Can’t keep Alk up

[Travis Stewart]

Have you tried stopping the CALC dose for a day to see how much it falls?

Yes sir been out like 2 days and haven’t been able to get a reading yet

 

[JonEB]

Seems like your on the right track.

 

[JonEB]

If it is precipitating, that would lower calcium as well, no?

As I understand it calcium carbonate precipitation can rapidly drop ALK in a reef. Usually from adding in to much calcium chloride.

 

[Opes]

60 ml does not seem like much consumption to me with coral colonies like that.

I would slowly increase dosing.

When I had precipitation it was easy to tell. The sand bed was getting hard in all but the extremely high flow areas. Good luck. Your tank is beautiful.

 

[JonEB]

As I understand it calcium carbonate precipitation can rapidly drop ALK in a reef. Usually from adding in to much calcium chloride.

Or if the corals stopped absorbing what they usually do for a day and that caused the

60 ml does not seem like much consumption to me with coral colonies like that.

I would slowly increase dosing.

When I had precipitation it was easy to tell. The sand bed was getting hard in all but the extremely high flow areas. Good luck. Your tank is beautiful.

but that rapid of an increase?

 

[Travis Stewart]

Following up with everyone. Did a large water change and also upped my doser 15mL a day more. Left for a couple days and I’m back to very close on track! Calcium is also not being dosed as it was high and is also falling now too

 

[Travis Stewart]

Cheers to all for the help

 

[Travis Stewart]

OK, we can use a calculator to determine that 0.89 ml of B-ionic alk part added to 1 L of tank water or RO/DI will boost the alk by 7 dKH.

So try something like that and then test it.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

(note: the calculator rounds 0.89 mL to 0.8, so to get more significant figures, do the calculation for 10 or 100 L and divide by 10 or 100 to see the proper amount needed)

Randy- does this arm and hammer baking soda work?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy- does this arm and hammer baking soda work?

Yes.

 

[NabberNate]

Hey all. I am using the baked baking soda and my gallon is about a years old 1/4 of it left. It seems like the dosage isn't moving my parameters as much as it was before. Does the solution lose potency over time? Thanks!

I will be checking my test kit against a reference too though.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hey all. I am using the baked baking soda and my gallon is about a years old 1/4 of it left. It seems like the dosage isn't moving my parameters as much as it was before. Does the solution lose potency over time? Thanks!

I will be checking my test kit against a reference too though.

No, it doesn't loose potency.

 

[Travis Stewart]

Yes.

Randy- how is the potency of your baking soda alk mix compare to the potency of esv? I am making the switch so curious if I’ll have to change dosing amounts…?

 

[homer1475]

You can check on this calc:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

Just use the same water volume, and same ALK jump. Will give you how much of each to add. The extrapolate from there.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy- how is the potency of your baking soda alk mix compare to the potency of esv? I am making the switch so curious if I’ll have to change dosing amounts…?

My two part using sodium carbonate or sodium hydroxide or baked baking soda, is lower, and the unbaked baking soda recipe is lower again. These are lower to facilitate dissolution.