Alkalinity post tank move…

dburt520 · May 8, 2026

I recently moved a reef tank to a new home and in the process put new sand in, everything else remained the same. I sold some colonies and just took a frag of each before the move (probably 30 total SPS frags, 10 or so total heads of torches, 2 tiny clams, a BTA and my large Duncan (maybe 25 heads) but I’m struggling to maintain alkalinity after the move. Using Tropic Marin Pro Reef saltI am having a heck of time keeping up with the Alkalinity… not sure what else to do or try but
I’m afraid if I continue at the rate I am my sand bed will be concrete. Tank is using about .6-.8 DKH a day, dosing 45ML of BRS soda ash and tank is 170G total water volume. I can bump DKH up to 8 with a 30-40ML single dose but it falls quickly and daily doser doesn’t maintain it.

My other params at the moment:
Mag - 1380
Cal - 460
Nitrate - 3
Phosphate - .02

Thank you

soreefed · May 8, 2026

that level of alk consumption doesnt sound like an issue in that size tank with the way you described it. seems like a pretty normal situation!

moving the tank and all frags could cause the coral to be stressed and try to more rapidly skeletonize. alk and calc are consumed by coral to create new growth. In my understanding a big colony uses more alk not because its big wheres its already grown but because it has a lot of growth front where new skeleton is growing.

dburt520 · May 8, 2026

The frags are actually all doing awesome, holding nice colors, growing, polyps out etc. i dragged them a few months before the move so they are also pretty well encrusted on the discs. I was more concerned about the amount of Alk being dosed and a concrete sand bed (been there years ago, it sucked lol).

BryanM · May 8, 2026

dburt520 said:
The frags are actually all doing awesome, holding nice colors, growing, polyps out etc. i dragged them a few months before the move so they are also pretty well encrusted on the discs. I was more concerned about the amount of Alk being dosed and a concrete sand bed (been there years ago, it sucked lol).

I dose far more alk than I thought I needed, all is well though... no concrete sand here :)

dburt520 · May 8, 2026

BryanM said:
I dose far more alk than I thought I needed, all is well though... no concrete sand here :)

I would like to switch to Kalk but it can’t keep up. Not sure if consumption goes down as tank settles in but obviously as corals grow it consumes more - maybe a balance somewhere in there?