Alkalinity not rising

Javierati

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Hello!

So I am new to the hobby, 3 months or so into it. I have an issue with my Alkalinity and my pH. Thay are both stuck at 7.9 and can't get them to go higher.

I have a calcium reactor and a kalkwasser reactor. Both from Geo's Reef.

Tank volume: 500Galons

My most recent readings are as follows:
Alk 7.77
CA 584
Mg 1648
pH 7.98

My kalkwasser is using RO/DI water and has a fixed dosing schedule with the Neptune DOS

Currently we are dosing the lime water as follows:

5000 ml at 2-4am
1000 ml at 5-6am
1000 ml at 7-8am
5000 ml at 10-12pm
5000 ml at 2-4pm
1000 ml at 5-6pm
1000ml at 7-8pm
5000ml at 10-Midnight

Thats 24 Liters of Lime Water going in the tank! And Alkalinity is not rising!!!

I obviously started at lower levels but seeing how much I'm pumping in I don't know what else to do!

I am using Seachem Reef Kalkwasser that I bought from Amazon.

Any insight would be much appreciated!!
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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How are you measuring alkalinity?

Do you have a clearly articulated reason to want the alkalinity to be higher? The current level of alk is fine.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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if the limewater you added is saturated (it may not be), then you added about 1.5 dKH that way. Not a huge amount to worry about not seeing the rise.
 
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Javierati

Javierati

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I am using the Neptune Trident to measure Alkalinity. Some reef keepers say keep Alk between 8-11. I was aiming at 8.5 Alk.

I wanted to add, I have 35 small fish in the tank and 6 LPS corals (3 hammers and 3 frogspawn). These corals were added 1 week ago and are doing great.
 

ScottB

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I am using the Neptune Trident to measure Alkalinity. Some reef keepers say keep Alk between 8-11. I was aiming at 8.5 Alk.

I wanted to add, I have 35 small fish in the tank and 6 LPS corals (3 hammers and 3 frogspawn). These corals were added 1 week ago and are doing great.
Agree Randy's comments, but I would confirm your Neptune test with a manual one just to double check.

Seawater runs about 7 dkh. Most of the coral vendors I use run 8-8.5 these days, so I do the same. Running higher (10+) ALK can get a little tricky particularly at your current stocking level. Low nutrient and high ALK is very stressful for SPS corals. 8.5 is a fine target IMO.

I think of KALK dosing and my CaRx as tools to maintain a given status quo level. When/if I get low (not uncommon, stuff happens) I dose up with ALK supplement -- ESV in my case.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I am using the Neptune Trident to measure Alkalinity. Some reef keepers say keep Alk between 8-11. I was aiming at 8.5 Alk.

I wanted to add, I have 35 small fish in the tank and 6 LPS corals (3 hammers and 3 frogspawn). These corals were added 1 week ago and are doing great.

I agree that entire range is fine, but there are challenges keeping higher alk. IMO, most people aim for 7.0-8.5 dKH rather than higher in that range
 
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Javierati

Javierati

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Agree Randy's comments, but I would confirm your Neptune test with a manual one just to double check.

Seawater runs about 7 dkh. Most of the coral vendors I use run 8-8.5 these days, so I do the same. Running higher (10+) ALK can get a little tricky particularly at your current stocking level. Low nutrient and high ALK is very stressful for SPS corals. 8.5 is a fine target IMO.

I think of KALK dosing and my CaRx as tools to maintain a given status quo level. When/if I get low (not uncommon, stuff happens) I dose up with ALK supplement -- ESV in my case.
Thanks. It seems I am not that far from my target of 8.5 dKh and I am not that stressed because 7.9-8 dKh is also considered within the acceptable range.

If I understand correctly, I should not keep pumping more and more lime water to raise the level. Instead, I should use an Alk supplement to get to 8.5 dKh and then maintain it with the kalkwasser reactor.
 

blasterman

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You use kalk to maintain pH and try to keep alk level. You dont/shouldn't use it to raise it.

Use regular baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to raise alk. I prefer a dKH between 8-9.

Reef calculator shows you need just a hair over 3 tablespoons of baking soda to raise dKH from 7.7 to 8.5 in a 500gal tank. What I use. Problem is fixed for 99 cents .
 

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Thanks. It seems I am not that far from my target of 8.5 dKh and I am not that stressed because 7.9-8 dKh is also considered within the acceptable range.

If I understand correctly, I should not keep pumping more and more lime water to raise the level. Instead, I should use an Alk supplement to get to 8.5 dKh and then maintain it with the kalkwasser reactor.
Correct. I like the other commentary here as well. Limewater I press only for pH when I cannot ventilate fresh air. Like now.
 
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Javierati

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So I have added baking soda to raise he Alk. So far I have seen good results. Added 1/3 of the recommended amount to raise Alk from 7.7 to 8.5 just to go slow. So far the Alk rose to 7.98 about an hour after first dose.
I will continue doing this slowly until I get to 8.5.

Next question. Knowing the amount I was adding with the Kalk reactor. Should I start tapering down to see how low can I go ?

I was adding about 20-25 liters of lime water per day. Seems a lot.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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So I have added baking soda to raise he Alk. So far I have seen good results. Added 1/3 of the recommended amount to raise Alk from 7.7 to 8.5 just to go slow. So far the Alk rose to 7.98 about an hour after first dose.
I will continue doing this slowly until I get to 8.5.

Next question. Knowing the amount I was adding with the Kalk reactor. Should I start tapering down to see how low can I go ?

I was adding about 20-25 liters of lime water per day. Seems a lot.

It does not seem a lot to me, but if alk rises or pH is too high, reduce it. :)
 
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Javierati

Javierati

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So these are the graphs for Alk and pH

I was able to raise the Alk to 8.55 with soda ash but it has slowly decreased over time.
At the same time I’ve done Kalkwasser 8L throughout the day using a kalk reactor.
What do you all recommend me adjusting, or changing first.
Want to keep Alk at 8.5 and pH at 8.3.
0282742D-F17A-4D95-A34C-9830CD8C8547.jpeg
 

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I know your question here was alk and ph. But your calcium at 584 and mag almost 1600 seem extremely high. Maybe somebody also can chime in if that affects the overall chemistry as well.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I don't know that you need to change anything. Alkalinity in the 7.0 to 8.5 dKH range is perfectly fine.

If you want alk higher than it has been you need to dose an alk supplement more often. :)
 
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Javierati

Javierati

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I don't know that you need to change anything. Alkalinity in the 7.0 to 8.5 dKH range is perfectly fine.

If you want alk higher than it has been you need to dose an alk supplement more often. :)
With regards to the Kalkwasser… I don’t know if it’s doing it’s job because I see Alk going down.

pH at 7.9-8 is stuck and can’t seem to raise it. Will try a CO2 scrubber to see if that helps.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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With regards to the Kalkwasser… I don’t know if it’s doing it’s job because I see Alk going down.

pH at 7.9-8 is stuck and can’t seem to raise it. Will try a CO2 scrubber to see if that helps.

Not sure what you mean. Just because it does not meet the demand or keep pH as high as you want doesn't mean it isn't meeting some of the demand.
 
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Javierati

Javierati

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Not sure what you mean. Just because it does not meet the demand or keep pH as high as you want doesn't mean it isn't meeting some of the demand.
I tested Alk on the Kalkwasser lime water and it was at 1. Super low. Is this even possible?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I tested Alk on the Kalkwasser lime water and it was at 1. Super low. Is this even possible?

Possible. Saturated limewater should be about 113 dKH.

What did you do to measure it?
 

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