Lowering alkalinity

[manuel josephh]

Hey guys, so my ALK has been at 15dkh for a few days. Reason being because I accidentally overdosed all-for-reef and I tried to raise the PH not knowing it will raise alk too. So after my tank cycled my tank for a month, I add a pair of clownfish and 2 corals(torch coral and a small colony of zoas, both fish died due to the alk, But my corals seem to be doing fine. I did some research and found out that I can lower the alk by doing 20-30% water changes every other day. but my question is if I could do a 50% water change or higher maybe 80%? My tank it’s an AIO 16 gallon tank. It’s 2 months old. Much help will be appreciated :’)

 

[homer1475]

A slow decline is much better for the health of the corals. A rapid decline is just as bad as a rapid increase.

I would stick to the small incremental WC as you suggested. Or just stop dosing, and let it fall on it's own, but with your low coral load, it may take a while.


FWIW, your fish did not die from the high ALK.

 

[manuel josephh]

A slow decline is much better for the health of the corals. A rapid decline is just as bad as a rapid increase.

I would stick to the small incremental WC as you suggested. Or just stop dosing, and let it fall on it's own, but with your low coral load, it may take a while.


FWIW, your fish did not die from the high ALK.

How did my fish die?

 

[MNFish]

I would try not to lower more than 1.5 in a day. So you need to k ow what your salt mixes too and do some math for example if you have 10 gallon tank at 15 alk and you salt mixed at 9 and you do a 2 gallon water change you would take ((8×15)+(2×9))/10. Which would give you an alk of 13.8 which in my book would be about the most you would want to do in a day.