Wild Alkalinity from Vendors?

[ihavecrabs]

So I just received a gorgeous frag of "Joe the Coral" from ORA via Live Aquaria. Let me start by saying, this was a generous frag.

Upon opening the bag, I tested the alkalinity to see how far I was off. I about died. I keep my tanks alk low.. 7.5 and more recently and currently 7.8 via KHG-M.

I tested with two test kits, Hanna Checker and Salifert @ 4.5dkh. Yes, that is not a typo.

So, I had to ask the community, did a pH change in the bag lead to a misrepresentation of dkh?

@Randy Holmes-Farley thoughts?

 

[Robert's Reef]

I was watching a live sale. And the vendor said that the tank the sps were in had an alk reading of around 3! Every sps coral I have bought from this vendor has always done well in my tank, alk of 7.5. I drip acclimate for 30 minutes.

 

[Potatohead]

You'll never get a proper alkalinity test from a bag. I tried the same thing once from a local guy, and it had only been in the bag like an hour. I got 6.2, I texted him to check his doser and he said his water was at 8.9 lol. Maybe Randy can explain why.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I never worry about the numbers in a tank that a coral came from. I mean there is nothing you can do anyways just Temp aclimate and dip and put it into the tank.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I never worry about the numbers in a tank that a coral came from. I mean there is nothing you can do anyways just Temp aclimate and dip and put it into the tank.

If it is far enough off, you can always not buy from that vendor again. Depends if you have mortality issues I suppose.

 

[jda]

Stuff that you get transshipped from the ocean is usually at 6.0, or sometimes just below that. Alk issues are way overblown, IMO, and seem to mostly affect corals that are stressed already - I have had my alk down below that 4.5 dKh ones this year and while I would not recommend it to anybody, everything was fine and I just added some baking soda and brought it back up all at once. I would not worry about this too much.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Stuff that you get transshipped from the ocean is usually at 6.0, or sometimes just below that. Alk issues are way overblown, IMO, and seem to mostly affect corals that are stressed already - I have had my alk down below that 4.5 dKh ones this year and while I would not recommend it to anybody, everything was fine and I just added some baking soda and brought it back up all at once. I would not worry about this too much.

So do you think it is something like phosphates where in a less mature tank it can be problematic but in a more mature system it is less so?