Alkalinity high!

[Juniorh2r]

Well tested alkalinity about 3 days ago it was a 14.5dkh cal. And mag. Are fine but alk is high I turned off the alk pump so it's down to 14.2 corals are opened and look fine should I let it go down on its own?

 

[smartwater101]

What test kit are you using and do you have a second brand to confirm the readings?

"Cal and Mag are fine." What are the numbers?

What are you dosing with? Any changes made to that recently?

What is your pH? Any drastic changes lately?

Knowing how it happened would helpful, but for now just do a water change and test again.

 

[Juniorh2r]

Alk 14.2 cal. 440 ph 8.27
I used hanna checker for alk
Api for cal and apex measures the ph

 

[Juniorh2r]

I had a maintenance guy come over and treat the tank for red slime and he did 2 water changes 2 days apart and he told me it was high he was right

 

[Juniorh2r]

Didn't want to do another water change cause most salts are 13dkh . Will it take too long to go down?

 

[Juniorh2r]

By the way not all at the same time but I use acropower I dose red sea ABC and trace elements also stronti coral vits bioptim and biodigest coral booster too again not all at the same time I've been using this stuff for 6 months now

 

[Billdogg]

I would stop dosing whatever alkalinity supplement you are using and just let it drop on it's own. Don't be suprised if you have some precipitation of calcium carbonate, especially on heaters and powerheads (especially impellers) If it does happen, and nice vinegar bath will take care of it for you.

 

[jrill]

Didn't want to do another water change cause most salts are 13dkh . Will it take too long to go down?

What? Most salts aren't. Maybe thats part of the problem, your using the wrong salt.

 

[Jettareefer223]

Well tested alkalinity about 3 days ago it was a 14.5dkh cal. And mag. Are fine but alk is high I turned off the alk pump so it's down to 14.2 corals are opened and look fine should I let it go down on its own?

I would stop dosing and let it drop on it’s own as others have said. You could do a 1/4 dose daily or whatever frequency you utilize to steady things on the way back down to 8-10 dkh, but only if you have a decent demand otherwise it will be gradual enough. On the salt all the high end stuff for most part runs high, but Fritz RPM is like 8.5-9DKH it’s good stuff. I use regular instant ocean on full blown sps systems b/c it’s a quality product with DKH of 8.5-9.5 and salt alone doesn’t make your tank great spending extra money is unnecessary. Just food for thought!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes- you don't want to dosew anything until the high present content is absorbed and lowered.
Do not chase this number as it will do more harm than good.
I also suggest to take a sample of water to a trusted LFS to verify it is indeed high BEFORE making any changes to find it was a faulty test result you have.

 

[smartwater101]

Didn't want to do another water change cause most salts are 13dkh . Will it take too long to go down?

Not sure where you are getting salts at 13dkh. Most are not. What brand do you use?

I agree with everyone about cutting back on dosing. Small water change, cut back on dosing, and let it drift back down to your preferred # . GL

 

[motortrendz]

I've had a super high alk when I first set up my calcium reactor and wasnt paying attention and my drip rate got bumped up somehow. My alk hit 20 dkh, funny that nothing really was affected... if I would have dropped it super fast I would have killed everything. I turned the reactor off and just left it alone and did normal.water changes. It took 6 weeks for it to come back down. Everything lost color but I didn't loose anything. ..

My point being dont they to change anything too fast. That's not super bad alk. Numbers. If you get a lower all salt like red sea in the blue bucket and do a normal water change and just let it be itll slowly come down. This way nothing is shocked my it

 

[xiholdtruex]

I would test mixed salt water make a note of it and like stated above very small normal water changed not all at once so nothing gets shocked