question on ALK, fish store guy says ALK should be 18DKH

Rydogg420 · Mar 18, 2013

So I was at the LFS today and they were checking their systems water. when it came to ALK I heard the guy say it should be at 18dkh? I was a little shocked by that as I thought I have read sea water should be at 7-9dkh for corals. (even my test kit for ALK says sea water should be at 7-9dkh if I remember right) This guy also said that ALK does not do anything for corals in any way. he said it was just to keep the PH from spiking? he said if the PH couldnt spike then you wouldnt ever have to add ALK to your tank for SPS corals..

Can anyone chime in here?

always reefin · Mar 18, 2013

no on 18 dkh, absolutely not! Way too high

kschweer · Mar 18, 2013

Yea 18 is way high. Alk plays an important role in calcium uptake by corals. Randy Holmes Farley has a very good article on the relationship between cal, alk and mag. Ill try to find it and post it here for you

jcdeng · Mar 18, 2013

He should be fired. No actually employee of the month, give out wrong info, ppl's tank crashes, ppl come back to buy more corals and fish --> More business!! what a win.

ZoaCollector · Mar 18, 2013

If I'm not mistaken alk that high should cause the calcium to precipitate out of the tank.

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Downbeach · Mar 18, 2013

This person obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. Stony corals, coraline algae, etc. take up both calcium and alkalinity to form calcium carbonate, at a rate of 5 parts Alk to 2 parts Ca.

Zack · Mar 18, 2013

Wow! That person is a moron.... how does that person work at a fish store?!?

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Otter_rs · Mar 18, 2013

kschweer said:
Yea 18 is way high. Alk plays an important role in calcium uptake by corals. Randy Holmes Farley has a very good article on the relationship between cal, alk and mag. Ill try to find it and post it here for you

I think this is the article you speak of. Great info. Everyone keeping corals should read this.

Brent \><{{{{*>
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Otter_rs · Mar 18, 2013

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

Brent \><{{{{*>
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WesF · Mar 18, 2013

There is an LFS owner around here that says the says the same thing...But the weird thing is he has tons of nice stuff (sps, lps, clams, etc) and they are doing well...even the ones that have been living in his display tanks for years.

mike007 · Mar 18, 2013

Thats crazy. Wonder how long he has been around reef tanks? I heard one guy tell me a employee at one store told a customer to put copper in his reef to cure ich.

WesF · Mar 18, 2013

I think it's one of those "old school" ways of thinking and sometimes store owners get stuck in their ways. If something works for them and they don't keep their finger on the pulse their methods can seems a little out there.

It's kind of difficult to argue with someone's success. They guy I am talking about has one of the nicest stores in the area.