Alkalinity balance issue. Don’t judge me because I’m dumb!

[DexterPhi]

I’m embarrassed to post again publicly with the same issue I have in the past but I just can’t get my alkalinity figured out....

it’s funny, my dad literally had a PhD in chemistry and I’m still too dumb to figure this out.. maybe i was adopted.

Don’t judge!

So my alkalinity is currently at 4.9 (I have two Hanna checkers that agree and two bottles of reactant and my water change water registers correctly around 8 or 9 usually)... My calcium measured by salifert must be over 500 because it never changes color for me unless I fill syringe again.... My ph swings from 8.2 to 8.52 daily per my Seneye....

I’m currently dosing 2 teaspoons of kalkwasser per gallon in my top off water which utilizes about 2/3 a gallon a day... I also add around 8 ml of white vinegar per gallon to the top off water because my ph creeps over 8.5 if I don’t....

i also have two dosing pumps dosing Red Sea two part....

So I made the mistake of assuming they were equal, but in reality I should have been dosing a 3:1 ratio... which mostly likely is what caused a huge precipitation issue that covered my glass... But I did a 33% water change scraped the glass and the alkalinity was back up to 7.... I then started dosing at the correct 3:1 ratio and it slowly dropped over the week (even though I kept increasing the dose) to 5.2.... I had only been testing alkalinity and then when I tetsted the calcium and saw it was literally off the chart I stopped dosing it all together but kept the dosing pump on for alkalinity.... 24 hours later it dropped again... to the current 4.9.... Now what???

 

[laverda]

First are you aware the 2 part and Kalk are both adding alkalinity and CA? I would stop using both unless you have really high consumption. I would stop using Kalk until you get things sorted out.
I think you may have a testing error. The reason I say this is you PH is very high for such low alkalinity. It is normal for Kalk to drive up your PH, but I don’t believe it would that high at such low alkalinity.

 

[DexterPhi]

omg.. I really hope that I haven't just been using the checker wrong all this time... I literally have two, and have 3 open bottles of reagent double checking... Ill try when I get home.... The weird part is my water change water tests ok.... I honestly really hope this is it....

And I'm certainly falling into mad scientist category by dosing kalk and two part and probablly should stop... Ive just been desperate to do anything to raise my alkalinity up and I knew at least the kalk was a balanced additive....

 

[laverda]

omg.. I really hope that I haven't just been using the checker wrong all this time... I literally have two, and have 3 open bottles of reagent double checking... Ill try when I get home.... The weird part is my water change water tests ok.... I honestly really hope this is it....

And I'm certainly falling into mad scientist category by dosing kalk and two part and probablly should stop... Ive just been desperate to do anything to raise my alkalinity up and I knew at least the kalk was a balanced additive....

But your system is out of balance if your alk numbers are correct. Adding kalk will never fix that. It could also be you PH readings are not accurate. You might have someone else test you PH and alkalinity.

 

[Ippyroy]

How hard is your sand bed? Have you checked your pumps and heaters for precipitate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m embarrassed to post again publicly with the same issue I have in the past but I just can’t get my alkalinity figured out....

it’s funny, my dad literally had a PhD in chemistry and I’m still too dumb to figure this out.. maybe i was adopted.

Don’t judge!

So my alkalinity is currently at 4.9 (I have two Hanna checkers that agree and two bottles of reactant and my water change water registers correctly around 8 or 9 usually)... My calcium measured by salifert must be over 500 because it never changes color for me unless I fill syringe again.... My ph swings from 8.2 to 8.52 daily per my Seneye....

I’m currently dosing 2 teaspoons of kalkwasser per gallon in my top off water which utilizes about 2/3 a gallon a day... I also add around 8 ml of white vinegar per gallon to the top off water because my ph creeps over 8.5 if I don’t....

i also have two dosing pumps dosing Red Sea two part....

So I made the mistake of assuming they were equal, but in reality I should have been dosing a 3:1 ratio... which mostly likely is what caused a huge precipitation issue that covered my glass... But I did a 33% water change scraped the glass and the alkalinity was back up to 7.... I then started dosing at the correct 3:1 ratio and it slowly dropped over the week (even though I kept increasing the dose) to 5.2.... I had only been testing alkalinity and then when I tetsted the calcium and saw it was literally off the chart I stopped dosing it all together but kept the dosing pump on for alkalinity.... 24 hours later it dropped again... to the current 4.9.... Now what???

If you do use a second syringe for calcium in the salifert kit, what do you find for calcium? 550 ppm calcium is not a big deal.

 

[robbyg]

First thing I would do is stop dosing everything.

Second thing I would do is mix a one gallon of fresh SW and aerate it for a day and then perform all you usual tests on it. If the numbers are odd it means your testing procedure are wrong or your Reagents are bad. I have noticed that Hanna ALK reagent if not sealed properly will go bad in a month or so. It will read 4+ dkh when the water is really 8+.

Once you know you can test Alk, Ca and Mg properly by either getting new reagents and sealing them properly after each use or fixing your testing method, it's time to test the tank again and report back the numbers.

 

[DexterPhi]

Ok... maybe I just needed to be patient....

so my Hanna checker turns off if I hold down the button so that wasn’t it...

but leaving the alkalinity dosing on and calcium off for another day and now.
Alkalinity 6.9
Calcium 450
Ph 8.4

I have to think this should be considered close to balanced....

I agree I probably should have stopped the kalk before now... I’m switching the water out tonight.

so should I dose one more time to get alk significantly above 7 and then turn it all off and monitor how much it drops in a day? Or should I raise it higher?

also I didn’t know you could refill the salifert and it still be accurate... good to know for next time, but right now 450 sounds pretty good!

 

[robbyg]

You need to move the numbers in baby steps. Your falling into a common reefer trap of trying to get numbers up way to fast. Yesterday your ALK was 4.1 and today it's 6.9 that's just way to fast. I agree dose more alk but try not to move past .5 dKH per day and you probably want to stop when it gets to 8.5
If you get to 8.5 and the following day it drops back down to 6.9 you have other issues going on.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Relax.

Your current numbers are fine. Somewhat higher alk is a fine plan too. If your goal is, say, 7-8 dKH, it doesn't matter how you get there. Both parts of the two part, just the alk part, or kalkwasser all will yield 7-8 dKH and calcium perfectly fine.

 

[CarltonCay]

These work in tandem. When pH or Alk swing they swing the other numbers. Higher Alk means higher buffer for calcium carbonate. Same with salinity. My salt will mix between 7-9 depending on the salinity. I wait 24 hours after the last salt added to the mixing bucket for the Alk, pH, and salinity to stabilize. It's not uncommon for some salts to be mixed in 30 minutes, added to the tank at 1.026 only for the tank to climb to 1.030 in the next hours and all the numbers be sky high.


What is your stock level? Do you have large corals?
Is your drip clogging and then unclogging when the return pump shuts off and dumping in a large amount of top off?

Raising Alk should be a week-long process with testing and stabilizing.