Lowering Alk

[BuddyVanDoodle]

So my alk is usually stable around 8.9 and when I started a vibrant treatment for algae I didn’t test for a while. One day when I was close to the end of the treatment I Decided to start testing everything again and discovered my alk was up to 14.3 ! I tested a few times and brought some water to my LFS and kept getting the same results. I’ve been trying to lower it with water changes. I’ve been using Red Sea blue bucket and can’t get it lower than 11.7 which is still getting to be acceptable. I’ve done three water changes that were all about 20 gallons in a 75 gallon tank. I would like to get it down to that 8 dkh mark.

 

[laverda]

If your down to 11.7 I would not worry about it any more and just let it come down naturally. Stop dosing any ALK until it gets to where you want it to be.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Assuming you are dosing nothing and the top off is RO/DI, then the best way would be to lower the alk even more in new salt water (say, 2-4 dKH) either with sodium bisulfate (Amazon or Seachem acid buffer) or muriatic acid.

Aerate it really well after lowering it to bring the pH back to soemthing reasonable (7.5+), and do regular water changes to drop to thank alk.

 

[BuddyVanDoodle]

Assuming you are dosing nothing and the top off is RO/DI, then the best way would be to lower the alk even more in new salt water (say, 2-4 dKH) either with sodium bisulfate (Amazon or Seachem acid buffer) or muriatic acid.

Aerate it really well after lowering it to bring the pH back to soemthing reasonable (7.5+), and do regular water changes to drop to thank alk.

So make new water to the gravity I usually do then mix in SeaChem Acid buffer and then test alk? Then after I reach 2-4 alk throw an air stone in maybe for a day or so then do water change with it?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So make new water to the gravity I usually do then mix in SeaChem Acid buffer and then test alk? Then after I reach 2-4 alk throw an air stone in maybe for a day or so then do water change with it?

Yes, that's a fine plan.