My 32 gallon tank (~ 25 gallon water volume after accounting for equipment and rock), is ~ 9 months old and is filled with mostly soft and lps corals (and a few monti-caps / birdsnest corals I received as "freebies"). I have consistently done a 5 gallon water change weekly and plan to continue. I have always used pre-mixed imagitarium salt water and it has consistently been a pH of 8-8.2 and salinity of 1.024-1.025 and have had good tank results to date with slow, but noticeable coral growth.
I wanted to improve my testing and have just upgraded to a Hannah Alkalinity checker and have noticed some inconsistencies I was not expecting. Upon receiving my checker last week, I tested a batch of fresh water and it was 8.1 dkh. Testing my tank daily and it has consistently held 8.2-8.4 dkh. I was surprised this morning when I tested a new batch of fresh water to find that is is reading an alkalinity of 11.4 (pH 8 / salinity 1.025). I'm confused as to how to proceed but am mostly curious regarding how much of a difference it will make long term. Is it more important to have alkalinity "present" at appropriate levels or will swings between say 8 and 11 cause issues?
Secondly, I'm seeing conflicting advised on whether or not adding a supplement such as "all for reef" will help stabilize the alkalinity levels or will it just continue to raise it beyond appropriate levels?
I wanted to improve my testing and have just upgraded to a Hannah Alkalinity checker and have noticed some inconsistencies I was not expecting. Upon receiving my checker last week, I tested a batch of fresh water and it was 8.1 dkh. Testing my tank daily and it has consistently held 8.2-8.4 dkh. I was surprised this morning when I tested a new batch of fresh water to find that is is reading an alkalinity of 11.4 (pH 8 / salinity 1.025). I'm confused as to how to proceed but am mostly curious regarding how much of a difference it will make long term. Is it more important to have alkalinity "present" at appropriate levels or will swings between say 8 and 11 cause issues?
Secondly, I'm seeing conflicting advised on whether or not adding a supplement such as "all for reef" will help stabilize the alkalinity levels or will it just continue to raise it beyond appropriate levels?