Low Alk reef crystals?

[MarsReefer]

I bought a new batch of Hanna alk reagent and mixed up my new batch of salt. I measured my tank at 5.8 and my new salt at 9 after about a week. Much lower than the 8 and 12.2 I usually get.

i thought it was a problem with the Hanna reagent so I bought the safealert alk kit and now it’s reading 6 and 9.2. So apparently my salt is mixing at 9 instead of 12?

has anyone had reef crystals (orange) mix with super lower than normal alk? The only dosing I do is a kalk slurry to kill aptasia every other week which has been fine until now.

 

[Jekyl]

I bought a new batch of Hanna alk reagent and mixed up my new batch of salt. I measured my tank at 5.8 and my new salt at 9 after about a week. Much lower than the 8 and 12.2 I usually get.

i thought it was a problem with the Hanna reagent so I bought the safealert alk kit and now it’s reading 6 and 9.2. So apparently my salt is mixing at 9 instead of 12?

has anyone had reef crystals (orange) mix with super lower than normal alk? The only dosing I do is a kalk slurry to kill aptasia every other week which has been fine until now.

Have you verified salinity?

 

[MarsReefer]

Have you verified salinity?

Yeah I just double checked to be sure. Reading 34.9 in the tank, 36 in the salt mix and 35.1 in the cal fluid. I always mix the same amount of water at a time so I always add the same number of cups of salt to make sure I am never too far off.

 

[rtparty]

The bag I tested for my Ultimate Salt Test came in around 9 something. Maybe 9.4dkh? I’d have to go check the exact number. I never put it past IO or IORC to have inconsistent numbers

 

[MarsReefer]

The bag I tested for my Ultimate Salt Test came in around 9 something. Maybe 9.4dkh? I’d have to go check the exact number. I never put it past IO or IORC to have inconsistent numbers

Interesting, guess I’ll need to test the first batch of each bucket.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

High alk salt mixes are also prone to calcium carbonate precipitation in the mixing bucket, so whether and to what extent that happens prior to measurement will impact the alk (and to a smaller extent, calcium) found in the water.