Something is very wrong with my alkalinity...

[aaron23]

jose's screen shot gets all of his plugs in there

 

[Josebelthobby]

No lol I have 2 eb8

 

[Josebelthobby]

Doser, light, heater, light refugium, fan ,2 return pumps mp10 ,tunze ato lol a lot for a nano even my son told me the other day you have more cables hanging in this mini tank

 

[aaron23]

Doser, light, heater, light refugium, fan ,2 return pumps mp10 ,tunze ato lol a lot for a nano even my son told me the other day you have more cables hanging in this mini tank

haha pretty cool! i see thats why i see partial outlets lol

sorry original poster kind of stole your thread :X

 

[Sabellafella]

Op what are you using to test alk? Its very unlikely it reached 5dkh. Especially in that time frame, corals will usually stop consuming alk under 6dkh

 

[rizorido]

Why are your outlets on and not on auto? This defeats the purpose of having a controller !

 

[justingraham]

Op what are you using to test alk? Its very unlikely it reached 5dkh. Especially in that time frame, corals will usually stop consuming alk under 6dkh

He said Red Sea

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Some quick backstory.. I have a 16 gallon IM Nuvo tank and I've recently started two-part dosing with B-Ionic to help supliment my nano reef with alk and calcium due to my higher SPS load. Last week, I was in a great range of the following parameters:

Alk- 8.0dkh
Mag - 1400
Cal - 400
PH - 8.4

I was dosing 3ml a day of each suppliment to maintain these parameters. Sunday I skipped dosing due to a water change of 2 gallons as I knew it would add to my parameters strictly from the water change. Monday I test and I get the following:

Alk - 5.0
Mag - 1380
Cal - 420
PH - 8.4

Since Monday, i've been trying to raise my alkalinity with b-ionic part 1 or Soda ash, and I can't get it higher than 5.4 for the life of me! What's going on? Everything's been great up until the water change. Adding the recommended dosage using calculators to raise my alk up 1 DKH value seems to have little to no effect. The next day it goes right back down to 5.0 or less according to my red sea alk test.

Any suggestions?

I expect you are just using more than 1 dKH per day in the tank. That's a small amount.

 

[ocncheffy]

Crisis averted! My alk is currently at 8.4dkh and my red sea kit is actually get a worse accurate reading now. We tested with a Salifert kit and got a much better reading. I used the Salifert check solution to see how badly the Red Sea is reporting, and I don't even show up on the chart and it turns red. Using 2ml of titration before turning red.

 

[justingraham]

Crisis averted! My alk is currently at 8.4dkh and my red sea kit is actually get a worse accurate reading now. We tested with a Salifert kit and got a much better reading. I used the Salifert check solution to see how badly the Red Sea is reporting, and I don't even show up on the chart and it turns red. Using 2ml of titration before turning red.

Contaminated?? I'm good I only say that because I think mine is as well

 

[ocncheffy]

Contaminated?? I'm good I only say that because I think mine is as well

It must be, but not sure how as I always close the lid when I'm done. I'd advise you to get a Salifert test kit and check your tank as well.

 

[justingraham]

It must be, but not sure how as I always close the lid when I'm done. I'd advise you to get a Salifert test kit and check your tank as well.

Have a hanah one on the way

 

[justingraham]

What was ur procedure? Btw did u always use the whole ml and didn't put any back into the container? Did u always use the same needle?

 

[Sabellafella]

Crisis averted! My alk is currently at 8.4dkh and my red sea kit is actually get a worse accurate reading now. We tested with a Salifert kit and got a much better reading. I used the Salifert check solution to see how badly the Red Sea is reporting, and I don't even show up on the chart and it turns red. Using 2ml of titration before turning red.

I knew it! Good to hear bud

 

[RudyB]

I would check with someone that has a different test kit to compare so you don't over adjust. It could be a that it went bad.