Best way to raise alk

[coralcruze]

take some baking soda and bake in an oven for 30 min. at 350... let cool and now you have concentrated form on baking soda... its what i use. Randy can chime in. its his recipe. use it all the time

 

[coralcruze]

I bumped it up, came home today checked the alk had no movement, so I found my Api alk kit and checked it with that, and it's coming back at 9.
My Red Sea is coming back at 6.4. I know the Red Sea is usually better but I'm thinking it may be wrong.

Hey I use the red sea kh kit for years... you do realize that if you check the blue card it sais "titrant used" therefor .64 (not 6.4) titrant used is equivalent to 9.0 which is the exact reading you are getting with API. i would say you are fine with that reading... do nothing. alk is good.

 

[NanaReefer]

Hey I use the red sea kh kit for years... you do realize that if you check the blue card it sais "titrant used" therefor .64 (not 6.4) titrant used is equivalent to 9.0 which is the exact reading you are getting with API. i would say you are fine with that reading... do nothing. alk is good.

You measure the amount of titrant used by where the end of the plunger come to rest after the proper color is reached. .05=7.0 dkh.

 

[tencwhiskey]

Yea I read the directions. Not just the card

 

[miamiangler]

the RED SEA test is going to be a pink salmon color when done .I don't think you went far enough . goes from blue to a pinkish color when done . yours looks too purple . I also use the API and I usually get a close reading . but it is 1 off . 9 drops of mine =8dKH

 

[tencwhiskey]

I suppose I could add a drop or two more, but I am reading it correctly right? The directions say bottom of the plunger. I think the lighting is a bit off as well.

 

[miamiangler]

yes the bottom of the plunger ,the plastic tip has the rest of the solution in it that's why there`s air in the top part of the siringe .

 

[coralcruze]

I suppose I could add a drop or two more, but I am reading it correctly right? The directions say bottom of the plunger. I think the lighting is a bit off as well.

looks like your test is correct but based on your previouse response to me I'm not sure you are understanding. again, judging from the picture you posted... the bottom of the plunger is at .35 which when you subtract from 1.0 (full seringe that you started with) = .65 "titrant used". when you look at the card you will see a column that sais "titrant used" gow down to .65 row then look across to the right for the dkh resultant. the card shows .65 to be 9 dkh. hence why in my last comment to you i said >>> do nothing and your alkalinity is good. hope this helps.

 

[tencwhiskey]

I do understand what you said. I respectfully disagree though. You draw up the liquid until the bottom of the plunger reads 1.0, their is air between the actual titrant and the plunger bottom, that makes up the the space with in the pink tip. Then you push the plunger until the the liquid turns the end color, at which point in my picture I showed that the bottom of the plunger is at the 0.50 mark (bottom of the plunger is where look) that equals 7.0 dkh. You do not subtract 1ml. Or add or anything. That was done when u drew up the liquid.

 

[tencwhiskey]

The bottom of the plunger in the picture is .50 the liquid is .35 in which u are suggesting.

 

[coralcruze]

brain fart :nerd: LOL I seem to have confused myself... lol. YOU are absolutely right. titrant used is in fact .5

 

[coralcruze]

you want to raise from 2.5 to 3.2... however, you are also going to want to test for calcium at the same time while making your adjustments and you want to make your adjustments sloooooowwly. did I say slow?

 

[coralcruze]

here is a great calculator that you can use to determine how much chemical you want to use. before using it you are going to want to study it a bit and also read randy's links on the bottom. be SURE your results are correct befor making adjustments if you have animals in your tank. 'Reef Chemistry Calculator FV'

Note: although this is a great calculator and probably one of the best online... understand that if you are making adjustments to ALk it will not account to the effects on calcium for example. the neat thing is that you can use the pull down menu and choose which chemical to make your adjustments with. like I mentioned befor i use baked baking soda. also when I estimate total water volume (in my case) I ignored the live rock because I don't have alot of it in my system however you may want to reduce the volume accordingly. hope this helps and again apologies for the brain fart, lol

 

[james2369]

Heck I'd just use a Teaspoon of baking soda, that would take care of that.

one up

 

[coralcruze]

one up

How do you know what the quantity should be? teaspoon or otherwise??? you have no idea what the OP's total tank volume is...???

 

[tencwhiskey]

The calculator is awesome. Thank you

 

[coralcruze]

The calculator is awesome. Thank you

You are welcome but Randy is the guy that should be given all credit.

 

[tencwhiskey]

Yes! Randy suggested I increase my limewater from 1/2 tsp to a full tsp in which I did. I'm not touching it anymore until I figure out if my test kit is bad.
I have api test kit and Red Sea. I normally don't use the api at all, but again today I checked everything, my calcium is up to 500 with Red Sea kit and 480 with api, pretty close.
The alk! (The pain) is still showing 5dkh on the Redsea and 8 on the api. So now I don't know what is right. I would think Red Sea is correct but...... It's been 5-6dkh before I increased the limewater and still says that now. I have double and triple tested.

 

[coralcruze]

Yes! Randy suggested I increase my limewater from 1/2 tsp to a full tsp in which I did. I'm not touching it anymore until I figure out if my test kit is bad.
I have api test kit and Red Sea. I normally don't use the api at all, but again today I checked everything, my calcium is up to 500 with Red Sea kit and 480 with api, pretty close.
The alk! (The pain) is still showing 5dkh on the Redsea and 8 on the api. So now I don't know what is right. I would think Red Sea is correct but...... It's been 5-6dkh before I increased the limewater and still says that now. I have double and triple tested.

I kind of dealing with the same thing as you... low alk and high cal. I'm just manually adjusting it with baked baking soda... but I agree with you 110% I would find out if you have a bad test kit. API are cheap kits. Honestly i use these too but as you probably are already aware, on some of their kits its really difficult to pinpoint a close results as the colors are hard to pick out. having said that I start with API and sometimes that is enough if I've tested recently. However, I like red sea myself. The level of control during the test and equipment given is super. However, they too can and do go bad.

If I were you do a water change (what salt are you using?) sometimes you can correct just with a water change alone. as others have said if that does not work go to a LFS and have them test with another test kit. If the alk tests low on thier kit my preferance is to correct...Do you have alot of SPS in your tank? they can take alot of alk out of the water column. Perhaps Randy can correct me if I'm wrong but from my understanding you have to try and correct to 420-450 cal. and 7-11 dkh first. the limewater will keep you at those elevated levels when dosing it... I don't think its efficient at raising alk independednt of cal. same goes for cal reactors. You have to get the levels where you want them then add limewater or cal reactor efflo.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes! Randy suggested I increase my limewater from 1/2 tsp to a full tsp in which I did. I'm not touching it anymore until I figure out if my test kit is bad.
I have api test kit and Red Sea. I normally don't use the api at all, but again today I checked everything, my calcium is up to 500 with Red Sea kit and 480 with api, pretty close.
The alk! (The pain) is still showing 5dkh on the Redsea and 8 on the api. So now I don't know what is right. I would think Red Sea is correct but...... It's been 5-6dkh before I increased the limewater and still says that now. I have double and triple tested.

Hard to know without another test or a standard, but without knowing anything else, I'd lean toward the API since 5 dKH is pretty unusual, even with no dosing.