Alkalinity high

[Izak]

Hi Everyone

I'm new here, and my tank is new as well. Tank size is 130 liters, using a Zetlight 1201, no skimmer, just mechanical filtering..... Tank has been running for 2 months, started using cycled water and some live rock
Currently have about 10 zoa's in, (1 which is not doing great, the others all seem perfectly happy)
2 hammer (seems very happy)
2 small galaxy torches (doing good)
And a red and green Goni (not doing so great)
2 Clowns
1 Blue wrasse
1 Blue streak Goby
1 Molly
1 Mandarin Dragonette (which eats pellets, but I feed him some pods every now and then as well)

I took the time to test my water parameters everyday for the last week

Calcium is around 400
Phosphate a bit high at 0.5
Nitrites is 0
Magnesium hovers between 1200 and 1380 (I'm dosing ocean six reef complete and ocean six magnesium daily)

But my alkalinity stays high around 13.7 to 14.1

I tried reducing dosage, did a water change...
Its not a big expensive setup, it was a gift to my 5 year old son, he likes the fish, I enjoy the corals...

I'm just worried about the alk being so high (even though its stable) and how to get it down without causing an alk swing...

I am considering ditching ocean six products all together and switching over to red sea...

Any suggestions?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

magnesium does not get consumed faster than a max of about 1/10th of the calcium consumption, and if alk is not being consumed, neither is calcium nor magnesium.

The alk likely reflects your new salt water. Have you measured it?

 

[Izak]

magnesium does not get consumed faster than a max of about 1/10th of the calcium consumption, and if alk is not being consumed, neither is calcium nor magnesium.

The alk likely reflects your new salt water. Have you measured it?

Hi

Thanks for the reply

That is my concern as well. I buy mixed salt water as well as RODI (for evaporation top-up, I have tested the RODI for magnesium, calcium and phosphates and reading are all 0), so I haven't personally tested it... Using Salifert test kits

I ordered a Refractometer which should arrive tomorrow, so I will do a test then, but that was also my thinking from the research I did, and the measures I have already taken...

The alk stays between 13.4 and 14.1
The calcium is stable at 400
But the Magnesium has dropped from 1380 to 1290 to 1200 over the last 3 days... (bear in mind, I have stopped dossing magnesium, and are only doing half doses of the reef complete..

So something is consuming magnesium, and not calcium...

 

[Gretchacha]

My suggestion would be just to do a series of water changes to get the parameters back to what the salt water mix is coming out of the bag. 20-30% per week, or even every 4-5 days if you can do water changes mid week sometimes. You shouldn’t need to be daily dosing for 6 LPS corals in a two month old tank. Just do weekly water changes to keep things in check. The gonis hardly lay down skeleton, especially if they are not happy. They do not like alk or salinity swings in my experience.

I made the mistake of dosing All For Reef when my tank was too young and my alkalinity swung up very high also. I have mostly an alveopora garden. One of my very first corals was a red goni my husband bought for my birthday. A flowerpot!

 

[Uncle99]

That’s a high alk number for LFS water. You should check that water, some good, some not, depends. Check salinity first, ensure on point, retest. With bought water, you really never know what the mix is so you’ll need to test it each time to ensure this is not a source of instability to your system.

Phosphate would be super high at .5ppm. Maybe you mean 0.05ppm which is the absolute lowest I run.

Nitrites or Nitrates? If nitrates, 0ppm, that number starves the system. Bump to 5-10ppm.

MG tests can vary somewhat. Look for a trend rather than each test.

 

[Izak]

magnesium does not get consumed faster than a max of about 1/10th of the calcium consumption, and if alk is not being consumed, neither is calcium nor magnesium.

The alk likely reflects your new salt water. Have you measured it?

Hi
So I got my Refractometer, calibrated it, check the salinity and its sitting nicely at 35 and 1.026...
So the only thing that I can think of is that not enough Alk is being consumed by the corals... Bear in mind the tank is still young, going on 7 weeks now and that the coral frags in there is still small and probably haven't developed a proper apatite yet...

Any other thoughts or suggestions?
I think for now I will lay of the dosing and do more frequent water changes..

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

You mention you try to reduce the dosage, but you don't mention what you are dosing.

To be honest you are going very fast, adding livestock very fast and chasing numbers after only 2 months. Your tank is still changing and adapting to all the livestock, and going through maturing process at the same time.

I would stop dosing anything, just keep on regular water changes for a few months, test during this time to determine what your tank is absorbing. After few months you can make a proper decision based on the data you have collected.

You are trusting your LFS too much by trusting their water, you can never know if they take good care of their equipment. I would suggest that buying a rodi machine is more important than adding more livestock or chasing numbers at this point.

But my alkalinity stays high around 13.7 to 14.1

I tried reducing dosage, did a water change...

 

[exnisstech]

On a tank like you have you should be able to keep decent parameters just doing water changes provided your fresh saltwater mix has parameters where you want to run them. If not I would mix my own in a 5 gallon bucket.
I ran two tanks 150g and a 180g sharing a sump for several years on water changes only. I had a lot of lps and softies.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So something is consuming magnesium, and not calcium...

No, that is not the case.

I recommend RMM for you lol

Just say NO to magnesium testing: RMM is born

OK, this thread has been many years in the making, and I'm posting it here since folks in the chem forum are probably already tired of all the threads relating to problematic magnesium testing. I'm going to propose a method, let's call it the Randy Magnesium Method, or RMM for short. All good...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Reefer Collector]

Hi
So I got my Refractometer, calibrated it, check the salinity and its sitting nicely at 35 and 1.026...
So the only thing that I can think of is that not enough Alk is being consumed by the corals... Bear in mind the tank is still young, going on 7 weeks now and that the coral frags in there is still small and probably haven't developed a proper apatite yet...

Any other thoughts or suggestions?
I think for now I will lay of the dosing and do more frequent water changes..

I had two bad Refractometer in the last 4 months.. recalibrates and then 2 days laters they are wildly off. You should use a digital salinity meter also have a hydrometer to verify you reading on the diigital meter. They are a important part of reefing and cost $30 on amazon.

 

[leogoyireef]

My suggestion would be just to do a series of water changes to get the parameters back to what the salt water mix is coming out of the bag. 20-30% per week, or even every 4-5 days if you can do water changes mid week sometimes. You shouldn’t need to be daily dosing for 6 LPS corals in a two month old tank. Just do weekly water changes to keep things in check. The gonis hardly lay down skeleton, especially if they are not happy. They do not like alk or salinity swings in my experience.

I made the mistake of dosing All For Reef when my tank was too young and my alkalinity swung up very high also. I have mostly an alveopora garden. One of my very first corals was a red goni my husband bought for my birthday. A flowerpot!

Yes sir o believe tha is my problem .. alkalinity is 13/14 ( all for reef ) is probably the one is making the alk up

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes sir o believe tha is my problem .. alkalinity is 13/14 ( all for reef ) is probably the one is making the alk up

If alkalinity is above your target alkalinity, I presume that you know to stop dosing all for reef.