Corals dying. Alk too low.

[I_Got_Crabs]

Alk - 5 dkh
Calc - 400 ppm
NH3 - undetectable
NO2 - undetectable
NO3 - 0.5 ppm
PO4 - 0.25
Mg - 1250 ppm
SG - 1.025
Ph - unkown (probe needs battery)

Recently had a leak in my 29 gal and packed all my coral, 2 clowns, 1 hi fin goby, and CUC into a fluval 13.5 gal as I finish my new 65 gal build.

My corals have started to die off over the last two days. I have some 2 part and I've started trying to slowly boost the alk. I am just trying to figure out why the alk is dropping as I've done three 30-50% water changes over the last 10 days. 2 were weekly changes, one was after I came home from the long weekend to find my dead starfish and initially thought my corals were dying because of an ammonia spike.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[multiuser8]

How old is your tank? I was having alk issues and my tank is pretty new.

 

[Rcpilot]

Alk - 5 dkh
Calc - 400 ppm
NH3 - undetectable
NO2 - undetectable
NO3 - 0.5 ppm
PO4 - 0.25
Mg - 1250 ppm
SG - 1.025
Ph - unkown (probe needs battery)

Recently had a leak in my 29 gal and packed all my coral, 2 clowns, 1 hi fin goby, and CUC into a fluval 13.5 gal as I finish my new 65 gal build.

My corals have started to die off over the last two days. I have some 2 part and I've started trying to slowly boost the alk. I am just trying to figure out why the alk is dropping as I've done three 30-50% water changes over the last 10 days. 2 were weekly changes, one was after I came home from the long weekend to find my dead starfish and initially thought my corals were dying because of an ammonia spike.

Any advice is appreciated.

Smaller tank. Your corals are using it faster? Maybe dose more frequently? With a nano, frequent, but small doses would be necessary to keep the parameters as stable as possible.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Alk liw- yes. What us your water temp?
What type of lightning/intensity and water flow?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

My alk had got as low as 5.7 so I dosed uup.Im running a 24 gallon, my consumption is about 1.2 dkh per day so when I manually dosed I was adding 40ml of Randy Holmes Farleys recipe 2 which an hour later when tested would be 1.5 dkh higher. I was trying to raise it and also allow for consumption. So I was only raising it .3 dkh extra until I got where I wanted.

most people recommend no-more than 1dkh per day rise bit it can be done just do smaller doses. I now have a dosing pump and do 4 smaller doses of 7ml to keep my dkh at 8.
Just don't dump a load of buffer in and shock it.

Just add little and often and test after about an hour of dosing to get the feel of how much to add so you don't go too high too fast.

 

[I_Got_Crabs]

Alk liw- yes. What us your water temp?
What type of lightning/intensity and water flow?

78 degrees, and I am acclimating the tank under my new Hydra 26. Current on a ramped schedule with 20% max.

 

[I_Got_Crabs]

Smaller tank. Your corals are using it faster? Maybe dose more frequently? With a nano, frequent, but small doses would be necessary to keep the parameters as stable as possible.

I guess they must be soaking it up crazy fast. I thought that the water changes would replenish the alk considering I've done so many. I was also wondering if theres some other process through which the alk would drop so fast that I am unaware of...

 

[Rcpilot]

Half the water in the nano. Maybe depleting the alk twice as fast in half the volume of water?

I'm only grasping at straws. Hope it helps in some way.

How do they look today?

 

[I_Got_Crabs]

Half the water in the nano. Maybe depleting the alk twice as fast in half the volume of water?

I'm only grasping at straws. Hope it helps in some way.

How do they look today?

Thanks. A little better but still not good. Slowly raised by about 1 dkh today. Hopefully they will come around once its up near 8 again...