No ALK consumption for 5 days

[merereef]

So a little background. Been fighting dinos for a while but finally eradicated them.. during this method i did have my lights reduced to 20%max and monitored alk every 2 days for a bit the tank consumed no alk but after a short period tank started consuming alk again so think corals adapted.
Nitrates were on 5 and phos was 0.03 during this time

alk would drop 0.5 dkh a day which was normal. after i eradicated dinos been 12 days now increased my lights back up to about 60% maxrunning hydra 26HD on red sea reefer 250 and since then my alk has not changed.. at all.
The corals and sps seem all happy with polyps out but no consumption Been 7 days now.

alk has stayed put at 9 not dropped( i confirmed this is correct with a second test kit
Nitrates on 25and phos 0.10 so they have shot up after the dino battle.

Do you think its stopped to the sudden increase in light and i just need to wait or the nutrients?

 

[merereef]

?

 

[Malifry97]

Bump. But I don’t know how this is possible maybe an expert could help! #reefsquad

 

[Billldg]

Higher nutrients usually means higher usage in Alk and Cal, higher lights usually have the same effect. Your corals may just be adjusting back to normal parameters. It isn't uncommon for corals to stop growing for a while until they adjust back to the current parameters. If the parameters have been adjusted along the way as you battled dinos then this could have put some stress on the corals, so does changing lighting intensities and schedules. So long as the corals look happy I wouldn't worry about it. If you are dosing I would make sure to back off of the amount until they start to use again.

Just keep an eye on your corals to make sure they aren't loosing color due to the lights being brought back on.

 

[mta_morrow]

I don’t see much of anything that would be consuming Alk in your tank. Heck, I’m dosing 14ml per day and I have a bit more stock, but like you, mostly soft corals. Where is your calcium at?

 

[spidercrab]

its common. corals go through periods of stress where they stop growing all the time. It could be something minor and they will be back at it in a few days or it may take weeks if something is really off.

 

[merereef]

Higher nutrients usually means higher usage in Alk and Cal, higher lights usually have the same effect. Your corals may just be adjusting back to normal parameters. It isn't uncommon for corals to stop growing for a while until they adjust back to the current parameters. If the parameters have been adjusted along the way as you battled dinos then this could have put some stress on the corals, so does changing lighting intensities and schedules. So long as the corals look happy I wouldn't worry about it. If you are dosing I would make sure to back off of the amount until they start to use again.

Just keep an eye on your corals to make sure they aren't loosing color due to the lights being brought back on.

Thank you, i will just be patient

 

[merereef]

I don’t see much of anything that would be consuming Alk in your tank. Heck, I’m dosing 14ml per day and I have a bit more stock, but like you, mostly soft corals. Where is your calcium at?

Thank you, i have a few sps frags on top... i was dosing 25ml a day at one point to keep the levels stable so was worried when i noticed nothing being consumed. I will continue to monitor

 

[merereef]

its common. corals go through periods of stress where they stop growing all the time. It could be something minor and they will be back at it in a few days or it may take weeks if something is really off.

Thank you for the help

 

[merereef]

most of the sps went brown but are slowly gaining colour again

 

[merereef]

Checked yesterday and tank seems to be back to consuming alkalinity again

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sounds good.

Happy Reefing.