Low Alkalinity level during cycle

[Dan Ugas]

Hello folks, I just joined the reefers community and started a 100 gal tank to cycle this past Sat 10/26. I bought some rock from TBS, which I found to be awesome stuff thought. The first tests came to low ammonia levels, PH 8.0, 74.5 F and 10.5 alkalinity. For some reason yesterday and today my alkalinity levels dropped dramatically to 5.0 (yesterday) and 4.6 today, I’m using Red Sea marine care test. I’m running a couple of filter socks, Reef Octopus 150int skimmer, refugium with some rock and no algae yet, and Seachem Matrix bio filter media. I’ve already made a water change yesterday of 11 gals. Im using Red Sea Coral PRO. Sorry if it’s too much info on the tank, just trying to paint the picture.
Should I worry about Alk levels right now? Shoul I start fixing it? Is that normal during cycle? Do I wait until cycle finish?? Sorry if it’s too dumb of a question I just don’t know. Thanks!

 

[brandon429]

You are perfectly on track alk doesn't factor currently. Literally any alk level a marine salt would mix to would always support hq tbs rock. All you need to do is anticipating water changes like what I posted here. He's using basically the same style rock you used:

My tank is in the twilight zone

My wife looked at my tank and said one of your rocks opened up, looked at it and sure enough an what i thought was a rock was an oyster, and it opened up, removed it smelled to high hell, what else?

www.reef2reef.com

You don't have anything to be scraping, what we were doing there was responding to the loss of an adhered clam vs letting it rot. We were practicing regular hand guiding when required, and large anticipating water changes to export any decaying matter as things on that fine rock settle out to what aquariums support.

If aquariums supported all those goodies we wouldn't need tbs

When we stick things in a tank, it only turns coralline purple or algae green. Ergo, hq rock has a curing destiny in our tanks

 

[brandon429]

Welcome!
Insert fancy meme ha yep we love cycling science in this forum that's for sure.

 

[Dan Ugas]

Great! Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll stay on top of the water changes. In fact I have already removed a large decaying sponge that turned white from one day to to another. I’ll also keep an eye for some other stuff that might start rooting. So I imagine that Alk would kind of normalize once all chemistry levels are normal at the end of the cycle ? ‍

 

[Dan Ugas]

By the way, came across these two memes, LOl

 

[brandon429]

That's hilarious lol the mud one ha

Another detail about alkalinity: no two testers are likely to show the same levels if you are using test tube/ titration style tests. Your alk might not be low.

I have been keeping a single nano reef packed literally to the brim with mixed corals/14 yrs/ and don't own any test kits other than temp or salinity. Whatever my alk is doesn't matter bc my bi monthly water change resets to apparently acceptable levels. I'll never test for it.

Large tank owners might indeed need to test eventually since they're not exchanging a lot of water but you're going to need a tank packed full of corals plus no water changes in order for that alk to become a problem

 

[sde1500]

I'd chalk that first measurement up to testing error. Even very densely stocked tanks don't tend to use up that much alk. Let the cycle ride out and then track numbers.

 

[foxt]

Welcome to R2R!

As others have said, alk will drop for various reasons in a new set up, but that's a pretty big drop for a day or two.

I believe that Red Sea Coral Pro usually mixes up with alk at or around 10 or 11. Next time you do a water change, measure what the alk of the freshly mixed water is so that you can sort of get confirmation about your first test being at 10.5

TBS is great stuff - you're probably waiting on part 2 of the package now, right?

 

[Dan Ugas]

Welcome to R2R!

As others have said, alk will drop for various reasons in a new set up, but that's a pretty big drop for a day or two.

I believe that Red Sea Coral Pro usually mixes up with alk at or around 10 or 11. Next time you do a water change, measure what the alk of the freshly mixed water is so that you can sort of get confirmation about your first test being at 10.5

TBS is great stuff - you're probably waiting on part 2 of the package now, right?

That’s a good tip there Fox, I’ll take measurements of some freshly made water today as I’ll probably be doing another water change this afternoon. And yes, once the tank cycles I’ll be waiting for part 2 of the package, it’s like some early Xmas surprise opening these boxes LOL! Incredible rocks.

 

[foxt]

And yes, once the tank cycles I’ll be waiting for part 2 of the package, it’s like some early Xmas surprise opening these boxes LOL! Incredible rocks.

I've started three systems with TBS, you'll be happy with the stuff that arrives in part 2!

 

[Dan Ugas]

I'd chalk that first measurement up to testing error.

Well, after testing Alk in 20 gal of freshly mixed Red Sea Coral Pro salt the result was 4.3, which I just noticed is exactly what the label in the salt bucket reads. Sde is right, it looks like the 10.5 Alk was user error.
Or am I seeing this wrong?

 

[sde1500]

Could you have read the first measurement in dkh and the rest in meq/L?

 

[Dan Ugas]

Could you have read the first measurement in dkh and the rest in meq/L?

Yep, that’s what it looks like.