Alkalinity all over the place

[Jakepen]

I’m kind of at a loss here. My tank is 7 months old, not a ton of coral in it, not a ton of growth happening. I check my alk regularly and it will be stable for a few days or weeks, than will start to rise. So I’ll mess with my kamoers which are dosing BRS two part. Also having huge inconsistency with my test kits. With the Hanna checker I went from one bottle of reagent which tested 8.5, to the next bottle or reagent which was giving me a reading of 9.5. Just double checked with a salifert and that read at 10dkh. Quite frustrated, might buy an Apex and trident this weekend because I’m tired of this.

 

[Saltyreef]

You should not be dosing with barely anything in your tank.

Regular scheduled water changes and testing are your best friends at this point.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Uhhhh turn ur dosers off.
D

 

[T-J]

I agree, if you don't have anything that needs the alk/calc, then turn off the dosers for now. Also, if you're concerned about your testing numbers, get a Triton lab analysis. When you take the water samples for the Triton, do a full scale test of everything you can with your test kits. Then compare them to the Triton results.

 

[Jakepen]

You should not be dosing with barely anything in your tank.

Regular scheduled water changes and testing are your best friends at this point.

I mean my tank is consuming alk via coral and coraline. I don’t want to turn the dosers off and let my numbers bottom out, just trying to find stability. Not doing water changes as I just started the reef moonshiners program.

I agree, if you don't have anything that needs the alk/calc, then turn off the dosers for now. Also, if you're concerned about your testing numbers, get a Triton lab analysis. When you take the water samples for the Triton, do a full scale test of everything you can with your test kits. Then compare them to the Triton results.

Yeah just got one back earlier this week.

 

[Jakepen]

I think I just came here to vent, I’ll be able to figure out the issue, was just frustrated at the time of testing.

 

[T-J]

Yeah just got one back earlier this week.

How'd it compare to your numbers?

 

[Jakepen]

How'd it compare to your numbers?

That was 8.5, and I took the water sample probably 12 days ago now. So my alk crept up pretty slowly, thinking something in the tank was a bit off and the coral stopped consuming as much alk on a daily basis and I didn’t catch it.