Salt Water Question

[Joel Franco]

I use Fritz blue box and maintain my alk around 8-9 dkh. I purchased the Fritz Redline today and mixed it to 35ppt which gave me 12 dkh. How do I introduce the new higher alk water into my tank without hurting my sps?

 

[Dennis McGrath]

Just do normal water changes with the new salt mix so it's a gradual change.

 

[Velcro]

How big is your system and how big of water changes do you do? If your tank was 100 gallons with an all of 8, and you did a 10 gallon water change with 12 dkh water, your tank would only go up to 8.4 dkh.

I guess my only question is, why did you switch salts?

 

[Joel Franco]

100 gallons today with the sump volume. I switch salts to try the higher alk version. The blue box fritz at 35ppt mixes at 7.8 dkh and I keep my alk between 8 and 9. For some reason I thought that at 35ppt it would be lower than advertised like around 9-10 dkh. Not 12.

 

[Velcro]

100 gallons today with the sump volume. I switch salts to try the higher alk version. The blue box fritz at 35ppt mixes at 7.8 dkh and I keep my alk between 8 and 9. For some reason I thought that at 35ppt it would be lower than advertised like around 9-10 dkh. Not 12.

If you mix your saltwater a day ahead of time you can drop the alk to whatever you want with hydrohloric acid. Just have to let the water gas of the co2 that is created when you neutralize the bicarbonate.

 

[Joel Franco]

That sounds extreme. I’ll just add it to the tank and space out my water changes to allow the corals to get adjusted to the new parameters.

 

[Velcro]

That sounds extreme. I’ll just add it to the tank and space out my water changes to allow the corals to get adjusted to the new parameters.

I keep my tank at 8dkh and have automatic water changes overnight (1% volume). I use instant ocean which is totally 11ish dkh. Since this alk difference is consistent it's basically no different than dosing some alkalinity.

 

[Joel Franco]

Interesting. I’ll do the water change and see what a 10 percent water change increases the alk to.

 

[Velcro]

Interesting. I’ll do the water change and see what a 10 percent water change increases the alk to.

It's easily calculated. If you know your tank alk and the new saltwater alk, as well as the volume you are replacing, you're good

(0.9x8.0) + (0.1x11.0) = 8.4