Alkalinity Super low in my mixed reef 4dKH

[BobbyBPG]

I never dosed my tank before or really even tested my water before. I use premade saltwater from my LFS and I only have two 10 gallon nano tanks but my tanks haven't been looking too good after a stressful move which they got kinda neglected in. My anemone tanks parameters were pretty much on point but my problem is with my Coral tank. My coral tank parameters were as follows:
Calc 460 ppm
Mag 1260 ppm
Alk 4 dKH

I thought it could have been a bad test kit because I had a pretty bad heat wave in my area not too long ago which resulted in a few coral deaths and one of my fish but when I checked the Alk on my Nem tank it was 8dKH. I was wondering if Seachem Reef Carbonate would be a good product to start dosing to help raise the Alk I know I have to do it slowly over time not to shock any of my fish or corals. If this is not enough information as far as parameters I can also test for nitrate/nitrites/PH/ Ammonia.

 

[Crabs McJones]

what test kit are you using? a DKH of 4 you should be seeing problems in the tank.

 

[W1ngz]

You don't need anything fancy.
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in a cup or so of topoff water once a day for 3 days should bring you up to about 7 dkh. Then do a water change of about 2 gallons and that should bring you in line.

It may be time to consider testing your alk daily to get an idea of how much it consumes each day to see if you need to start regularly dosing, or can maintain it with water changes.

 

[RandyC]

I never dosed my tank before or really even tested my water before. I use premade saltwater from my LFS and I only have two 10 gallon nano tanks but my tanks haven't been looking too good after a stressful move which they got kinda neglected in. My anemone tanks parameters were pretty much on point but my problem is with my Coral tank. My coral tank parameters were as follows:
Calc 460 ppm
Mag 1260 ppm
Alk 4 dKH

I thought it could have been a bad test kit because I had a pretty bad heat wave in my area not too long ago which resulted in a few coral deaths and one of my fish but when I checked the Alk on my Nem tank it was 8dKH. I was wondering if Seachem Reef Carbonate would be a good product to start dosing to help raise the Alk I know I have to do it slowly over time not to shock any of my fish or corals. If this is not enough information as far as parameters I can also test for nitrate/nitrites/PH/ Ammonia.

If you are confident that your test kit is accurate (maybe borrow a second from a fellow reefer to compare), I probably would just do a few larger water changes (maybe a quarter to a third) over the next few days since your tank water volume is not much.

 

[immortl]

Can your local fish store test for you? Many of them will do that. I would bring samples from both tanks in and have them tested. If the store results match up with your results, then you would know your testing kit is still good. I would start with verifying your results.

If you results are not accurate, pick up a new test kit. If your results are accurate, continue on with dosing.

Disclaimer - I am new to dosing as of 3 months ago. Below is what I have learned and so far used successfully.

If the coral tank is that low, you can slowly start dosing to bring the Alk back up. I have used 'baked baking soda' meaning put the baking soda in an oven at 300 for an hour or longer to bake off extra water it contains and CO2

reference here (recipe 1 part 2 explains the baking). Use this as a reference for understanding why you're baking the baking soda. Once you have baked it, store it in an airtight container.

To calculate how much of the baked baking soda to dose, I have been using this online calculator.

Enter you total actual water volume to the best of your knowledge (for example my 29g Biocube appears to have about 23g of actual water), under the alkalinity section, enter your current measured level, and then enter your next step / next target value.

Note: My understanding is you don't want to raise more than 1 dKH at a time (keeps pH change at less than .2). So if you're at 4 dKH now, aim to raise it to 5 over next 12 or 24hours. Then calculate again and raise from 5 - 6 over the following 12/24 hour period, and continue until you finally reach your desired level.

At the calculator page, under the Alkalinity section - Enter 4 as Current Alk, 5 as Desired Alk, and from the product drop down, select Sodium Carbonate Anhyd. / Baked B. Soda. Then click the calculate button. This will tell you how much of the baked baking soda is needed to raise your dKH from your starting value to your desired value. A little electronic scale is great and provides more accurate results, but lacking that, estimate using the teaspoon etc. measurements.

Measure out this amount of the baked baking soda and mix it into some distilled water. I use a measuring cup and usually dissolve the necessary amount of baked baking soda into about 1 cup of distilled water. Then over the next 12 or 24hrs add the solution, say 1/4 or 1/2 cup at a time, to your tank until it is completely added.

Note: Depending on how much your tank uses over the time period, your final result may not be the full value you calculated, 5 in this example, because some was being consumed as you were adding.

I hope you get the gist of it from this explanation.

Thanks,
Joe

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php#5
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[BobbyBPG]

If you are confident that your test kit is accurate (maybe borrow a second from a fellow reefer to compare), I probably would just do a few larger water changes (maybe a quarter to a third) over the next few days since your tank water volume is not much.

I am pretty sure its good because it tested differently for my other tank which was 8dhk my lfs is a bit of a drive so I am going to do some larger water changes over the week like you suggested test it before I go and compare it with their test if they still do test water there.

 

[BobbyBPG]

Can your local fish store test for you? Many of them will do that. I would bring samples from both tanks in and have them tested. If the store results match up with your results, then you would know your testing kit is still good. I would start with verifying your results.

If you results are not accurate, pick up a new test kit. If your results are accurate, continue on with dosing.

Disclaimer - I am new to dosing as of 3 months ago. Below is what I have learned and so far used successfully.

If the coral tank is that low, you can slowly start dosing to bring the Alk back up. I have used 'baked baking soda' meaning put the baking soda in an oven at 300 for an hour or longer to bake off extra water it contains and CO2

reference here (recipe 1 part 2 explains the baking). Use this as a reference for understanding why you're baking the baking soda. Once you have baked it, store it in an airtight container.

To calculate how much of the baked baking soda to dose, I have been using this online calculator.

Enter you total actual water volume to the best of your knowledge (for example my 29g Biocube appears to have about 23g of actual water), under the alkalinity section, enter your current measured level, and then enter your next step / next target value.

Note: My understanding is you don't want to raise more than 1 dKH at a time (keeps pH change at less than .2). So if you're at 4 dKH now, aim to raise it to 5 over next 12 or 24hours. Then calculate again and raise from 5 - 6 over the following 12/24 hour period, and continue until you finally reach your desired level.

At the calculator page, under the Alkalinity section - Enter 4 as Current Alk, 5 as Desired Alk, and from the product drop down, select Sodium Carbonate Anhyd. / Baked B. Soda. Then click the calculate button. This will tell you how much of the baked baking soda is needed to raise your dKH from your starting value to your desired value. A little electronic scale is great and provides more accurate results, but lacking that, estimate using the teaspoon etc. measurements.

Measure out this amount of the baked baking soda and mix it into some distilled water. I use a measuring cup and usually dissolve the necessary amount of baked baking soda into about 1 cup of distilled water. Then over the next 12 or 24hrs add the solution, say 1/4 or 1/2 cup at a time, to your tank until it is completely added.

Note: Depending on how much your tank uses over the time period, your final result may not be the full value you calculated, 5 in this example, because some was being consumed as you were adding.

I hope you get the gist of it from this explanation.

Thanks,
Joe

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php#5
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Im gonna try for some large water changes and if that dosent level it out I will try the baking soda method I kinda doubt the corals are using to much cause all I have in the tank right now is a large piece of gsp on the backwall some clove polyps some palys and a few small mushrooms and wouldnt stony corals be the one using most of the alk

 

[BobbyBPG]

what test kit are you using? a DKH of 4 you should be seeing problems in the tank.

API test kit I lost some ricordia mushrooms a fish and a leather coral in the last month but we also had a pretty serious heatwave and I dont have a water chiller

 

[BobbyBPG]

You don't need anything fancy.
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in a cup or so of topoff water once a day for 3 days should bring you up to about 7 dkh. Then do a water change of about 2 gallons and that should bring you in line.

It may be time to consider testing your alk daily to get an idea of how much it consumes each day to see if you need to start regularly dosing, or can maintain it with water changes.

Id be pretty suprised if it was using any significant amount daily I really don't have much corals in it right now but I am going to do a large water change tomorrow and test again

 

[BobbyBPG]

I did a large water change today probably about 60-75% and tested after a few hours and it tested at 8.5dKH know that's a really fast adjustment so hopefully my tank fares ok there is honestly not much in the tank right now anyway but it's been about 6 hours since and everything looks good all polyps are extended and fish is swimming normally ect hopefully tomorrow nothing dies from the shock of the alk swing.

 

[W1ngz]

 

[Peanut]

Can your local fish store test for you? Many of them will do that. I would bring samples from both tanks in and have them tested. If the store results match up with your results, then you would know your testing kit is still good. I would start with verifying your results.

If you results are not accurate, pick up a new test kit. If your results are accurate, continue on with dosing.

Disclaimer - I am new to dosing as of 3 months ago. Below is what I have learned and so far used successfully.

If the coral tank is that low, you can slowly start dosing to bring the Alk back up. I have used 'baked baking soda' meaning put the baking soda in an oven at 300 for an hour or longer to bake off extra water it contains and CO2

reference here (recipe 1 part 2 explains the baking). Use this as a reference for understanding why you're baking the baking soda. Once you have baked it, store it in an airtight container.

To calculate how much of the baked baking soda to dose, I have been using this online calculator.

Enter you total actual water volume to the best of your knowledge (for example my 29g Biocube appears to have about 23g of actual water), under the alkalinity section, enter your current measured level, and then enter your next step / next target value.

Note: My understanding is you don't want to raise more than 1 dKH at a time (keeps pH change at less than .2). So if you're at 4 dKH now, aim to raise it to 5 over next 12 or 24hours. Then calculate again and raise from 5 - 6 over the following 12/24 hour period, and continue until you finally reach your desired level.

At the calculator page, under the Alkalinity section - Enter 4 as Current Alk, 5 as Desired Alk, and from the product drop down, select Sodium Carbonate Anhyd. / Baked B. Soda. Then click the calculate button. This will tell you how much of the baked baking soda is needed to raise your dKH from your starting value to your desired value. A little electronic scale is great and provides more accurate results, but lacking that, estimate using the teaspoon etc. measurements.

Measure out this amount of the baked baking soda and mix it into some distilled water. I use a measuring cup and usually dissolve the necessary amount of baked baking soda into about 1 cup of distilled water. Then over the next 12 or 24hrs add the solution, say 1/4 or 1/2 cup at a time, to your tank until it is completely added.

Note: Depending on how much your tank uses over the time period, your final result may not be the full value you calculated, 5 in this example, because some was being consumed as you were adding.

I hope you get the gist of it from this explanation.

Thanks,
Joe

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php#5
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

depending on what's in the tank, you may want to go even slower. I would not raise by more than .2 dKH per day and even that can stress some sps horribly