How fast can I let alk fall

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

My SPS haven't been doing well. My alk had risen and was lingering around 9.5, and I am trying to get back down to 8. So far, I have been letting it drop about 0.5 dkh/week.

Is that too fast? Some of them are even more upset now. One is bleaching from the base

 

[SashimiTurtle]

What are your all of your parameters? Ca, Alk, Mg, NH3, NO2, NO3, PO4. How long have they been going downhill? Dose any coral foods?

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

What are your all of your parameters? Ca, Alk, Mg, NH3, NO2, NO3, PO4. How long have they been going downhill? Dose any coral foods?

Ca = 450 salifert
Alk = 9.113 Hanna
Mg = didn't have time to check today, was in normal range last time I checked. Can do it tonight or tomorrow
NH3 = 0 API
NO2 = 0 API
NO3 = 0.2, down from 2-5 because I was dosing it and didn't see much change; salifert
PO4 = 0 Hanna

They've been going downhill steadily since I got them, but especially in the last month or so. I recently turned down the lights which seemed to help one but not others. I used to dose reef roids but it gave me bad cyano so I stopped.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I read thru your build thread. Two more questions, are you manually dosing and which salt do you use? What does it mix to at 1.026?

You are low on nutrients. I would suggest getting the Red Sea energy, part A and B and Reef Nutrition's Oysterfeast. I dose .5ml of part A and B per 10g each and 1-2ml per 10g Oysterfeast 3 times a week. I understand you had some cyano before, so maybe only start off with once a week feeding. My nutrients are very low in my nano and I had some fading and one STN because of it.

Btw, nice growth on the bonsai. That entrusting is good. Start feeding some and you'll see it start to color up and shoot upwards.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

I read thru your build thread. Two more questions, are you manually dosing and which salt do you use? What does it mix to at 1.026?

You are low on nutrients. I would suggest getting the Red Sea energy, part A and B and Reef Nutrition's Oysterfeast. I dose .5ml of part A and B per 10g each and 1-2ml per 10g Oysterfeast 3 times a week. I understand you had some cyano before, so maybe only start off with once a week feeding. My nutrients are very low in my nano and I had some fading and one STN because of it.

Btw, nice growth on the bonsai. That entrusting is good. Start feeding some and you'll see it start to color up and shoot upwards.

I dose ESV 2-part with an automated doser. Not much at all, just 2 mL a day of each supplement. I turned off the doser at the moment to lower the alk.

I was using Reef Crystals, but just bought myself a bucket of Red Sea blue bucket salt since the alk should mix lower, which I hope will help with stability now that I am trying to bring it down.

I will give the supplements and Oysterfeast a try if things don't improve once I lower alk. And yeah that encrusting on the bonsai is basically the only thing that is good in my tank, other than one other acro that was a tiny nub and has started encrusting/growing. I lost 3 other corals already and one other looks to be on his way out

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Be careful chasing the wrong problems.

Are you thinking about lowering alk as a shot in the wind? Do you think lowering alk from 9 to 8 is going to fix the issues? I would be willing to bet it's nutrients. Are you using GFO? If so, turn that off and throw it away. It sounds like your corals are starving. I had issues like this, chased every single parameter known to man. I changed my nutrients from low to undetected no3 and po4 to having 0.04 po4 and 10 nitrates and everything regained color and growth. It was night and day! Never ever ever again will I use GFO.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Be careful chasing the wrong problems.

Are you thinking about lowering alk as a shot in the wind? Do you think lowering alk from 9 to 8 is going to fix the issues? I would be willing to bet it's nutrients. Are you using GFO? If so, turn that off and throw it away. It sounds like your corals are starving. I had issues like this, chased every single parameter known to man. I changed my nutrients from low to undetected no3 and po4 to having 0.04 po4 and 10 nitrates and everything regained color and growth. It was night and day! Never ever ever again will I use GFO.

I do not run GFO, nor do I even run a skimmer. I have chaeto only, and not even much of that (softball sized ball)

To explain why I am lowering alk: my understanding was that low nutrients + high alk=problematic. I started dosing Spectracide to raise the NO3 about 3-4 weeks ago but haven't seen improvement (perhaps I need to wait longer than a month, but things have gotten worse since I started dosing so I'm getting nervous about continuing to do it). I am a little wary of dumping a bunch of coral food in because I used to feed reef roids and it gave me bad cyano... as in, I started RR, got cyano, stopped RR, cyano was gone within a week, so I'm fairly certain RR caused it. So my thought is, if raising nutrients isn't working/is problematic and I don't want low nutrients + high alk, try lowering the alk. Or do a little of both. I will say I have not yet tried raising PO4 specifically, but that's my thought process.

Honestly in my experience-- which is only 5 years so still a relative newbie--barring glaring issues like crazy swings, NH3 in your water, etc., if parameters are within ok range and you still have issues, EVERYTHING is a more or less a shot in the wind, isn't it?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My SPS haven't been doing well. My alk had risen and was lingering around 9.5, and I am trying to get back down to 8. So far, I have been letting it drop about 0.5 dkh/week.

Is that too fast? Some of them are even more upset now. One is bleaching from the base

Your fine to drop it that fast Imo. Sound like your demand is quite low.

Be careful chasing the wrong problems.

Are you thinking about lowering alk as a shot in the wind? Do you think lowering alk from 9 to 8 is going to fix the issues? I would be willing to bet it's nutrients. Are you using GFO? If so, turn that off and throw it away. It sounds like your corals are starving. I had issues like this, chased every single parameter known to man. I changed my nutrients from low to undetected no3 and po4 to having 0.04 po4 and 10 nitrates and everything regained color and growth. It was night and day! Never ever ever again will I use GFO.

Sound advice.