Alk keeps dropping

scrappy35

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I have my 75g (100g total) 2 month old setup and my alk keeps dropping to 6.5 according to Hanna. Using reef crystals, when mixed to 1.025, alk is 10.9. Doing 10g change per week. Started with dry rock and Carib sea live sand. Calcium stays about 450-500 mag almost 1500. Have 2 clowns and a couple small corals. What would be dropping the alk every week and is this something I need to start raising?
 

RobertTheNurse

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I have my 75g (100g total) 2 month old setup and my alk keeps dropping to 6.5 according to Hanna. Using reef crystals, when mixed to 1.025, alk is 10.9. Doing 10g change per week. Started with dry rock and Carib sea live sand. Calcium stays about 450-500 mag almost 1500. Have 2 clowns and a couple small corals. What would be dropping the alk every week and is this something I need to start raising?
After you do a water change, test Alk. Test 2 days after at same time. Post your results here so we can help.

What type of coral?

Seems too early to start dosing, unless it's your coral sucking it all up. I think your tank is just trying to stabilize.
 

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I have my 75g (100g total) 2 month old setup and my alk keeps dropping to 6.5 according to Hanna. Using reef crystals, when mixed to 1.025, alk is 10.9. Doing 10g change per week. Started with dry rock and Carib sea live sand. Calcium stays about 450-500 mag almost 1500. Have 2 clowns and a couple small corals. What would be dropping the alk every week and is this something I need to start raising?
Something growing and including nutrification will consume alk.
Did your tank always have low alk.
You could use Randys new 2 part and just dose the alk part to bring it up a bit
 

Uncle99

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If your AlK is low (6.5) and you do a 10g water change then that might bump it up to say 7.0 if your lucky.
If your Alk number is correct at 6.5, then dose that up slowly to 9.5-10.0dkh wait a week, then test again, divide by 7, then you know if you need to dose and how much.
Then do your weekly WC and measure again.
Now you can see the “effect” of water changes on your numbers.
 
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scrappy35

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Thanks for the responses! I’ll do my water change tomorrow, measure results and let you guys know. Then I’ll track for a few days. I just didn’t understand why just alk would be changing And not really anything else.
 

RobertTheNurse

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Thanks for the responses! I’ll do my water change tomorrow, measure results and let you guys know. Then I’ll track for a few days. I just didn’t understand why just alk would be changing And not really anything else.
Your tank is new and establishing itself.
 
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scrappy35

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Did a 20 gallon change and alk increased to 7.2. I bought some baking soda and am getting ready to bake to make Randy’s recipe #1. I also found the calculator to raise the alk.
question: I will be manually dosing, how much of a raise should I shoot for each day?
 

KC's CNC Creations

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Did a 20 gallon change and alk increased to 7.2. I bought some baking soda and am getting ready to bake to make Randy’s recipe #1. I also found the calculator to raise the alk.
question: I will be manually dosing, how much of a raise should I shoot for each day?
it really depends on what corals are in the tank, typically no more then 1 dKH per day and preferably not all at once each day but spread out throughout the day.
 
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scrappy35

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Made Randy’s recipe #1. Dosed it into the 8s and then it kind of stopped Rising. Was doing 25ml at a time, 3x a day to increase by 1dkh. Did my weekly 10% and was at 8.1. Then only checked the for 2 days following and had a reduction of 0.4 each day. Currently sitting at 7.3. To maintain the calculator says add 30 ml a day, but to get it back up, it’s 75 ml a day to increase by 1 a day.

I know the tank is still stabilizing,(will be 2months old on 7/11) so would you continue to dose it up or let it ride?

7/3 #’s
cal-460
alk7.7 (w/ dosing)
mag- 1470-1500
nitrates-5
Po4-0
sal-1.025
ph -8.15-8.22
75g (100-105 total)

2- clowns in tank and 2 fish in qt (day3)

8- total coral frags- 1: Zoa, acan,hammer,duncan,gsp, unknown and 2 softies. 1 flower pot anemone that decided to move and hide on the back side of my rock, guess he doesn’t want to be looked at. Ugh.
 

Uncle99

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I can’t see dosing a tank which had little to no load in terms of Stoney corals, just to make a number. If I want to maintain a certain level of Alk, I would just use a salt that mixes to the number your looking for.
Trying to dose a young tank would be very frustrating IMM, water changes with a salt is much easier, cheaper and a whole lot safer.

I like to keep Alk at 9.5dkh, that gives me a 2dkh safety on each end.
 
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scrappy35

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I figured my salt would keep me pretty stable in this young stage, but it’s not. I started at 10.9 when filled and went all the way down to 6 something, and it continues to fall about .4 a day. I can’t do enough water changes to keep it stable or so it appears. I figured it wasn’t good to let it slowly just keep lowering?
 
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