see what happens, also should i continue dosing 2ml a day or every 2 days or every 3 days?

 

[Kalendo33]

I am dosing triton so in theory it should stablize CA and MG while mainly testing for dKH, i do have test kits for the other two and will see BUT I haven't gotten the MG down pact yet XD

Just did 5 test and the results are a bit -_- it dropped substanial, than again nothing dosed yesterday.

Results:
7.2
6.9
6.9
7.0
6.8

Will test CA and MG right now...

 

[Kalendo33]

So my other two parameters: 420 CA and 1275 MG

 

[Fishfinder]

I am dosing triton so in theory it should stablize CA and MG while mainly testing for dKH, i do have test kits for the other two and will see BUT I haven't gotten the MG down pact yet XD

Just did 5 test and the results are a bit -_- it dropped substanial, than again nothing dosed yesterday.

Results:
7.2
6.9
6.9
7.0
6.8

Will test CA and MG right now...

That is reasonable for test error. It can be expected. Are you testing at the same time every day?

 

[Kalendo33]

Normally yes but I tested twice yesterday once in the morning and the other in the evening, also i am using hanna checker for ALK

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It looks like you are dosing too much and too infrequently.

2 mL in your system calculates out to how many dKH?

It also seems like you should dose less more often to even out the alk.

 

[Kalendo33]

That is one o the things I couldn't find when looking around, Aquaforest tells you how much so maybe I will switch to that after I use up the Triton Core7

 

[Kalendo33]

Oh forgot to mention, I have been dosing the Triton Method Core7, and I will stopped dosing today and might swap out to the AquaForest method since it provides how much it should increase with each 50ml