What’s up with my Alk?

[gibbers]

Good afternoon,
So my tank has been up for about 4 -5 months now. Current details below

system volume ~ 450-500g
PH 8.24 will dip to 8.2ish at night
NO2 = 0.021 mg/l
NO3= 4.06 mg/l
PO4 = 0.022 mg/l
CA2 = 433
MG2 = 1283
NH4=0
SG 1.025
Temp = 79.9/80.1

DKH = <= 6.08 dKH (this is a result from my mastertropic 10 min ago. I have used Redsea an Salifert reagents. Additionally i have used both of these manually to check and have yielded the same results)

Inhabitants
6 clowns
1 Niger Trigger
1 Royal Gramma
4 Zoa Frags
1 Toadstool

I dose kalkwasser at a rate of 5ml/m over a 24 hour Period for a total of 7L which is about half of my total evaporation rate

I have been dosing birghtwell aquatics Alkaline8.3 per the dosing instructions for the past 5 days and it has not yielded any noticeable results. Everything seems to be healthy so I am not sure what the correct course of action is at this point.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hans4811]

I‘ve been using the BW alk8.3 and calcion-p for the past year or so as it’s recommended using the Moonshiners program. Their directions for dosing mixtures are wayyy off. Andre from Moonshiners told me this and said to use these mixtures instead… I mix 50g of powder per 32 oz of rodi for my dosing containers for both alk and calc. I dose about 120ml /day ea along with 3.6L/day, which is about my max of evaporation a day, of Kalk in my RS 250…bout 70g total in a heavy SPS system. I keep my alk around 8.3dKH and calc around 425 with these amounts. If my alk drops to say 7.7 due to growth or my kalk is nearly empty and it’s weak, I’ll mix 5-7g of alk8.3 in 8oz of tank water and add it to sump, and that usually brings it back up to 8.3.

Hope that helps…

….my tank to give you an idea of corals in play here…

 

[hans4811]

 

[Alabamareef]

From what I’ve seen most say, check your levels, Then stop your dosing for 24 hrs. and see your daily consumption rate. Then start your dosing at that rate daily.

 

[gibbers]

I‘ve been using the BW alk8.3 and calcion-p for the past year or so as it’s recommended using the Moonshiners program. Their directions for dosing mixtures are wayyy off. Andre from Moonshiners told me this and said to use these mixtures instead… I mix 50g of powder per 32 oz of rodi for my dosing containers for both alk and calc. I dose about 120ml /day ea along with 3.6L/day, which is about my max of evaporation a day, of Kalk in my RS 250…bout 70g total in a heavy SPS system. I keep my alk around 8.3dKH and calc around 425 with these amounts. If my alk drops to say 7.7 due to growth or my kalk is nearly empty and it’s weak, I’ll mix 5-7g of alk8.3 in 8oz of tank water and add it to sump, and that usually brings it back up to 8.3.

Hope that helps…

….my tank to give you an idea of corals in play here…

Thank you, I am at the point to where I don’t even really understand what is consuming it.

 

[Alabamareef]

Do you have any coralline algae on the rock or the back of your tank?

 

[gibbers]

From what I’ve seen most say, check your levels, Then stop your dosing for 24 hrs. and see your daily consumption rate. Then start your dosing at that rate daily.

I can’t find anything that measures under 6.08 dKH. Any thoughts?

 

[gibbers]

Do you have any coralline algae on the rock or the back of your tank?

I THINK that is what’s growing if you look at the pic. Pretty sure that like green is the beginnings of Coraline. Also ask dose the Alk it becomes more prominent in the tank.

 

[Rigoberto]

Any signs of precipitation?

 

[gibbers]

Any signs of precipitation?

None

 

[homer1475]

Use some plain jane baking soda to get your level where it should be.

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Recipe 2 uses just sodium bicarb(baking soda). It's also way cheaper to dose then anything you can buy.

Use a calculator to figure out the dosage.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[gibbers]

Use some plain jane baking soda to get your level where it should be.

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Recipe 2 uses just sodium bicarb(baking soda). It's also way cheaper to dose then anything you can buy.

Use a calculator to figure out the dosage.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

Thank you. I’m headed to grab some now

 

[gibbers]

I think my issue is rate of consumption and my testing schedule.

2022-12-10 18:38:15 Alkalinity 7.72
2022-12-10 19:10:38 Alkalinity 7.69
2022-12-10 21:52:01 Alkalinity 7.53

so in amount 3 hours, my Alk dropped .19
PH was stable around 8.25-8.23
Calcium this afternoon was 433 and now it is down to 413

my dosing of Kalk at 5ml/m continues

I don’t feel I have a lot of coral but I do have a lot of rock and what I think is coralline algae growing. Could that account for the rate of consumption ?

 

[Alabamareef]

Quotation numbers throughout the day. You need to wait over a 24 hour time.. Then make decisions from there. You’ll run yourself ragged.

 

[Gatorpa]

Simple math, if it’s going down add more alk.

I have a 120 that gets 2l of kalkwasser from 0005-0900, in a addition I add 40 ml of Seachem alk from 12:30 to 2330.

If my pH trends down I have to add less as my pH trends up I have to bump it up.

Unless it’s precipitated out (unlikely by your comments) it’s being used. I would assume a 500 gallon tank has quite a bit of live rock….

 

[gibbers]

I picked up some b-ionic alk buffer. I have it set to 4ml/hr to start. I’ll see how it looks this time tomorrow

 

[gibbers]

Thanks everyone for the input.