Alk thoughts and ur reason behind it?

[HeadStrongGrafx]

I've been seeing a lot of people with their alk levels around 8ish. Why? Mine is 11. I use coral reef pro salt which has a high alk level. I'm curious to see others thoughts and reasoning why to have a lower alk and what salts they prefer. My LFS has Aquavitro Salinity but not sure I want to go that route yet until I understand the reason for a lower alk.

Thanks

 

[Jason mack]

I think it's because in 8 s it's probably closer too natural sea water , but I'm probably wrong I use reef crystal salt , my Alk is always around 8 -8.2 .. I do not dose alk, I test with Colombo test kit

 

[smh254]

I use Red Sea salt the blue bucket ALK mixes to 8. I have a low nutrient system. If my alk goes above 9 my SPS don't fare so well. I try to keep my alk at 7.5 that's when I get my best results in growth and color.

 

[HeadStrongGrafx]

I use Red Sea salt the blue bucket ALK mixes to 8. I have a low nutrient system. If my alk goes above 9 my SPS don't fare so well. I try to keep my alk at 7.5 that's when I get my best results in growth and color.

Describe how ur sps react. I'm curious...

 

[HeadStrongGrafx]

I think it's because in 8 s it's probably closer too natural sea water , but I'm probably wrong I use reef crystal salt , my Alk is always around 8 -8.2 .. I do not dose alk, I test with Colombo test kit

U have SPS?

 

[smh254]

Describe how ur sps react. I'm curious...

A few months back I tried to raise my ALK from 7.8 to 9 over a week. Thinking I might get a little faster growth out of my SPS. Got home from work one evening and noticed my SPS looked bad. I tested ALK and it was at 9.2 This was 6 days after I started. Over the next week I slowly dropped it back down. Now my ALK is 7-7.8 and everything is doing good. Here are some pics of what it did to my SPS.

Not all SPS were affected and none of my other corals showed any problems.

 

[HeadStrongGrafx]

Anyone else want to chime in?

 

[HeadStrongGrafx]

Think I'm going to try HWMatinemix for a while and run my alk at 9. See what happens.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

I can't keep my kh above 9. My sps doesn't like it at all. First sign of stress will be less PE followed by tip burnt with whitish slime. I think it has something to do with no3 level. Lower nutrient demands lower alk. 7 - 8 dkh is what I aiming now.

 

[reefwiser]

I keep mine between 7 and 8 because many corals do not like high ALK. You get a lot of death in SPS coming from other systems that have lower alk when I have kept higher alk tanks. Not all corals care but many do so I just keep it at NSW levels not worth the trouble.