Alkalinity

[Ab_Bot]

Hello-

I have a new tank thats been set up for a little over 6 weeks. I only have cleaner shrimp and 10 snails in it. I have been testing alkalinity and it seems to be all over the place.
4/2- 11.4
4/3- 9.4
4/7- 7.4
4/15- 7.6
4/16- 10

So I have done water changes because I am trying to lower my nitrates but I would like to figure out how to keep my alkalinity more stable. Last night I did a large water change, tested my levels a few hours later and they were 7.6. I tested again today and now its at 10.

My shrimp and snails are fine but I would really like to have all of my levels stable before adding anything else to my tank.

my calcium is 450, up from 425 yesterday
phosphates are .03
nitrates about 3 i believe
ammonia and nitrite 0
salinity 1.025

Am I worrying about this too much at this point? Any advice on keeping the alkalinity stable?

 

[aquatony]

Did you change your salts? If I were you I would stir your salts flip them in to different clean buckets and mix it really good. Make sure the water you making is consistent.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hello-

I have a new tank thats been set up for a little over 6 weeks. I only have cleaner shrimp and 10 snails in it. I have been testing alkalinity and it seems to be all over the place.
4/2- 11.4
4/3- 9.4
4/7- 7.4
4/15- 7.6
4/16- 10

So I have done water changes because I am trying to lower my nitrates but I would like to figure out how to keep my alkalinity more stable. Last night I did a large water change, tested my levels a few hours later and they were 7.6. I tested again today and now its at 10.

My shrimp and snails are fine but I would really like to have all of my levels stable before adding anything else to my tank.

my calcium is 450, up from 425 yesterday
phosphates are .03
nitrates about 3 i believe
ammonia and nitrite 0
salinity 1.025

Am I worrying about this too much at this point? Any advice on keeping the alkalinity stable?

What test kit are you using? Are you doing any dosing of any kind? And what salt mix are you using and how often are you performing water changes?

 

[Brew12]

Hello-

I have a new tank thats been set up for a little over 6 weeks. I only have cleaner shrimp and 10 snails in it. I have been testing alkalinity and it seems to be all over the place.
4/2- 11.4
4/3- 9.4
4/7- 7.4
4/15- 7.6
4/16- 10

So I have done water changes because I am trying to lower my nitrates but I would like to figure out how to keep my alkalinity more stable. Last night I did a large water change, tested my levels a few hours later and they were 7.6. I tested again today and now its at 10.

My shrimp and snails are fine but I would really like to have all of my levels stable before adding anything else to my tank.

my calcium is 450, up from 425 yesterday
phosphates are .03
nitrates about 3 i believe
ammonia and nitrite 0
salinity 1.025

Am I worrying about this too much at this point? Any advice on keeping the alkalinity stable?

What test kit are you using?

Also, what size tank is it and are you testing salinity each time you test for alkalinity?

 

[Ab_Bot]

So I am using Fritz reef pro mix. I was planning on changing to a different salt, but I used this to start up the tank cause I figured I was going to run through it pretty quick.

I am testing with giesemann kits. I don't see many people talking about these kits but its what my LFS uses and it appears to be a good quality kit to me.

I do not dose anything and only feed one algae wafer every 3 days to my cleaner shrimp.

I changed 10 gallons of water last night and tested after the change.

I did a 35 gallon change 5 days ago, 20 gallon change 12 days ago. The only difference in some of these changes is I hand stirred the salt one time and put a powerhead in my bucket to stir it another time.

I also have a refugium with a small ball of chaeto in it as well as a protein skimmer.

 

[Ab_Bot]

What test kit are you using?

Also, what size tank is it and are you testing salinity each time you test for alkalinity?

Its a 95 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump. I was having issues with my old refractometer so I don't think my testing was accurate, I recently got a milwaukee refractometer so I am 99% sure my salinity is spot on now and has been all this week.

 

[Crabs McJones]

So I am using Fritz reef pro mix. I was planning on changing to a different salt, but I used this to start up the tank cause I figured I was going to run through it pretty quick.

I am testing with giesemann kits. I don't see many people talking about these kits but its what my LFS uses and it appears to be a good quality kit to me.

I do not dose anything and only feed one algae wafer every 3 days to my cleaner shrimp.

I changed 10 gallons of water last night and tested after the change.

I did a 35 gallon change 5 days ago, 20 gallon change 12 days ago. The only difference in some of these changes is I hand stirred the salt one time and put a powerhead in my bucket to stir it another time.

I also have a refugium with a small ball of chaeto in it as well as a protein skimmer.

Never heard of the Giesemann testing kits. But I personally use Fritz salt and it's always mixed consistantly for me. Are you measuring the salinity of your saltwater before you add it into the tank? How much salt are you using per gallon when do you your water changes?

 

[Ab_Bot]

Never heard of the Giesemann testing kits. But I personally use Fritz salt and it's always mixed consistantly for me. Are you measuring the salinity of your saltwater before you add it into the tank? How much salt are you using per gallon when do you your water changes?

Yes i always measure salinity, but did have issues with a refractometer so I got a new one. Maybe my issue was my salinity not being consistent until this week? I add about 2.5 cups of salt for each 5 gallons of water. I also tested my rodi water for alkalinity just to see and its at 0.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Yes i always measure salinity, but did have issues with a refractometer so I got a new one. Maybe my issue was my salinity not being consistent until this week? I add about 2.5 cups of salt for each 5 gallons of water. I also tested my rodi water for alkalinity just to see and its at 0.

If you were having issues with your refractometer that could be the culprit. If you were mixing higher or lower because it was giving false readings, that would account for your levels being all over the place.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Alkalinity doesn’t rise significantly on its own that fast, but big water changes with a high alk mix will raise it.

 

[Ab_Bot]

Alkalinity doesn’t rise significantly on its own that fast, but big water changes with a high alk mix will raise it.

Ok so my salinity was low earlier this week and I added a bucket of higher salinity water to raise it. Would that have caused my alkalinity to spike even though my overall water tested at 1.025?

 

[Brew12]

If you sampled with a low salinity and then again at a higher salinity, yes, you will get a higher alk reading.

 

[Ab_Bot]

If you sampled with a low salinity and then again at a higher salinity, yes, you will get a higher alk reading.

Well I added higher salinity water to the tank, let it run for a little bit, tested my salinity and it was at 1.025 then tested alkalinity. But I think I need to focus on keeping salinity completely stable for longer then a week and maybe that will solve my issue.
Kind of seems like the fact I have had to add higher salinity water I may have thrown it off.

Thanks for everyones advice.

 

[PatW]

One source for the variation is a variation in your test results. It may be that the alkalinity in the tank has been constant and the test results are all over the map.

You could test several times at the same time to see if they are all nearly the same value. Or you could use another ALK test. Alternatively you could have the LFS test your ALK.

 

[Ab_Bot]

One source for the variation is a variation in your test results. It may be that the alkalinity in the tank has been constant and the test results are all over the map.

You could test several times at the same time to see if they are all nearly the same value. Or you could use another ALK test. Alternatively you could have the LFS test your ALK.

I have actually tested twice in a row on a few occasions, including last night because I'm still getting use to the colors and what not. I get the EXACT results each time. Kind of surprised me because I thought they would differ at least a tiny bit.

Good thought though.. I may take in a sample sometime this week and see what my lfs gets.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok so my salinity was low earlier this week and I added a bucket of higher salinity water to raise it. Would that have caused my alkalinity to spike even though my overall water tested at 1.025?

Only if it rose a lot.

If the sg is 1.021 and it rose to 1.025, the alk (assuming it started at, say, 8 dKH) will only rise to about 9.5 dKH.