Low Alk salt mixes?

[jswo]

Ive been using instant ocean salt mix and have always had high alk around 11 to 13 using red sea test kit. Wondering if its the salt mix and if so are there any mixes out there that are low in alk that may help me.

 

[watchguy123]

Try red sea salt, not the red sea pro. The red sea salt in blue bucket has dKh of I believe 7.7 or so

 

[reefndude]

Try red sea salt, not the red sea pro. The red sea salt in blue bucket has dKh of I believe 7.7 or so

Do you know calcium levels?

 

[BryanS4]

Ive been using instant ocean salt mix and have always had high alk around 11 to 13 using red sea test kit. Wondering if its the salt mix and if so are there any mixes out there that are low in alk that may help me.

Funny I just saw this and tested a 7 gallon batch of regular IO. Tested at 8.4 for me which is right where I keep my tank.

Red Sea Blue
ESV
Tropic Marin- maybe? I think I remember seeing this mixed low

 

[BryanS4]

Do you know calcium levels?

410

 

[reefndude]

410

is that for red sea or io?

 

[BryanS4]

is that for red sea or io?

Red Sea

 

[reefndude]

Esv mixes at around 10 dkh and calcium is around 500 ppm

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ive been using instant ocean salt mix and have always had high alk around 11 to 13 using red sea test kit. Wondering if its the salt mix and if so are there any mixes out there that are low in alk that may help me.

There are lower alkalinity mixes (such as some mentioned), and you can lower the alkalinity in a mix if you want, but why specifically do you want a lower alk mix?

 

[jswo]

Was thinking my levels were too high, today its 13 with the red sea test kit. Also made up a gallon of water with the instant ocean mix and got 13 when tested.

 

[Mattrg02]

Neomarine mixes to 7-8dkh for me.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Was thinking my levels were too high, today its 13 with the red sea test kit. Also made up a gallon of water with the instant ocean mix and got 13 when tested.

Is yours a new tank and do you dose anything?

Most people using IO and other high alk salt mixes do not actually maintain alk that high. I don't.

 

[jswo]

Tanks a year old its a 29 gal biocube, was doing frequent water changes to lower alk but guess the mix wasn't lowering it because it was high. I was using aquavitro balance to try to raise ph, but stopped that about two weeks ago when I thought it must be raising the alk. its been averaging 7.8 using a Neptune apex gold to test. Bought new calibration fluid for the ph and salinity and going to clean probes and retest after that. Dose CA when needed also MG.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, ANYTHING you add to boost pH is an alkalinity supplement.

If the alk is where you want it (or higher), then the way to boost pH is to reduce CO2 in the aquarium, which usually involves reducing the CO2 in the air getting to the tank (like a skimmer inlet) or the tank top (by fresher air in the room).

This has more:

Low pH: Causes and Cures by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

As to the alkalinity, I'd stop the additives and drop back in the water change schedule and see what happens to the alkalinity over a week or two.

 

[jswo]

Now that we're getting into better weather when the windows are open the ph is 8.0 or higher but still a little summer left here in KS.

 

[reefndude]

Is yours a new tank and do you dose anything?

Most people using IO and other high alk salt mixes do not actually maintain alk that high. I don't.

Do you lower the alk before water changes?

 

[jjordan1904]

This is a good post that I could use some advice on as well. Been dealing with high alk for over a month now. Was doing lots of water changes with very little improvement. Alk was sitting at about 13! I use the orange instant ocean salt and It took me awhile to realize to stop dosing! Lol turns out the problem was me. I was adding it with the two little fishy A and B supps. I did one more water change and stopped adding any supps now about a week ago. My alk is currently down to 11. Hopefully it doesn't take to much longer to die out. Any other tips or of I'm missing something would be great

 

[jswo]

Hoping mine goes down as well still not really sure if 13 is too high but everything I've read says 7 to 11 so gotta assume 13 is too high. I ordered the red sea salt so hopefully it will either go down naturally or I can lower it with water changes, I will let you know when I get the salt in about a week.

 

[DaveRaz]

good thread. I've been lowering Kh with muratic acid in my water change water. I run around 8dkh but the new water from IORC is 10ish when newly mixed. It's a pita to test new water and retest when adding the muratic acid. So basically three tests for kh on WC day.

Will I hurt my sps just using the 10dkh water? I change ~20% every other week. I don't like adding muratic acid to my new water but fear my sps will suffer if the new water doesn't match the tank exactly.

Fwiw I als have to add mg to the new water to maintain 1375.

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

good thread. I've been lowering Kh with muratic acid in my water change water. I run around 8dkh but the new water from IORC is 10ish when newly mixed. It's a pita to test new water and retest when adding the muratic acid. So basically three tests for kh on WC day.

Will I hurt my sps just using the 10dkh water? I change ~20% every other week. I don't like adding muratic acid to my new water but fear my sps will suffer if the new water doesn't match the tank exactly.

Fwiw I als have to add mg to the new water to maintain 1375.

Thanks

If it is 10 dKH and you do a 20% water change on a tank at 8 dKH, alk will rise to 8.4 dKH, which does not seem very large to me

That said, why not just add the same fixed amount of acid (dropping the alk by, say, 2 dKH)) every time. No measuring and it brings the new water a lot closer to your tank, but will never be too low.