How do I lower alkalinity to newly mixed salt, before adding to display

Whispers · Aug 9, 2018

Red Sea salt has a lower alk

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 9, 2018

FWIW, I liked a high alk low calcium mix (normal IO) since I used limewater which chronically adds more calcium than alk demand.

If you do small water changes, a high alk mix is not a concern.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 9, 2018

mic209 said:
Have you tried mixing to a lower salinity? When I was using reef crystals, I would mix it to 1.024-1.025 so the ALK was lower. Although it still didn’t mix up low enough to what I kept my tank at so the better solution (as mentioned already) was to switch salts.

That approach has a fairly limited effect.

If it is 11 dKH at sg = 1.026 then it will be 10.2 dKH at sg = 1.024.

mic209 said:
Sometimes it would mix up on the low side(6-7dkh), but it’s much easier to raise with a little 2 part than it is to bring it down.

It may sound that way to someone that hasn't done it, but really, it's nearly identical in terms of what to do.

If you want a new salt mix to be dropped by, say 4 dKH, it is easy to add a fixed amount of sodium bisulfate or muriatic acid to each batch, never measuring anything. Same as adding a fixed amount of an alk additive to raise it.