Should I mess with the alk?

[Max93]

Currently I’m dosing kalkwaser in my 180g tank.
I have about 17 acros, all frags except 1 is a bigger colony. I have a good handful of zoas.

al my corals are growing great, great PE from the sps corals as well.

However, I don’t know what is considered “high” nutrients. I want to get my alk down to see how the acros react along with lower nutrients (5-10 nitrates and .05-.08 phosphates). I just want to see how much faster the acros grow, they’re taking forever. I have had some for close to a month and a half and have seen slight growth in the bases but I feel that it could be faster… I don’t know maybe I need to be more aggressively patient.

I do: 20% water change every week with Aquaforest reef salt.

here are my parameters/lighting:

two 400w halides with 4 xho LED strips

alk - 10.1
Ca - 450
Mg - 1350
Nitrates - 11.4
Phosphates .17
pH - 8.3
Sg - 1.026

I don’t want to turn off the kalkwasser reactor because I don’t want my pH to drop - my house doesn’t get much fresh airflow other than the AC so I run kalk to help control pH.

Should I even bother bringing down the alk level, or just let it be and wait for the acros to consume more than is being dosed? Right now I dose 6ml/min of kalk into the tank.. concentration of kalk is 12.1-12.5 pH. Meaning I never let it drop below 12.1 pH.

what are your thoughts? Leave it alone or try to bring it down?

 

[Mark Novack]

Everything is growing well and great polyp extension? I would not fix it if its not broken. My salt mix aims for 10-11 at 1.025.

 

[Dburr1014]

Currently I’m dosing kalkwaser in my 180g tank.
I have about 17 acros, all frags except 1 is a bigger colony. I have a good handful of zoas.

al my corals are growing great, great PE from the sps corals as well.

However, I don’t know what is considered “high” nutrients. I want to get my alk down to see how the acros react along with lower nutrients (5-10 nitrates and .05-.08 phosphates). I just want to see how much faster the acros grow, they’re taking forever. I have had some for close to a month and a half and have seen slight growth in the bases but I feel that it could be faster… I don’t know maybe I need to be more aggressively patient.

I do: 20% water change every week with Aquaforest reef salt.

here are my parameters/lighting:

two 400w halides with 4 xho LED strips

alk - 10.1
Ca - 450
Mg - 1350
Nitrates - 11.4
Phosphates .17
pH - 8.3
Sg - 1.026

I don’t want to turn off the kalkwasser reactor because I don’t want my pH to drop - my house doesn’t get much fresh airflow other than the AC so I run kalk to help control pH.

Should I even bother bringing down the alk level, or just let it be and wait for the acros to consume more than is being dosed? Right now I dose 6ml/min of kalk into the tank.. concentration of kalk is 12.1-12.5 pH. Meaning I never let it drop below 12.1 pH.

what are your thoughts? Leave it alone or try to bring it down?

Are you dosing nutrients?
High alk and high nutrients are okay. High alk and low nutrients are not okay.
How old is the tank?
What else are you dosing?
Most SPS settle in. They may take a month with nothing happening and then boom, they take off.
What is your ph? (Of the tank)

 

[Rmckoy]

If it’s not broken don’t fix it .
As long as everything is growing , has colour and polyps I wouldn’t mess with it .
As mentioned High Alk and low nutrients will not end well .

 

[Max93]

Thanks everyone, I’ll leave it be. I don’t dose any nutrients except food - I have about 20 fish.
My ph is 8.3 in the tank. It’s pegged, sometimes goes to 8.4.

I dose microbacter7 to help me keep the phosphates a little lower.
I have found zero information out there regarding what is considered “high” nutrients. We all know what low is.

but what is high - is it .08 phosphate, .15?

 

[Dburr1014]

Thanks everyone, I’ll leave it be. I don’t dose any nutrients except food - I have about 20 fish.
My ph is 8.3 in the tank. It’s pegged, sometimes goes to 8.4.

I dose microbacter7 to help me keep the phosphates a little lower.
I have found zero information out there regarding what is considered “high” nutrients. We all know what low is.

but what is high - is it .08 phosphate, .15?

Every system is different.
Charliesfrags is like po4 0.2 or higher and no3 is like 30.
I think most keep po4 about 0.1 to 0.05
And no3 10 or less.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

However, I don’t know what is considered “high” nutrients. I want to get my alk down to see how the acros react along with lower nutrients (5-10 nitrates and .05-.08 phosphates). I just want to see how much faster the acros grow, they’re taking forever. I have had some for close to a month and a half and have seen slight growth in the bases but I feel that it could be faster… I don’t know maybe I need to be more aggressively patient.

I don't see any likelihood that lower alk will make them grow faster. Typically, higher alk drives faster skeletal growth.

 

[Max93]

I don't see any likelihood that lower alk will make them grow faster. Typically, higher alk drives faster skeletal growth.

I should be more aggressively patient, they’re definitely growing and covering plugs and showing new signs of branching.
What nitrate and phosphate range should I aim for at this alk level?

 

[Dburr1014]

I should be more aggressively patient, they’re definitely growing and covering plugs and showing new signs of branching.
What nitrate and phosphate range should I aim for at this alk level?

You are good where you are.

 

[Max93]

You are good where you are.

Thanks for all the help. I’ll stay here.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I should be more aggressively patient, they’re definitely growing and covering plugs and showing new signs of branching.
What nitrate and phosphate range should I aim for at this alk level?

5-10 ppm nitrate and 0.03 to 0.1 ppm phosphate seems a good range to me.

 

[Max93]

5-10 ppm nitrate and 0.03 to 0.1 ppm phosphate seems a good range to me.

Those would be optimal - otherwise good where I’m at (on the higher end?).

 

[Dburr1014]

I don't think it's a good idea to shoot for 0.05 po4 when you're alk is at 10+ same for no3 on the lower end.
Running alk higher means you are better off on the higher end. IMO.

 

[Jaymang]

Am currently running 9.2dkh with 2.5pm no3 ; 0 po4. my sps frags turned pale and bleached. currently trying to lower by reducing my AFR dose. looking at 7.5-8dkh and see how it goes. definitely high alk & low nutrients is terrible lol

 

[Max93]

I’m glad I posted this - I still definitely want to get my po4 a tad lower ~ eventually as I know as the tank matures alk will drop due to consumption. I was about to start dosing carbon and kill everything I’ve been researching for weeks and I figured it was time to make a post just to be safe.

 

[Jaymang]

I’m glad I posted this - I still definitely want to get my po4 a tad lower ~ eventually as I know as the tank matures alk will drop due to consumption. I was about to start dosing carbon and kill everything I’ve been researching for weeks and I figured it was time to make a post just to be safe.

be careful when lowering po4. I'm not sure if carbon dosing really impacts po4, my worry is that you'd lower NO3 way faster compared to po4 which brings another load of problems. Good luck!

 

[Dburr1014]

I’m glad I posted this - I still definitely want to get my po4 a tad lower ~ eventually as I know as the tank matures alk will drop due to consumption. I was about to start dosing carbon and kill everything I’ve been researching for weeks and I figured it was time to make a post just to be safe.

You are better off using gfo or like this to just reduce po4. It's bound in the rock/sand and will always try to be in equalibrium with the water. It takes some time to get it to actually reduce.