Raising alk?

[ld762]

I have some torches in a 20g. They don't seem to be happy or open fully as before. Tested alk and it's about 7.5. I have been using Fritz salt so alk should have been between 8-9 dKh.

Thinking about raising dKh to 8.5 or so. I am not chasing a specific number but just want to make the torches happy again. I have 2 part solutions. How should I go about increasing alk? TIA.

 

[andrewey]

Of all things that would upset the torches, alkalinity is low on my list of culprits (especially if it's at 7.5)

If you wanted to raise your alk to 8-9 in general, I can help you do that.

When you say "should have been between 8-9 dkh", did you measure this previously to confirm? When you say "They don't seem to be happy or open fully as before", what sort of time frame are we talking about?

 

[LxHowler]

Recently started doing this but in reverse I am lowering my alk. BRS recommends not changing alk more than 1 dkh per day. You can use a calculator to work this out. But unless you are having big swings I wouldn't expect just alk to cause a torch to close. Do you have anything else in the tank to compare against

 

[ld762]

it was about 8.5 or might have been a bit lower. As far as the torches go, they are a little closed up than usual for about a week or two now.

 

[Duncan Tse]

Was your alk higher previously or has it always been 7.5? Consistency is always better as long as you're in the typical range.

Bumping alk too fast may hurt the coral more than keeping it stable at 7.5

What kind of lights are you running and what are your other water parameters?

How old is the tank and do you dose?

 

[ld762]

Alk was about 8.6 or so. Light is AI prime on WB20. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20. The tank is 3 months old with live sand and rocks from establish tank. I dose amino acid daily and AB+ every 3 days

 

[jda]

7.5 is fine, but if you really want to raise it, then baking soda works great. You can google search for a calculator - there are a few online that will tell you how much to add.