Water changes increase my alk too much. What can I do?

[glb]

I use IO salt which has an alk of 10-11. I keep the alk in my tank at 9. If I change a gallon/week, it temporarily raises the alk up, sometimes up .3-.5kh. My corals don't seem to like it. Is there any way I can get the new water alk down a bit before I add it, or is this sort of change nothing to worry about?

 

[Electrobes]

That kind of Alk swing shouldn't have that big of an effect on your tanks inhabitants.

But, since it might be the source of your issue, you may try lowering the alk... But the only way I know how is via Muriatic acid.

If I weren't on my phone Id point you to the thread with the info. Try searching for lowering alk via Muriatic acid (Again, its definitely not without its risks).

 

[redfishbluefish]

That alk swing isn't that bad. In addition, you'd have a tough time finding a salt with lower alk than IO. My only suggestion, if you are using a bucket of salt, is to roll the bucket back and forth a number of times to mix up the salt.

 

[tiger_al]

make smaller water changes.

 

[Cment]

This is a good practice to get into with all buckets of salt. I've found this to help not only with ALK but Ca and Mg too. As already stated, do this and smaller more frequent changes and you can combat the problem at hand....

 

[Reefing Madness]

Test the water before adding it to the tank, you can use muriatic acid to lower the alk in there before adding it. Add a powerhead to the mixing station, add some muriatic acid, bring down the alk, test to see where you have it, let PH come back up, then you can use it.

 

[glb]

Thanks everyone!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, if your tank is at 9 dKH and you do a 10% change with 11 dKH water, the alk will only rise by 0.2 dKH, so I agree that smaller changes can reduce the bump and make it adequately small.

 

[reefndude]

I add 1.2 ml muriatic acid to my 5g mixing bucket. Alk is 10 with freshly mixed salt water. Drops to 8 after I add acid.
I let it mix over night before use.

 

[deerhunter06]

change salts...

 

[tcoyle]

Red Sea (normal) mixes up around 7.7 dkh and 415 for calcium.

 

[twilliard]

Add calcium to your new mix.
I used to use IO but got tired of the inconsistent parameters

 

[Mark426]

There are several salts that have lower ALK. Off the top of my head Tropic Marin Regular, hwMarine Reefer, Red Sea Blue Bucket and a few others that have ALK in the 8-9dkh range. Just change salts if you want your change water to be close to your tank water.

 

[CoralFreak_350]

I had the same inconsistencies with IO and I even changed to Salinity by Aquavitro and my Alk was extremely high. I did do smaller water changes to combat the problem but it became too much of a hassle doing such small changes so frequently. I knew there had to be a better answer. I recently switched to Brightwell Aquatics NeoMarine and the Alk was more consistent and right around 8 without having to add any acid. Corals are responding beautifully to it. It was an amazing win in my opinion. I know its not the best salt out there and everyone has there own opinions and this has seemed like a no brainer to me. Hopefully this helps. Best of Luck to you

 

[twilliard]

That is what I use Brightwell salt and works with consistency

 

[CoralFreak_350]

I also enjoyed the fact there is very little debris on the bottom of the bucket once mixed compared to Salinity by Aquavitro. It might not work for everyone but I sure noticed a difference

 

[brownsalt92]

I have a 29 gal tank and I decided to test the dKH and it took 17 drops to change it from blue to yellow. Local fish store told me it wont affect the corals. But it seems very hight is this okay for my tank?

 

[brownsalt92]

FWIW, if your tank is at 9 dKH and you do a 10% change with 11 dKH water, the alk will only rise by 0.2 dKH, so I agree that smaller changes can reduce the bump and make it adequately small.

I have a 29 gal reef tank and its been running for about 4 months now. I checked the dkh in it for the first time and its at a 17 drops on the tester to change it from blue to yellow is this bad for my tank? Please any imput would be helpful

 

[CoralFreak_350]

Which salt are you currently using? how often are you doing water changes? how much water are you changing?

 

[brownsalt92]

Reef crystals and I've been doing a 5 gal water change every 2 weeks