New Tank - High Alk

[r33fermaddness]

So I’m in the process of cycling my newly started tank with Red Sea’s Reef Mature Pro kit and today is Day 2 which it tells me to measure Alk and dose their KH - Coralline Gro solution to bring Alk to 8.4 dKH. I tested Alk using Red Sea’s test kit and it’s reading 12.75 dKH and ph reads 8.2. I’m using Instant Ocean’s Reef Crystals, I have an ATO running with freshwater and a Reef Octopus Classic INT150 bringing out a light and wet skim.
I know 12.75 is a bit higher than desired for a stocked tank, but is this normal in a budding tank, or do I need to be concerned? I just double checked that my refractometer is calibrated and my salinity is 1.024 sg.
What could be the cause of this?
I am using secondhand rock which I have spent the last 2 months cleaning with a bleach solution, followed by a dechlorinator, then freshwater soak - it was heavily covered in dead organics from a tank that had been left to die.
It seems abnormal for the Alk to measure so high, but I’m new to all this.
Thanks in advance!

 

[hds4216]

Instant ocean reef crystals typically has high alk. You can use a different salt if you're concerned about it.

Here's some good stats for salt:

How long can I store saltwater after mixing? | BRStv Investigates

For those reefers mixing small batches of saltwater and using it rather quickly after mixing, worrying about the Alkalinity and Calcium parameters shifting is typically not a concern. A growing number of reefers are mixing large batches of saltwater, less frequently and use

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Rhoads238]

I've never used reef crystals and I've heard that the alk is on the higher side, but I'm pretty sure that it would not be that high. There could be a few things going on here, first thing I would do is try testing again. You may have done the test wrong the first time and got a false result. I would also say try calibrating your refractometer again and testing salinity again. If your salinty is very high it could be the possible cause of the high alk. If both of those things are correct then you may either have a bad batch of salt or a bad test kit. I was able to find this thread about this, it sounds like reef crystals may be a bit inconsistent with their paramaters.

Reef Crystals parameters crazy high??

hey yall, im a newbie just getting into the salty side of things. i am slowly setting up a 75G tank, and in the mean time, have set up a 10 gallon to age some rock and get used to testing etc. i bought a 200G mix box of Reef crystals as it was cheap, cheaper than the 160g bucket version at my...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[r33fermaddness]

I've never used reef crystals and I've heard that the alk is on the higher side, but I'm pretty sure that it would not be that high. There could be a few things going on here, first thing I would do is try testing again. You may have done the test wrong the first time and got a false result. I would also say try calibrating your refractometer again and testing salinity again. If your salinty is very high it could be the possible cause of the high alk. If both of those things are correct then you may either have a bad batch of salt or a bad test kit. I was able to find this thread about this, it sounds like reef crystals may be a bit inconsistent with their paramaters.

Reef Crystals parameters crazy high??

hey yall, im a newbie just getting into the salty side of things. i am slowly setting up a 75G tank, and in the mean time, have set up a 10 gallon to age some rock and get used to testing etc. i bought a 200G mix box of Reef crystals as it was cheap, cheaper than the 160g bucket version at my...

www.reef2reef.com

Yeah I was looking at this exact thread, my Alk was a bit higher so I wasn’t sure. I’m gonna run the test again after 24hrs, I could’ve been off in counting the titration drops. I triple checked my calibration per mfg instructions, my refractometer is from agriculture solutions, it’s dead on and reading my sg in normal range. I’m gonna invest in a nice digital reader when I have the cash. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Rhoads238]

Just a heads up, I just bought a Milwaukee digital refractometer and its of by .002 sg. I checked the calibration fluid that comes with it and its always off by that much. At least its consistent but I'm not very happy with it. If you look on the product descriptions, this is within their acceptable tolerances. I don't know what brands you would be looking at but i wouldn't recommend that one.