Raising Alk

Koddie Doo · Feb 22, 2021

I have been successful with retakes for a very long time. Up until recently I always kind of knew my place and just maintain fish and soft corals. Never really trusted my water besides salinity and temperature past the cycle.
Recently I’ve been catching the bug to try different corals. And along with that I know comes better husbandry.

Currently monitoring my pH which seem to be very consistent between 7.5 and 8. I just asked in my Alk and it is at 6. I know I’m going to need to raise that up to at least. But how should I do that and how fast? I have a BRS dozer I have Kalkwasser, I have soda ash in powder form.

I know that after I get my desired alkalinity I need to wait three days retest so I can figure out how much to dose.

It Is that initial step of how fast to raise it and with what is what is confusing.

Please help

P-Dub · Feb 22, 2021

Rai

Koddie Doo said:
I have been successful with retakes for a very long time. Up until recently I always kind of knew my place and just maintain fish and soft corals. Never really trusted my water besides salinity and temperature past the cycle.
Recently I’ve been catching the bug to try different corals. And along with that I know comes better husbandry.

Currently monitoring my pH which seem to be very consistent between 7.5 and 8. I just asked in my Alk and it is at 6. I know I’m going to need to raise that up to at least. But how should I do that and how fast? I have a BRS dozer I have Kalkwasser, I have soda ash in powder form.

I know that after I get my desired alkalinity I need to wait three days retest so I can figure out how much to dose.

It Is that initial step of how fast to raise it and with what is what is confusing.

Please help

Raise it no more than .5/ day and use calcium bicarbonate. Once there, maintain it with Kalkwasser. Mind your calcium levels. Calcium and alk are codependent, so to speak.