Thank you for providing the article. I have now adopted this method.
I had been using a Hanna checker and had set a routine of Alk and Ca two part everyday to keep my Alk at 8. Then one week, the numbers rose instead of stayed stable. So, I stopped dosing, even though nothing had changed in my tank. Alk stabilized at 9, Ca 450-480, Mg 1350-1480, nitrate 3-10, pH 8.4-8.6, phosphate 0.01-0.03. After 2 weeks, I began to worry and opened a fresh bottle of reagent. Still read 9 for Alk using the Hanna checker. Then, my purple and pink stylos began to die, a couple of acros lost their color and became brown. I came across this article and ordered all the necessary equipment. When I titrated the pH using 50mL of tank water my Alk was 6.4. I raised it to 7.7 yesterday. When I titrated today, it started at 7.4 and I raised it to 8.5. The Alk loss of 0.3 per day is in line with my 0.2 loss that I was measuring before everything went south.
I realize I don't need this many data points for routine testing but until I get things stable, more data is better. Once things stabilize, I will probably add 1.2mL of 0.1M HCl to start then titrate from there.
I had been using a Hanna checker and had set a routine of Alk and Ca two part everyday to keep my Alk at 8. Then one week, the numbers rose instead of stayed stable. So, I stopped dosing, even though nothing had changed in my tank. Alk stabilized at 9, Ca 450-480, Mg 1350-1480, nitrate 3-10, pH 8.4-8.6, phosphate 0.01-0.03. After 2 weeks, I began to worry and opened a fresh bottle of reagent. Still read 9 for Alk using the Hanna checker. Then, my purple and pink stylos began to die, a couple of acros lost their color and became brown. I came across this article and ordered all the necessary equipment. When I titrated the pH using 50mL of tank water my Alk was 6.4. I raised it to 7.7 yesterday. When I titrated today, it started at 7.4 and I raised it to 8.5. The Alk loss of 0.3 per day is in line with my 0.2 loss that I was measuring before everything went south.
I realize I don't need this many data points for routine testing but until I get things stable, more data is better. Once things stabilize, I will probably add 1.2mL of 0.1M HCl to start then titrate from there.
