11 Week old tank, chronically low alk?

[jollyrogerreefer]

Greetings all,
A friend of mine pointed me to a thread here about low alk in a new reef tank, that the rock and sand will soak up excess alkalinity. Currently in my 29 gallon display/10sump my alk ranges from 5.6 to 6.2, the fresh sea water I mix with red sea salt reads 9dkh... I'm at a loss for what I should do, corals(zoas, softies, lps and sps) all *look* ok, I'm just concerned how long this stage will last until the alkalinity finally stabalizes with the fresh water I add. I have held off on dosing, and keep telling myself to ride it out. Calcium ranges from 380 - 430, magnesium around 1250 to 1300. I am trying to stager water changes so my nutrients don't bottom out, but it also seems to be the only way to stop the alkalinity from completely bottoming out, with a weekly 3 gallon change I can keep alkalinity around 6... any tips or suggestions would be welcomed!

 

[Spare time]

I don't know any way rock and sand can't soak up carbonate/bicarbonate. I am not sure what your friend was referring.

You need to dose. I promise it isn't difficult. A simple 2 part of an all in one like all for reef works well.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Greetings all,
A friend of mine pointed me to a thread here about low alk in a new reef tank, that the rock and sand will soak up excess alkalinity. Currently in my 29 gallon display/10sump my alk ranges from 5.6 to 6.2, the fresh sea water I mix with red sea salt reads 9dkh... I'm at a loss for what I should do, corals(zoas, softies, lps and sps) all *look* ok, I'm just concerned how long this stage will last until the alkalinity finally stabalizes with the fresh water I add. I have held off on dosing, and keep telling myself to ride it out. Calcium ranges from 380 - 430, magnesium around 1250 to 1300. I am trying to stager water changes so my nutrients don't bottom out, but it also seems to be the only way to stop the alkalinity from completely bottoming out, with a weekly 3 gallon change I can keep alkalinity around 6... any tips or suggestions would be welcomed!

If you're sure that you measurement is correct.

Grab some baking soda (not baking powder) from the kitchen pantry.

Mix one tespoon into some RODI water and then add slowly to the sump over 12 hours or so.

Next day do the same thing.

This will raise your Alk from 6 to 8 over two days.

 

[jollyrogerreefer]

If you're sure that you measurement is correct.

Grab some baking soda (not baking powder) from the kitchen pantry.

Mix one tespoon into some RODI water and then add slowly to the sump over 12 hours or so.

Next day do the same thing.

This will raise your Alk from 6 to 8 over two days.

I currently have some brs kalkwasser, red sea alk and calcium, as well as tropic marin all for reef, just didn't want to start pouring stuff in without asking the pros here. Had a bad dosing experience in my last tank and wanted to check my options here first!

 

[gbroadbridge]

I currently have some brs kalkwasser, red sea alk and calcium, as well as tropic marin all for reef, just didn't want to start pouring stuff in without asking the pros here. Had a bad dosing experience in my last tank and wanted to check my options here first!

If you have RS Foundation B, just use the appropriate amount to raise Alk. You don't need to worry about Calcium and Mag as they are about where they need to be.

At the moment you just want to raise the Alk to about 8, so simply adjust that.

Then just check alk weekly to see how much it is dropping.

 

[Spare time]

I currently have some brs kalkwasser, red sea alk and calcium, as well as tropic marin all for reef, just didn't want to start pouring stuff in without asking the pros here. Had a bad dosing experience in my last tank and wanted to check my options here first!

What was the bad experience?