Alkalinity question .....

Straight.Reefin · Jan 9, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Folks can convert to something like dKH of alkalinity consumed per day to allow comparison between tanks. A calculator like this can be sued:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

In this case, at 230 mL per day of my DIY #1 (BRS) into 250 gallons is only 1.3 dKH per day.

That is not excessive for any reef tank. And the higher you maintain alkalinity, the higher the daily dose needs to be.

Even a soft coral tank can consume 2 dKH pr day of coralline growth is strong, and some of the demand in any tank is abiotic precipitation.

Okay awesome and thanks for the response!!! I upped my dosage 20 ml more a day and I’ll check tonight and tomorrow to see how steady it is...thanks again everyone!

Hans-Werner · Jan 11, 2018

I recommend not to keep alkalinity up with force. If your tank does better with an alkalinity of just 7 or 6.5 let it run at 7 or 6.5. There is no real need to keep alkalinity over 6.5° KH since this is the alkalinity of natural seawater. If corals would need higher alkalinity they would not have survived for millions of years in natural seawater.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 11, 2018

Hans-Werner said:
I recommend not to keep alkalinity up with force. If your tank does better with an alkalinity of just 7 or 6.5 let it run at 7 or 6.5. There is no real need to keep alkalinity over 6.5° KH since this is the alkalinity of natural seawater. If corals would need higher alkalinity they would not have survived for millions of years in natural seawater.

Likely true, but if one said the same thing about "natural" nitrate levels or phosphate levels, the conclusion might be different.

Hans-Werner · Jan 11, 2018

Maybe, Randy, maybe ... Only nitrate is really much lower in most tanks. The "natural" phosphate concentrations I have read about are between 0.004 und 0.08 ppm. Indeed some SPS seem to loose phosphate (netto uptake is negative) at concentrations below 0.03 ppm, so they would rely on food and maybe feeding to satisfy their phosphate needs. About nitrate I am not sure whether corals need it at all. They can take up ammonium/ammonia just as the fish excrete it and they can make some available nitrogen compounds themselves with the aid of mutualistic diazotrophic (fixing N2) cyanobacteria and heterotrophic bacteria.

Undertaker · Jan 11, 2018

Straight.Reefin said:
I forgot to say that, but I have been dosing every hour of the day all day and night long since day 1

I just can’t believe my tank is using 230 ml of alk but I guess it is what it is, I’ll bump it up 20 ml and see

I am dosing 60ml a day to maintain on 9.0DKH my red sea reefer 350. total water volume is 85g with sofies and 6 small LPS colonies, and a medium amount of corlline.

Straight.Reefin · Jan 11, 2018

Okay so since my last post I’ve been steady at about 8.9 and 9.1 and I’m dosing 270 ml and I’m definitely good to go! Glad it was just as simple as boosting up my dosage per day! I just couldn’t believe I was that high but as you guys said, 250 ml a day really wasn’t that crazy for my start volume! Thanks again for all the input! [emoji1306][emoji1306]

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 12, 2018

You're welcome.

Happy reefing.

Undertaker · Mar 15, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Folks can convert to something like dKH of alkalinity consumed per day to allow comparison between tanks. A calculator like this can be sued:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

In this case, at 230 mL per day of my DIY #1 (BRS) into 250 gallons is only 1.3 dKH per day.

That is not excessive for any reef tank. And the higher you maintain alkalinity, the higher the daily dose needs to be.

Even a soft coral tank can consume 2 dKH pr day of coralline growth is strong, and some of the demand in any tank is abiotic precipitation.

Hey Randy using the calculator would Brs two part be your recipe one?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 15, 2018

Undertaker said:
Hey Randy using the calculator would Brs two part be your recipe one?

Yes.

Undertaker · Mar 15, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Yes.

That's what I thought thx! with that, the calculator says my ph would be high however it seems to be low (7.89) at peak (8.0), would it be ok to use kalk to raise my ph to 8.1 or 8.2, or am I ok where it is?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 15, 2018

Undertaker said:
That's what I thought thx! with that, the calculator says my ph would be high however it seems to be low (7.89) at peak (8.0), would it be ok to use kalk to raise my ph to 8.1 or 8.2, or am I ok where it is?

No dosing calculator can predict what an aquarium pH will be. Your pH is OK, but it would rise if you used a very high pH additive such as limewater/kalkwasser, or a two part using hydroxide.

Undertaker · Mar 15, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
No dosing calculator can predict what an aquarium pH will be. Your pH is OK, but it would rise if you used a very high pH additive such as limewater/kalkwasser, or a two part using hydroxide.

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