Ever run ~5alk and everything is ok?

[Kungpaoshizi]

Just what it says, has anyone ever had a tank suck up the alk so bad they run around 5dkh but everything looks great?

 

[prsnlty]

No. What test kit are you using?

 

[CoralNerd]

Your ph will suffer...I wouldn't do that.

 

[prsnlty]

Just what it says, has anyone ever had a tank suck up the alk so bad they run around 5dkh but everything looks great?

Your test kit is either wrong or you read it wrong if everything is doing great. Something doesn't add up. As he ^^ said your ph will tank and they would be seriously suffering. Mine start shrinking and losing color at 7.6. Unless you have a system packed with acroporas it shouldn't be going through alk like you describe. I have a ton of sps in a 180g and have never had alk that low. It would of course if I didn't dose the proper amount.

1/ what test kit are you using?
2/ date on the test kit?
3/ what corals and size tank do you have?

 

[bios]

From pics of other post methabolism of your tank is very low so deposition of calciumcarbonate also
But better you take up to 6. 5 in some days

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

A couple pieces seem a bit lighter in color, but otherwise everything seems fine.
PH is always 8.1 to 8.6.
Used the Tropic Marin KH test kit, that read 4.5ish. Then used the Hanna alk checker, that said 5ish.
Ever since I started using kalk in the topoff water the color when using the TM kit has been weird so I've wondered, but the hanna checker result surprised me...
It's an odd ~39 gallon tank with maybe 32 gallons of actual water. Ton of corals in it, few small fish. I routinely do 20 gallon water changes with red sea blue bucket through the week so if I had to guess alk is routinely 6-7.

 

[prsnlty]

Kalk will raise ph. That's strange. Possibly a bad batch of Kalk? What kinds of coral do you have? Any sps? If so what types? If little to no sps you shouldn't be going through a lot of alk.

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Doing a waterchange since it's the weekend, 10 gallons has brought the alk up to 7.057 according to the hanna.


WP 20161222 15 32 15 Pro
Tank Dimensions: 36x15x16

Inventory from right side to left:
Gold Torch
Stunner Chalice
Chalice (bubblegum?)
Blue Monti
Green Monti
Black sun coral
Yellow Gorgonian
Emerald Mummy Eye Chalice
Tyree Undata
Orange Leptoseris
Derasa Clam
Maxima Clam(under the nepthia)
Green Nepthia
Lava Cyphastrea
Laker's Monti
Forest Fire Montipora Digitata
Purple Bonsai 1 (?)
Jason Fox Lime Porite
Darth Maul Porite
Meteor Shower
Orange Ricordea
Red Monti Cap
Fire and Ice Blastomussa
Green Branching Monti
Purple Branching Monti (if lights are at 10kish spectrum.. heh)
Underneath the Purple Bonsai 2: Green Goniopora
Purple Bonsai 2 (?)
Green with Purple Rim Cap
Forest Fire Monti Digi
Strawberry Lemonade Acro
Unknown SPS (left of meteor shower)
Green/Yellow Millepora
Black sun coral nub
Birds Nest
Red/Green Favia
Green w/Purple polyp cyphastrea
Alien-Eye favia
Unknown Acro (green with brighter green polyps)
Sunset Monti (You can see the tunicates next to the sunset monti)
Orange Fungii
Purple tip octospawn
Speck of Orange (can't recall name atm)
Dragons Breath Macro
Purple/green Pectinia
Orange Acan (under acro)
Unknown (brought back from complete white rock in a shipment)
More cap
Orange Lepto losing to a Superman Monti
Green pastel monti
Pheonix Cyphastrea
Another cap, couple acro's on filter
Firefish, 2 spot blenny, green banded goby, rose goby, pistol shrimp, sexy shrimp, crinoid, hermits

 

[CoralNerd]

You have a decent amount of corals. The problem is how stable will your alk stay with that water change that brought you up to 7 alk. Kalk in the top off will help but it of course will only add when the top off is needed. I suggest get a doser and test often to dial the alk in.

 

[BigJim]

I had my alk drop that low a few years ago when I knew very little and thought I knew everything. I only had a few LPS and SPS and never tested alk because the tank didn't use much. I bought a bad batch of salt and ended up with alk a little under 5. I lost a couple open brain corals but all the other corals survived and didn't really seem stressed.

 

[dragon99]

Just what it says, has anyone ever had a tank suck up the alk so bad they run around 5dkh but everything looks great?

@Diesel

His frag tank is at 4.5 I think he said

 

[Diesel]

@Diesel

His frag tank is at 4.5 I think he said

Last time someone checked my water cause he bought a frag out the frag tank my ALK was 4.5
I never check the frag tank any more even the DT.
But I must say I raised to be 6ish as of now.
Ppl who have seen the tank would say all # are spot on.......... honestly I have no clue, the only thing I can tell you is that N03 is at 10ppm as corals need to eat to stay alive.
Now ppl are wondering 4.5 on the ALK................ NO WAY you can keep SPS in there............... I say come look for your self and bring a test kit as I like to know where I'm right now and I still don't test

 

[lion king]

When they go, they will go fast. In the beginning when I was doing weekly water changes instead of dosing I lost a $1k in lps corals before I realized my alk was 5.7, Once they start to go it will probably be too late, I would get that alk up and figure a way to stabilize and maintain it.

 

[Diesel]

Now that I know where my ALK was I'm going to setup one frag tank separate from the system and see how low I can go before corals are taking a effect to the worse.
I haven't been doing a water change since June of this year and much less to test the parameters.
Though corals looking awesome, and SPS are doing great, just not much growth but I'm ok with that as lots of growth you need to frag and than you need to sell it and box it up to ship out........... I just don't want to make time for that.

 

[Diesel]

Ok let me say this before everyone is bring down their ALK to 4.5 or maybe 6ish.............. Just DON'T.
I will not advocate that at all, believe me the golden rule and keep it at 8 give and take.
What works for me doesn't work necessary for you, we all know that.
Find your own balance and be happy with that.

 

[ReeferCub]

There was this one time when I messed with my apex kalk dosing programming and then forgot to set it back to the correct values. Right after that I went out of town and came back 3-4 days later. Next I know my alk is 6! Normally I try to keep it at 8. Anyway, no damage happened. Corals were fine, showed no signs of stress and I managed to bring up the alk to 8 over a period of 2 days.

 

[lion king]

My experience, lps seem to eat up the alk. They won't immediately show you that there's something wrong, once they start to decline your alk has already probably been low for quite a while. Once that happens good luck.

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Hey don't get me wrong guys, I'm not saying 'hey everyone it's OK to run a tank with alk down this low!!'. heck no.. lol
I'm here to find out why it still looks so good.
Other than that stock list, here's what I have being introduced:
red sea 3 part
nopox
calcium nitrate
kalk via topoff
reef energy

I also every now and then throw in a zeolite. And constantly run cuprisorb. Beyond that...

I was curious if it might be because I dose hourly? Doesn't really matter too much what the surrounding water is if they're getting their minimum every hour?
Someone mentioned I need to dose alk, I AM. Again, just here to find out why it looks so good. I don't even test usually but saw those results and my jaw dropped.
Like I said though, you can kinda tell it's not the best as some colors are quite pale, but like I said, I'm having a bear of a time keeping the alk up in the first place...

 

[lion king]

You are dosing kalk, you are getting some alk there. Also as I stated above I'm sure my tank was running on low alk for months before I saw any decline. Once that happened, I was too later to save many of my lps.

 

[sawdonkey]

I've had a few slip ups over the years and gotten that low. Never had loses associated with it. I do think 5.0 is the lower limit where you'll start seeing some losses if you go below it.

I too use kalk and kalk only (through ATO) to maintain alk/cal. I have about 50 SPS colonies and it keeps up just fine.