Is my Alkalinity good?
- Thread starter DoINeedAName?
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Miami Reef
10K Club Member
Generally speaking: 7dkh-12dkh is fine. However, by maintaining the upper range you also need calcium to be in proportion which will cause more precipitation.
12.8dkh is too high. You risk your corals (especially sps) from getting burnt tips if your phosphates reach a low level (anything lower than 0.03ppm). It also doesn’t give you a buffer if you accidentally dose more one day (and you will).
Did you purposely make it that high or did your salt mix do this? How new is your tank?
weird reef
New Member
Seems pretty high I run my sps tanks between 7.8 and 9.0...I've heard higher all can give better growth rates but 12 to 13 is on the way high range. What kind of test kit? And what are you using for all and calcium?
Miami Reef
10K Club Member
What corals are you keeping?
DoINeedAName?
Active Member
Salifert Calcium test. Not test strip, put water in tube, add stuff and check sheet kind of test. Have Salifert tests (just bought today, new to me) for pH, Alk, Calcium, Nitrate, and MultiTest brand for Phosphate.
DoINeedAName?
Active Member
A: I do not own corals, only two Condy nems.
B: I do not know what caused this, it is not on purpose. I use Instant Ocean Sea Salt. Waiting to get RO/DI unit so I can have better params. Just using tap right now. Tank is almost two years old. Set up with just saltwater and sand for almost six months. Added rock and let it cycle for almost another five months. Finally got fish in but had bacterial bloom and major crash a while back. Have fish again and it has been doing okay for a while.
weird reef
New Member
Get a Hanna dkh...super easy fast and accurate little pricy at 50 bones...but if you test everyday like me...well worth it. The salfert drip tubes can be tricky. One drop to many and the test is screwed.
Are you using two part to dose with?
Just wanna know how you got the level that high.
weird reef
New Member
weird reef
New Member
I'd lose the instant ocean...used to use it in fish only tanks years ago but the salt mix is wacky when it comes to alk Calcium and everything else...the top of the bucket can be way different then the bottom. Not a constant mix throughout. I use pro Marin now...dissolves nicely and the mix is consitant for your parameters
weird reef
New Member
Ps det that ro di setup quick....it'll change your tank by a bunch...and you'll be on your way to reefing for real in no time
Miami Reef
10K Club Member
Did you use the instant ocean reef crystals (orange) or the instant ocean standard (purple)?
mdb_talon
2500 Club Member
The tap water explains the high alk. If you start with 0 tds rodi your alk starts at zero(or very close). In your case with tap you have a starting alk anywhere between 100 and 400 most likely. Then you add salt mix and it goes up even more.
Salifert test is just fine. Just about any salt mix is fine. Tap water is not normally fine.
Salifert test is just fine. Just about any salt mix is fine. Tap water is not normally fine.
Mr. Mojo Rising
7500 Club Member
How many times did you test? My first guess is a misstest. Those salifert tests are bloody complicated. I would suggest to watch a few youtube videos and test again a few times, you should get the same or very similar results every time
mdb_talon
2500 Club Member
Why would you think it is an issue with testing? Instant ocean is going to be around 180ppm alk. Add that to tapwater and I am surprised he is only reading around 230. 50ppm in tapwater is on the low end of what normally seen.
BWV
Active Member
I tried distilled, tap, spring, etc.. none showed me a result I wanted.
Until I set up an RODI system, my chemistry (and method, I'm new to this) was all over the place. With the RODI,(and keepin it simple) it's dead on every time.
I recommend you heat the water up to 80 or so with a big old tank heater, then mix your salt in with a strong pump or powerhead that stirs the surface a bit as well as the bottom. I let it mix for a day or two.
I used a big air pump and a stone with microbubbles (lots) twice, and got weird precipitation...I wont do that again...just the pump and warm.
I just use a strong pump with the heated RODI water now and its dead on every batch with Instant Ocean(plain). I am going to switch to the Tropic Marin Pro Reef when I use this bag up.
I'm seeing 10 dkh on the Instant Ocean in RODI using this method. (pHis 8.15)
I got 1111 Mag and 365 Calcium the last batch, and similar the one before(first two with the RODI)...My targets are 400+ and 1310+ so I had to adjust.
Something to note, don't adjust those two until the saltmixes a while, and if you do add calcium (I use Seachem Reef adv) and magnesium (I use BRS adjustment bag) to adjust, do not add them at the same time (nor even close time). Do the mag first (it has the weaker bond), then the calcium as far apart as you can wait (I'd say at least a couple hours..overnight better), same goes for any sodium carb or bicarb (that's probably ok to mix with the calcium.. but definetly not the same time as the mag... but I'd wait anyway).
I use Salifert tests without issue, with consistent results. You just need to follow the directions to the letter, and be exact with measuring.
Until I set up an RODI system, my chemistry (and method, I'm new to this) was all over the place. With the RODI,(and keepin it simple) it's dead on every time.
I recommend you heat the water up to 80 or so with a big old tank heater, then mix your salt in with a strong pump or powerhead that stirs the surface a bit as well as the bottom. I let it mix for a day or two.
I used a big air pump and a stone with microbubbles (lots) twice, and got weird precipitation...I wont do that again...just the pump and warm.
I just use a strong pump with the heated RODI water now and its dead on every batch with Instant Ocean(plain). I am going to switch to the Tropic Marin Pro Reef when I use this bag up.
I'm seeing 10 dkh on the Instant Ocean in RODI using this method. (pHis 8.15)
I got 1111 Mag and 365 Calcium the last batch, and similar the one before(first two with the RODI)...My targets are 400+ and 1310+ so I had to adjust.
Something to note, don't adjust those two until the saltmixes a while, and if you do add calcium (I use Seachem Reef adv) and magnesium (I use BRS adjustment bag) to adjust, do not add them at the same time (nor even close time). Do the mag first (it has the weaker bond), then the calcium as far apart as you can wait (I'd say at least a couple hours..overnight better), same goes for any sodium carb or bicarb (that's probably ok to mix with the calcium.. but definetly not the same time as the mag... but I'd wait anyway).
I use Salifert tests without issue, with consistent results. You just need to follow the directions to the letter, and be exact with measuring.
