I Give Up. Help Alk Dropping No Matter What I Do

[Subonidio]

Remember if they don't show pictures of their tanks the rest it's just talk

 

[mcola78]

Thank you

Yes, as long as you are not seeing abiotic precipitation on your pumps and heaters, and your sand is not turning to rock, then the ca and alk is ending up where it is supposed to, namely in the shells of your clams and the skeletons of your corals.

2 part is excellent for dialing in your dosing and allowing you to keep your numbers in a preferred range, but it comes with some caveats. Namely the salinity creep associated with it, and the ionic shifts that long term use can cause, unless paired with a robust water change schedule.

You may want to consider moving to a 3 part by adding Tropic Marin Part C, which will remove the ionic shift issue. The BRS Hybrid Balling method does this.

If you are using small-ish dosing containers, you may want to consider to moving to larger ones, because constanly mixing and re-filling 2 part is one of the things, along with expense, that drive 2 part users nuts, lol.

Thank you! I am using 5-gallon containers. This tank is meant to be temporary until we move into our permanent home and I get a larger one so I was trying to keep the setup as simple as possible. I am thinking it might be time to go with the Calc Reactor earlier and try that.

 

[mcola78]

nothing constructive to add but I’m totally rethinking my dkh level…I get the risk and the biological chemistry but wondering if hovering in those low dkhs is so bad after all …. I’ll quit buying elevated salts anyway
….is shooting for low 7s easier to obtain? that’s more question than suggestion

edit add: that is a great looking tank, how have your colors been doing? any brighter in those low ranges?

I have been fighting the levels for about a month now. I ammmanually bringing it up and truthfully have probably done it too fast at times. I would not be a good test case to see if I am getting good color from lower levels as my levels have been sporadic this past month. Honestly, I lost some color because of the large changes.

 

[mcola78]

Haha. Great growth on your corals! Are you using reactor or two part? If two part, how big is tank and how much a day?

Remember if they don't show pictures of their tanks the rest it's just talk

 

[Doctorgori]

Remember if they don't show pictures of their tanks the rest it's just talk

Not always ….I’ve been reefing 30+ yrs, not bragging just scale: lots of tanks and tank crashes …I’m remodeling now but zillions of pics of past tanks…somewhere lol

I have been fighting the levels for about a month now. I ammmanually bringing it up and truthfully have probably done it too fast at times. I would not be a good test case to see if I am getting good color from lower levels as my levels have been sporadic this past month. Honestly, I lost some color because of the large changes.

I’m wondering if I’ve been subject to some marketing brainwashing into thinking higher alk levels are 100% positive…I’m having my doubts and have been recently cutting Fritz Red w/IO purple ….
I dunno I might go all in on the lower end NSW params especially since with a Trident worrying over slipping outta range is mitigated somewhat

 

[Spare time]

I also wanted to add that your tank is one of the coolest ones I have ever seen

 

[Ashish Patel]

You knowing how much you alk drops in 24 hour is the best starting point. I go on RC tank water volume calculater and take exact measurement of the water inside the tank (minus glass of course), and the sump. Maybe take away 5-10% for rock and sand and you have a good actual water volume. Then go to the BRS reef calculator and put in your tank water volume and play around with it to see how many ML of alk to increase you tank water by .1dkh.

My last tank i had it setup in a way i knew 10ML would increase my alk by .1dkh. So lets say I dont test alk for 3 days and it drops from 8.5 dkh to 8.2dkh. I know I have to increase 2 part by 10ML per day and honesty it was spot on everytime when i knew actual water volume. I thank BRS for giving me a easy and affordable option to dose 2 part - Hanna checker is also incredible and i credit this for giving me the quick instinct of knowing how much to increase my daily dosing (without calculation) overtime.

You adding SPS, if your tank is thrving accept the fact you will need to make increased adjustments to your consumptions every 2 weeks. If tank is going downhill then you'll have to make opposite adjustment - which i advice against but it will eventually happen. Hope this helps.

 

[Subonidio]

nothing constructive to add but I’m totally rethinking my dkh level…I get the risk and the biological chemistry but wondering if hovering in those low dkhs is so bad after all …. I’ll quit buying elevated salts anyway
….is shooting for low 7s easier to obtain? that’s more question than suggestion

edit add: that is a great looking tank, how have your colors been doing? any brighter in those low ranges?

Yes color it's great in the lower alkalinity .....at least for me .... photos don't make any justice of the real colors

 

[Subonidio]

I also wanted to add that your tank is one of the coolest ones I have ever seen

Thanks

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I also wanted to add that your tank is one of the coolest ones I have ever seen

I agree, very nice tank. The rock work is perfect and the open space with the placement of the mangroves is awesome. Hard to believe that it is only a temporary tank. Hopefully the permanent version achieves a similar effect.

 

[mcola78]

I agree, very nice tank. The rock work is perfect and the open space with the placement of the mangroves is awesome. Hard to believe that it is only a temporary tank. Hopefully the permanent version achieves a similar effect.

Thanks so much. I love angels too much but can’t keep with sps so my permanent tank will be an angel/sps dominated tank that combines with a mangrove/lps tank. I am still determining how I want to set the two together. Either mangrove flows into sps from too down or other way around. Thinking I’ll have to design sps to flow down rocks into the mangrove tank in order to allow the eventual height of the mangroves to not be too high above the height told the sps tank

 

[mcola78]

The calculators say I should be adding 165ml a day to maintain levels—that’s not working at all. Based on some of your feedback I decided to go over the previous 300ml spread across 24-hours. I’ve dialed up to 375ml and that is slowly raising levels. I’ll let it move up to my desired amounts and then scale down slightly until I balance. I’ll keep an eye on precipitation but not seeing any yet. Black line below shows where I started adding 375ml

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Remember if they don't show pictures of their tanks the rest it's just talk

Nonsense.

Chemistry is not based on reef tank pictures.

It is based on fundamental science.

Lots of folks with great reef tanks do not understand the chemistry involved, and lots of people who do understand the chemistry have no reef tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The calculators say I should be adding 165ml a day to maintain levels—that’s not working at all. Based on some of your feedback I decided to go over the previous 300ml spread across 24-hours. I’ve dialed up to 375ml and that is slowly raising levels. I’ll let it move up to my desired amounts and then scale down slightly until I balance. I’ll keep an eye on precipitation but not seeing any yet. Black line below shows where I started adding 375ml

No calculator can say what is needed to maintain levels. They never even try.

All they can do is tell you how much is needed for a particular boost.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

In 24 hours, if I stop dosing, ALK drops 1.29.

That sounds normal to me.

Most reef tanks require daily dosing.

There's no need to target levels above 7 dKH, and the higher you target, the more will be needed every day because demand rises as the alk rises.

 

[mcola78]

That sounds normal to me.

Most reef tanks require daily dosing.

There's no need to target levels above 7 dKH, and the higher you target, the more will be needed every day because demand rises as the alk rises.

Thanks Randy!

 

[Spare time]

I agree, very nice tank. The rock work is perfect and the open space with the placement of the mangroves is awesome. Hard to believe that it is only a temporary tank. Hopefully the permanent version achieves a similar effect.

I love the variable depths to the tank. It's just so cool I could talk about it all day haha

 

[Subonidio]

Nonsense.

Chemistry is not based on reef tank pictures.

It is based on fundamental science.

Lots of folks with great reef tanks do not understand the chemistry involved, and lots of people who do understand the chemistry have no reef tank.

 

[Subonidio]

And where is the picture of your reef tank?

 

[Subonidio]

All I said or meant was a lot of people talk about reefing and their Tanks are sad looking ..... I have 15 year colonies that I have to keep fragging because they grow too fast..... ... nonsense it's chasing numbers paying $1000s of dollars for equipment that you may not need ... chasing numbers driving yo self crazy trying to achieve them!!!!

That to me me it's non sense!!!!