High Alkalinity!!!

[manuel josephh]

Hey guys, I really need your help. So for the past few days my alkalinity has been above 15dkh and I don’t know how to lower it. Reason it’s this high it’s because I accidentally overdosed all-for-reef by tropic Marin. And I tried to raised my ph not knowing that it will raise the ALK at the same time. Do you guys have any suggestions on how can I lower my alkalinity fast? 2 of my clownfish died:’( but my corals seem to be doing fine. I just did a water change today with a different salt. The new salt contains 8.5DKH. Previous salt I used was coral pro salt which has an alkalinity of 12dkh. And another question is, can I add snails and hermit crabs with high alkalinity? The algae in my tank is getting out of control. Beginner reefer here.

tank has been running for 2 months.

 

[GHOSTLY]

Don't fix it immediately. Doing something too fast will result in chemical imbalance and could shock anything inside more. Now that it's lower id say small step by step water changes

 

[manuel josephh]

Don't fix it immediately. Doing something too fast will result in chemical imbalance and could shock anything inside more. Now that it's lower id say small step by step water changes

I just tested the alk and it’s still above 15. Should I do water changes everyday till it lowers?

 

[mdb_talon]

Vinegar can get it down, but personally i would go the water change route using the lowest alk salt mix you can find. Depending on your salinity now you also may be able to reduce that slowly(ie replace some saltwater with fresh) with will have a small impact also.

 

[cocoReefer]

Gotta slow it down. 2 months and have corals, fish and already dosing. Make this a learning experience about patients.
With a tank that young you are probably fine with just water changes, no dosing at all. “Dont chase numbers”, “go slow” “nothing happens quickly” all the sayings we hear all the time.
At this point would do 25-30 % water changes every other day or even just twice a week. Then just do water changes to replace elements and calcium/alkalinity. Dont worry about your ph if you do water changes on a regular weekly schedule. Make it easy and dont change things fast.
Even if you want to chase a number and make changes, do half what any product tells you, wait days and test often. Save headaches and animals

 

[manuel josephh]

Gotta slow it down. 2 months and have corals, fish and already dosing. Make this a learning experience about patients.
With a tank that young you are probably fine with just water changes, no dosing at all. “Dont chase numbers”, “go slow” “nothing happens quickly” all the sayings we hear all the time.
At this point would do 25-30 % water changes every other day or even just twice a week. Then just do water changes to replace elements and calcium/alkalinity. Dont worry about your ph if you do water changes on a regular weekly schedule. Make it easy and dont change things fast.
Even if you want to chase a number and make changes, do half what any product tells you, wait days and test often. Save headaches and animals

I see, my LFS told me i could add fish and corals together and he recommended me to dose. I always thought we should take advice from our LFS. Apparently not

 

[manuel josephh]

Gotta slow it down. 2 months and have corals, fish and already dosing. Make this a learning experience about patients.
With a tank that young you are probably fine with just water changes, no dosing at all. “Dont chase numbers”, “go slow” “nothing happens quickly” all the sayings we hear all the time.
At this point would do 25-30 % water changes every other day or even just twice a week. Then just do water changes to replace elements and calcium/alkalinity. Dont worry about your ph if you do water changes on a regular weekly schedule. Make it easy and dont change things fast.
Even if you want to chase a number and make changes, do half what any product tells you, wait days and test often. Save headaches and animals

Is it okay if I add a clean up crew now to deal with the algae? Will they be able to adapt to high alkalinity. Cause I heard they need alkalinity for their shells

 

[Lyss]

I personally wouldn’t add any more livestock until you have the high alk situation under control — that would be my focus rn.

All for reef is for keeping alk, cal, and mag stable as corals consume it in the system, not for increasing ph. I agree w/the other poster to slow down and give your system time to stabilize and mature more.

 

[manuel josephh]

I personally wouldn’t add any more livestock until you have the high alk situation under control — that would be my focus rn.

All for reef is for keeping alk, cal, and mag stable as corals consume it in the system, not for increasing ph. I agree w/the other poster to slow down and give your system time to stabilize and mature more.

I tried raising the ph with a ph stabilised

 

[mdb_talon]

Dont use any ph additive. They are all going to raise alk. If/when you need to dose alk do it based off the alkalinity not the ph.

 

[cocoReefer]

Keeping up with water changes will hold the nutrients lower and you have less fish, so less feeding will also hold back nutrients. All you need to do would be lower your lights time/intensity and keep up with water changes.
Add more livestock when you system parameters are good for a length of time.
Most things in our tanks need the same parameters. Get to that point and keep it stable.

 

[mdb_talon]

I see, my LFS told me i could add fish and corals together and he recommended me to dose. I always thought we should take advice from our LFS. Apparently not

Depends on the LFS of course. If your told you to start dosing this quickly after starting a new tank with a few corals they either dont know what they are doing or wanted the $$$. Was bad advice.

 

[cocoReefer]

I see, my LFS told me i could add fish and corals together and he recommended me to dose. I always thought we should take advice from our LFS. Apparently not

Some stores would rather sell you more things more often....

 

[mdb_talon]

Is it okay if I add a clean up crew now to deal with the algae? Will they be able to adapt to high alkalinity. Cause I heard they need alkalinity for their shells

No your alkalinity is outside the ideal safe range for most living creatures. Get your parameters stable(and more appropriate) before adding anything

 

[reefman888]

Heres a good info thread on high alk

High Alkalinity what does it really cause

Hi, What does really ahppen when you run High Alk in a tank. Understand that low alk can cause coral skeletons to melt and that affects the flesh on top but what happens if your alk is too high? Would assume you'd have coral growth that tissue might not be able to keep up with but how does...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[DiamondHands]

You really aren't in that much trouble. 15 is definitely too high, but I think some salt mixes are up to 12 dKH out of the box. If your alk is this high, your calcium is also quite high - you may want to check that. I know that I would mix up some plain Instant Ocean salt (not Reef Crystals) and do about a 20% water change, check my params, and just move down slowly until I was where I wanted to be.

 

[mdb_talon]

You really aren't in that much trouble. 15 is definitely too high, but I think some salt mixes are up to 12 dKH out of the box. If your alk is this high, your calcium is also quite high - you may want to check that. I know that I would mix up some plain Instant Ocean salt (not Reef Crystals) and do about a 20% water change, check my params, and just move down slowly until I was where I wanted to be.

I think his clowns would disagree that it not so bad. "Over 15" is very high. I am not saying he needs to drop it down to 9 overnight but should be more urgency than doing a 20% change with a high alk salt mix. At a minimum needs to use a low alk salt mix for his WCs.

 

[homer1475]

Vinegar can get it down,

Not entirely true. Yes vinegar is a weak acid, and acid will bring down ALK, but once the carbon is used up in the vinegar, the ALK will go back up. Ever wonder why when carbon dosing vinegar for NO3 and PO4 alk doesn't go down?

 

[mdb_talon]

Vinegar can get it down, but personally i would go the water change route using the lowest alk salt mix you can find. Depending on your salinity now you also may be able to reduce that slowly(ie replace some saltwater with fresh) with will have a small impact also.

Not entirely true. Yes vinegar is a weak acid, and acid will bring down ALK, but once the carbon is used up in the vinegar, the ALK will go back up. Ever wonder why when carbon dosing vinegar for NO3 and PO4 alk doesn't go down?

Might as well give my full quote for some context. There is a reason i said i would not go that route.

 

[homer1475]

I just wanted to clarify not to use vinegar. You did not clarify why not to use it. No need to quote the rest of the post as there was no context on why not to use it.

If you knew it already, why suggest it?