Alkalinity rising without dosing

bowen1022 · Dec 12, 2017

Hey all,
For some reason my alk just keeps going up without dosing at all. I also haven’t gone any water changes in a few weeks but it started at 9.8dKH and now it is at 11dKH. What could be causing this?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 12, 2017

bowen1022 said:
Hey all,
For some reason my alk just keeps going up without dosing at all. I also haven’t gone any water changes in a few weeks but it started at 9.8dKH and now it is at 11dKH. What could be causing this?

Artificial rock can leach alkalinity.

Nitrate declining will boost alkalinity.

Could be test error.

Tap water for evaporation can boost alk.

bowen1022 · Dec 12, 2017

I’m using BRS Reef saver so that might be a problem? The tank is fairly new so not a lot of stock to really soak it up. I top off with RODI so I don’t think that would be it. And I tested with salifert and Red Sea

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 13, 2017

I'm not sure of the origin of that rock, and whether it is real dead rock, or artificial rock.

The alk rise you are seeing is very slow, and I wouldn't worry much about it, but if you want to lower it, we can advise on how to do that (which, IMO, is best done with a low alk mix for water changes, which we can help you create with salt mix and a little acid).