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School me up in Alkalinity


surjer
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i dont have one (i just started adding sps to this systme a couple weeks ago) i do plan on getting one soon as sps will use up alk and cal. You want to keep these things in balance or your sps may slow growth or even start to recede. Its definitely a smart idea to have ALK, CAL, Nitrate, PH. and salinity. If you go heavy with sps youll need mag too...but that is tested less frequently

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1 hour ago, surjer said:

Should I be concerned with the low Alk reading?

When is the last time you did a water change? Your LPS and SPS will require calcium and alkalinity to create their skeletons, so yes it should be a concern to a certain degree. Generally with smaller tanks that are not over stocked, you should be able to take care of it with water changes. 

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I think people get too wrapped up in trying to get a certain alk number, but that is low.  I personally would be concerned under 7.  I haven't tested mine in months since I dialed in my dosing last, but seeing growth on many of my sps tells me I'm good enough.  If you want to get deep into it there seems to be a relationship between how high you can run your alk and higher or lower nutrients, Google will keep you busy for a day on that.  I think the biggest thing to keep in mind now that your system seems to be consuming alk is that quick swings are bad.  Especially finicky SPS would be unhappy if you jacked it up to 9 and then let it fall back to your current level every week.  If you are using that much up look at another method like 2 part dosing.  If you are going to tinker with just raising alk get a calcium test, as mentioned they need to be in balance, but to be honest if you use one of the dosing systems (I like ATI essentials because it keeps everything balanced including mag and trace elements) or water changes with a quality salt mix the numbers usually stay in line.  At that point checking alk consistently and calcium and magnesium once in a while becomes enough.  Last thing I can think of is once you are dosing alk goes up and down slightly through the day, so it becomes important to test at the same time each day.  All that said, I also think regular water changes will get you there for now, get it adjusted and test every day for a week and tell us the results!

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7 hours ago, crimsonvice said:

When is the last time you did a water change? Your LPS and SPS will require calcium and alkalinity to create their skeletons, so yes it should be a concern to a certain degree. Generally with smaller tanks that are not over stocked, you should be able to take care of it with water changes. 

This is what I was going to recommend. Do a water change every few days till it comes back up....always test twice to make sure you did it right

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So I do a water change once every two weeks. I do 2 gallons each time. (I was doing it weekly but figured since my nitrates weren't high at all and no algae i could cut back to every two weeks.  I will test the Alk again after I do my water change this weekend and report back. I haven't noticed any bad symptoms  but I am also not sure what bad would be. Sounds like slow growth. Well, my duncans are multiplying really well and so is the GSP. The zoa's have sprouted like 2 polyps in the past few months but the pink poccipora I have had no real growth on. (I've had it like 2 months now.). I figured that was because of the light but maybe it's this low alkalinity perhaps? My ATO is this brand spankin new $13 gravity fed ATO from amazon. After going without a lid my evaporation rate is insane. I would guess over 20oz a day. 

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One of the biggest problems I see people having with their chemistry is balance.  The levels of the big 3 (alk, ca, and mg) are all dependent on each other and need to be in balance.  In other words, dosing carbonate will not only change alk, but will affect ca and mg.  

The take away here, is it is important to always dose equal amounts of two part.  These are formulated to replace exactly what the corals are consuming, and the ratio that corals consume alk/ca is consistent, meaning it does not change tank to tank or coral to coral.  

If indeed a drop in alk is consumption by the coral, then they have consumed an equivalent proportion of ca as well.  Alot of people will dose each part differently to try to acquire the "perfect" parameter.  Instead of doing so, they throw their tank chemistry out of whack and struggle to keep things where they should be.

As such, I only test alk and dose equal amounts of two part accordingly to keep the alk stable.  The ca will fall in line.  Every two months or so, I check the mag, but that is almost always replenished and stable due to water changes.

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A while back I got a gift card to premium aquatics from this group for a photo of the month so I got a test kit and some reef frenzie feed that I have fed the tank twice now. I was hoping it would help the corals grow. 

This is the kit - https://premiumaquatics.com/products/aquaforest-alkalinity-test-kit.html

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i agree with @Dr.Fraggenstien. Using this method its a little easier than checking all three everytime. If you test Alk and it is off, it's likely that calcium and mag will be off. Instead of buying all the kits i would get some 2 part. Later down the road i would pick up a ca kit as it doesnt hurt. Ill try and find the article i read that goes pretty well into depth about the relationship between the big 3. Also, as @Muttley000 has said, there is a relationship between alk, nitrate, and lighting as well. I dont necessarily think you need to dive into that though, as it will probably lead you to messing with things before gaining a true understanding of how they work first

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31 minutes ago, euphylin me said:

I am quickly approaching master geek levels now... hahahaha More seriously tho, would adding all this top off water have anything to do with the drop possibly? I mean, i just got the new light a couple of weeks ago. I did a water change then and now im due for another but i have probably had to replace over a gallon of freshwater due to the evaporation over the past two weeks. 

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6 minutes ago, surjer said:

I am quickly approaching master geek levels now... hahahaha More seriously tho, would adding all this top off water have anything to do with the drop possibly? I mean, i just got the new light a couple of weeks ago. I did a water change then and now im due for another but i have probably had to replace over a gallon of freshwater due to the evaporation over the past two weeks. 

evaporation is more of room temp, water temp, and available surface area water in a tank (a tall skinny tank will evaporate less than a shallow longer tank) what kind of salt are you using for your tank? Also, the link i sent you, you could literally read the conclusion if you wanted just a more general understanding (which is all you need really)

Edited by euphylin me
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7 minutes ago, euphylin me said:

evaporation is more of room temp, water temp, and available surface area water in a tank (a tall skinny tank will evaporate less than a shallow longer tank) what kind of salt are you using for your tank? Also, the link i sent you, you could literally read the conclusion if you wanted just a more general understanding (which is all you need really)

Will have another read over it again. I just skimmed it a few minutes ago and I will read it thoroughly in a bit. Thanks for the link! I am using Instant Ocean reef crystals. 

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15 minutes ago, surjer said:

I am quickly approaching master geek levels now... hahahaha More seriously tho, would adding all this top off water have anything to do with the drop possibly? I mean, i just got the new light a couple of weeks ago. I did a water change then and now im due for another but i have probably had to replace over a gallon of freshwater due to the evaporation over the past two weeks. 

Is your salinity where it should be?  If you are adding more fresh top off recently, make sure it's really evaporation and not a leak.  If the salinity is dropping the alk will likely be lower as well.

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20 minutes ago, Dr.Fraggenstien said:

Is your salinity where it should be?  If you are adding more fresh top off recently, make sure it's really evaporation and not a leak.  If the salinity is dropping the alk will likely be lower as well.

in my nano i top off twice a day, its hard to keep stable in a nano without an ato. Especially for you since the evo is shallower and longer. If it helps, i top off in the morning when get to work and in the evening when i leave. 

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4 minutes ago, euphylin me said:

in my nano i top off twice a day, its hard to keep stable in a nano without an ato. Especially for you since the evo is shallower and longer. If it helps, i top off in the morning when get to work and in the evening when i leave. 

Just added an ATO last night around 7pm.  I am 3/4's of the way through a 1liter bottle as of right now. 

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2 minutes ago, surjer said:

Just added an ATO last night around 7pm.  I am 3/4's of the way through a 1liter bottle as of right now. 

did you get the one that @JeffInOhio has? i was thinking about one since i dont have space for a reservoir. Anyways......that is alot of evap for a nano. What temp is your tank at, if you had a leak, your salinity would be going down not up. Also, just read that you are using reef crystals.......shortish story real quick: I used Reef crystals for the longest time on all my tanks, then i got into nanos. No matter what i could never get the proper chemisty with the water and my nitrates were always really high. My buckets always had this weird brown gunk at the bottom (a bucket only used for RODI and salt mix). On nano-reef, a pretty decorated member recommend i switch to the regular instant ocean and dose when i need to. In my opinion, all of these "reef" salts are great for SPS dominant or SPS mainly with some LPS. I am running a mixed reef like you are. I have had much better success with corals, algea, and parameters by switching to regular instant ocean. I have found the numbers for reef crystals to be inconsistent, where as i always get the same parameters from regular instant ocean. 

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FYI i made the switch over a year ago and have never gone back. I may not get the accelerated growth by running higher alk and ca but i dont experience the swings that reef salts do. With you having a relatively small amount of corals dependent on ALK and CA, i dont see a need for a reef salt yet. I hope this helps, and take it with a "grain of salt lol" what works for some may not work for others but it may be worth a shot

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