Alkalinity is without a doubt the single most important parameter in reef keeping.
The more stable your alkalinity becomes the greater the chance of seeing faster, consistent coral growth and improved colouration. This is especially true with SPS corals and in particular Acropora.
Many reefers seem to think that if you measure the alkalinity of your tank at a set time every day or even every few days and there is not a significant change in the reading then your alkalinity is stable. But this is anything but the case. Corals consume alkalinity 24 hours a day but the rate of consumption changes significantly throughout the day with the highest consumption rate happening during your tank’s photoperiod. After the lights are turned off, the corals continue consuming alkalinity, but at a lesser rate. This leads to an inevitable daily swing in alkalinity that standard dosing pumps and calcium reactors simply cannot measure or adjust for.
This might be acceptable to many reefers and will allow the keeping of most LPS and many SPS corals but when it comes to highly sensitive SPS like many Acropora it is not good enough and leads to inconsistent growth and poor colouration.
In my case, this alkalinity swing can be as much a 0.6 dkh a day which is simply not good enough for some of the corals I am trying to grow. Running my calcium reactor at a steady rate 24 hours a day leads to it steadily rising for 12 hours then steadily dropping for 12 hours.
The rate of alkalinity consumption is a ratio of about 1:2 so you want to dose around 66% of your daily requirement when the lights are on.
The tighter we can keep this daily alkalinity swing the greater the chance of seeing fast, consistent coral growth and good colouration. I believe most of the really successful Acropora keepers are fully aware of this and must take action to mitigate this problem. This leads me to believe that devices such as the KH Keeper, KH guardian and Alkatronic may actually be worth the money. But I know many reefers have been successful without these devices and before such devices were even on the market.
So if you are a long term successful Acropora keeper what are your thoughts on this?
Am I overthinking things or is this right on the money?
The more stable your alkalinity becomes the greater the chance of seeing faster, consistent coral growth and improved colouration. This is especially true with SPS corals and in particular Acropora.
Many reefers seem to think that if you measure the alkalinity of your tank at a set time every day or even every few days and there is not a significant change in the reading then your alkalinity is stable. But this is anything but the case. Corals consume alkalinity 24 hours a day but the rate of consumption changes significantly throughout the day with the highest consumption rate happening during your tank’s photoperiod. After the lights are turned off, the corals continue consuming alkalinity, but at a lesser rate. This leads to an inevitable daily swing in alkalinity that standard dosing pumps and calcium reactors simply cannot measure or adjust for.
This might be acceptable to many reefers and will allow the keeping of most LPS and many SPS corals but when it comes to highly sensitive SPS like many Acropora it is not good enough and leads to inconsistent growth and poor colouration.
In my case, this alkalinity swing can be as much a 0.6 dkh a day which is simply not good enough for some of the corals I am trying to grow. Running my calcium reactor at a steady rate 24 hours a day leads to it steadily rising for 12 hours then steadily dropping for 12 hours.
The rate of alkalinity consumption is a ratio of about 1:2 so you want to dose around 66% of your daily requirement when the lights are on.
The tighter we can keep this daily alkalinity swing the greater the chance of seeing fast, consistent coral growth and good colouration. I believe most of the really successful Acropora keepers are fully aware of this and must take action to mitigate this problem. This leads me to believe that devices such as the KH Keeper, KH guardian and Alkatronic may actually be worth the money. But I know many reefers have been successful without these devices and before such devices were even on the market.
So if you are a long term successful Acropora keeper what are your thoughts on this?
Am I overthinking things or is this right on the money?