Alkalinity help
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Bayareareefer18
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DO NOT mix your CA and ALK solutions. Dose them separately and give space in between one and the other.So I make an Alkalinity and calcium solution then mix them together when I dose? I don't have any of the ingredients to make the calcium solutionIll have to search for those so I guess I wont be dosing anytime soon ;Sour
If you have all softies and polyps you may not even need dosing. Your consumption will dictate dosing. In a smaller tank regular small wc may be sufficient. Stability is the key
I’m not horribly experienced with running a softy only tank but my best guess would be you need to lower the Alkalinity to around 11. This can be done with the premixed saltwater from your store if it is RC and has a high dKH. To do this you would add muratic acid to bring down the dKH in the new water then do your water change. There’s some good info on the forum as to how to lower the dKH in newly mixed water. I personally use the RedSea blue bucket salt mix because the parameters are extremely consistent and I get a consistent dKH when mixed of around 7-8dkh. I run a mostly SPS tank with good amount of LPS so if my alk goes much higher than 9 I start getting burnt tips on my SPS. Buying RODI from them should be fine however I would bring a TDS meter there with you to test there water. There was a store by me at one point selling RODI water with a TDS of 40+.
Bayareareefer18
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I started my tank with all LPS and took a significant amount of time before I even had to do some small manual dosing
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Mickle
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Okay, thanks! 
Oh okay, well I'm not going to dose it anymore but for the future, Thanks!
Oh okay, well I'm not going to dose it anymore but for the future, Thanks!
Bayareareefer18
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Nice that tank is loadedFor my tank here are the parameters I keep:
Calcium - 440
Alkalinity - 8.7
Magnesium - 1380
pH - 8.2
Salinity - 35ppt
Temp - 78.6
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Reading kits and syringes backwards is not that unusual.
With virtually any kit, it is always good to keep in mind that the more liquid you have to add to get to the color change, the higher the answer is going to be in the value of the parameter you are making. If that does not seem to be the case, there's a good chance you are reading the syringe or table backwards.
As to the alk now, just let it drop on its own (at least, if it seems to be doing so after a week or so). If not, it can be lowered, but that is best left to more experienced folks.
With virtually any kit, it is always good to keep in mind that the more liquid you have to add to get to the color change, the higher the answer is going to be in the value of the parameter you are making. If that does not seem to be the case, there's a good chance you are reading the syringe or table backwards.
As to the alk now, just let it drop on its own (at least, if it seems to be doing so after a week or so). If not, it can be lowered, but that is best left to more experienced folks.
