Alkalinity Question.

fpotter15028

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Hello All,

First of all, thanks everyone. This site has been so much help to me. You have no idea!!!

But I have another newbie question again. So my 92 gallon has been up and running for a few months now. I started with the Micro Bacter dry rock cycling kit. So that has been completed and I now have the lights on. My tank has a couple of clown fish, Blood shrimp and a couple of Hammer corals to test the water. I have been dosing the kits Micro Bacter Clean to help with the ugly stage. So far so good, I only seeing a few diatoms and the tank looks great.

So my question is about alkalinity. Currently, it is sitting at 7.69. I was dosing with the BRS soda ash to help keep it up. But stopped when I was concerned that calcium wasn't needing dosed as well. I was told the tank should be consuming calcium as well as alkalinity at roughly the same rate.

So here are my stats with Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and 10% weekly water changes. I test with Hanna Checkers (cause I'm colour blind and can't read the scales)
Temp: 78.6
Salt: 35
PH: 8.24
Alk: 7.69
Cal: 438
Mag: 1424
Nitrite: 0.00
Phospate: 0.03

So I guess my question is. Hows my water? And should I continue dosing Soda Ash to get my alkalinity up. Im trying to get this right from the start. And am moving very slowly to try and avoid some real issues in the future.

Thanks Again
 

Reef.

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Alk is a tricky one, the thing is no one really knows the best alk to run a tank, we generally agree it’s between 7-12 with 7 giving more colour and 12 more growth.

It’s a case of picking a number and trying to keep your tank stable at that lvl, good idea to pick a number near your salt alk lvl, as when you do water changes it will balance out.

corals use alk and calcium at about equal rates and some mag, mag is a little tricky as it’s not used at the same rate.

When your corals start to grow they use up these 3, you need to replace them to keep the lvls constant.

Many different ways to do this.

First you need to check how much your tank is using, test alk then test again 24 hours later at the same time, that will you the amount you need to add.
We generally go off the alk and the calcium will follow, if the alk is correct the calcium should be too.

I aim for 7-7.5, I use Tropic Marin All For Reef, that adds back in the alk and calcium and mag, and trace elements and the correct amounts, they have a dosing calculator you can use.

A lot there for you to be getting on with, that is a very quick overview, as you research you can fill in the gaps.
 

flagg37

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I would add, at the very beginning it’s not uncommon for alk and ca to be consumed at different rates since things are trying to equalize. Ones there’s a bit more homeostasis then you should see a more even uptake. In the mean time, I would continue to add the soda ash to keep up your alk.
 
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fpotter15028

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I would firstly be questioning that ALK number as IORC mixes up to around 12DKH.

Was the tank filled with IORC?
I have tested the alk in my bruit can when first mixed. Im getting between 11 and 12 on my checker. But my tank is mid 7's. I do daily small water changes with my apex dos. For a total of 10% water change weekly.

I have been doing some more reading. And have found posts about higher alk consumption during the bio filtration building up. So I guess I will keep dosing Alk and keep an eye on all the numbers.
 
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