Alk is 11ish. Cal is 440. I know I can dose muriactic acid in water change or dose calcium to level up an let the coral uptake alk? Correct me if I'm wrong. Now once level is achieved in tank. Do I have to keep adding muriatic acid to water change to maintain it? Wouldn't the alk and cal uptake and be replenish equally?
How to bring alk down
- Thread starter Emmagmrtz
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I will get a reading of mag tonight. But I'm not dosing yet. I can pretty much maintain level with water change for now. But I had my alk at 9ish and I was doing 5g water change weekly in a 100g system since I don't feed often and maintain n03 and n04. But I got a bit of bryposis on sand and overflow so I did 7g Sat and 10g today like 1hr and did a reading. I can test tomorrow to see if it level out
erk
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Edit: Double Post
Edit Edit: Something weird happened and I thought it posted my response. So here is what I thought it posted.
Yeah, I'd just hold off and see if it starts dropping naturally. I'd also check that Mg levels aren't too low. What salt mix do you use? Have you checked the alk/Ca/Mg levels of the salt? I know that Red Sea Coral Pro salt mixes at 10-12dKH. If you are using this salt, then I wouldn't try to force it lower. Switch to a different salt or allow the corals to acclimate to the naturally high levels of the salt mix.
Edit Edit: Something weird happened and I thought it posted my response. So here is what I thought it posted.
Yeah, I'd just hold off and see if it starts dropping naturally. I'd also check that Mg levels aren't too low. What salt mix do you use? Have you checked the alk/Ca/Mg levels of the salt? I know that Red Sea Coral Pro salt mixes at 10-12dKH. If you are using this salt, then I wouldn't try to force it lower. Switch to a different salt or allow the corals to acclimate to the naturally high levels of the salt mix.
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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No need to do anything. That's a fine level for alkalinity, and if you want it lower, just let it decline before dosing anything.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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I would not try to bring down the tank with acid. The pH gets super low.
Well I had a frag tank plump to my main tank. I was gonna move my coral to main display and isolate the frag tank and bring the alk down and put an air stone or buffer in to steady the ph then open the line to the DT to do it a bit slowly over the week. 20g frag tank and I have a 60g main tank
erk
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But this won't fix the main issue of the high alk that I assume comes from your salt mix. As Randy said, the levels you have are fine. When you try to chase numbers, that is when issues will start appearing. If the high levels concern you, I would look into a salt mix with levels closer to what you desire. Then do WCs with the lower level salt mix. Nothing good happens quickly in this hobby.
