How high is too high with Alk?

Saltgator · Oct 9, 2011

While intown, I had my lfs run my numbers and he came back with a little concern for me. My Alk was 12 and Cal was 500!! Not sure where I went wrong, but it seems my numbers are a bit higher than they should be (I'm guessing). I have been reading over a few of SPS keepers threads and reading numbers, and I have over judged mine (probaly during the 2 part manual to automatic pumps). So... what to do to bring the numbers back into range? Below is what I offer to the helpers.

Alk and Cal are BRS 2 part dosed by BRS dosing pumps, dosed each night at 3 AM EST for ALK and 3:50 for CAL. Both are set for 30 min. Mag dosed if needed. My DT is a 125 w/ 29 sump.
PH 8.3
Nitrate, Nitrite, Phos, Amm all zero or untraceable.

Lights: 3 x 250 MH 20k Plusright (I know, but I like them), 2 x 160 watt 454 VHO's, 20 TINY LEDs for moon light. All in a fixture 9 inches above surface.

Sump contains 160 SWC cone w/ mod prop, skimming wet, 1 cup of Phosguard, 1 cup of Carbon (Both in mesh bags), 2 powerheads for no dead spots

System is 2 years old
Fish: 2 picasso clowns, mystery and flame wrasse, black longnose tang (all juv).
Feeding every other day omega flakes w/ garlic, nori each day if needed
Inverts: Nerite snails and 10 blue leg hermits, 10 inch RBTA,pods, pods, and more pods
Corals: 2 common branching hammers, 2 meat corals, kenya tree, xenia, about 14 unknown SPS frags (looking to take pics to get a better idea from yall). Lps on the bottom, sps is mid to upper range.
Rock is mixed LR and Marco that has been in the system for over a year.
No HA, just a bit of red cyano that I'm trying to battle with flow and removal

The bottom line is I have had these corals (sps) for well over 4 months and haven't seen any growth. All sps are colored up and appear happy, yet no growth. Is this due to my numbers being a bit high or ....... ? Thanks for looking

swannyson7 · Oct 9, 2011

To be honest, I wouldn't be too worried about the alk being that high, although I prefer lower alk levels. Most SPS tanks tend to maintain alk between 8-11 dKH and Calcium levels of around 450. The most important thing is stability. If you're alk has climbed fairly rapidly, that is probably the cause of stunted growth in your SPS. That being said, I've had a few acros in the past that didn't grow at all for months and the all of the sudden they took off. Do you have pics to looks back at what they looked like when they were first put into the tank? Looking at the tank every day, it may seem like they haven't grown a millimeter, but the truth is in the pics.

VegasRick · Oct 9, 2011

Like swannyson said alk around 12 is no big deal. The only real problem with alk and ca that high is you might have more precipitation on pumps and heaters and that they might require cleaning more often. To bring it down just cut in half your dosing for a day or two. And the levels that high shouldn't cause them not to grow. Are there no signs of them encrusting either? Are they on plugs in a rack or glues to the rock work?

Saltgator · Oct 9, 2011

All the frags are on plugs. They were all throughout the tank, but cyano jumpped up and I removed them to a DIY rack prior to the cyano getting a chance. No pics at the moment. Kinda waiting for xmas deals so that I can get something better than my phone pics

swannyson7 · Oct 9, 2011

Moving them around will stunt growth as well. SPS can take months to really settle in and grow quickly. Every time you move them, they'll have to re-acclimate to the lighting and flow,so your best bet is to leave them be on the frag rack for a while. As long as your parameters are stable, you should see some growth once they're ready. Rick posted a very important point as well... are they encrusting and just not growing vertically? Most Acros will put out a large base before they start to grow vertically, so if they're encrusting well, then just give it some time and they'll take off. I hade one acro that put out a base that was about 3" in diameter before I saw any vertical growth. Then it grew about 4 inches over the next 6 months and it had several branches.

Saltgator · Oct 9, 2011

A few are encrusted (got them that way), others were cut some time ago. No verticle growth noticed, no further encrusting noticed. Will leave them be this time.