Confused? about alkalinity

[Lisa Cain]

well you need to find out if your test is accurate and if it is then dose less if you want to lower you alk. Once you get it lower just maintain it at that level of dosing. You want to do that over a slow time frame. Other wise just leave it where its at until it comes down. You will have to keep changing your dose from time to time anways as your rate increses or declines

Thank you!!!!!!! My other parameters are okay. I have to find a ph test.

 

[Sam7]

oh so there all in another tank waiting for you to get this tank blanced out. Well i would go slow and keep checking your alk and all parameters......until you see how much your new tank will need with the corals you add

 

[Sam7]

ok i gotcha now lol....keep us posted as to what your tank really is.....

 

[Lisa Cain]

oh so there all in another tank waiting for you to get this tank blanced out. Well i would go slow and keep checking your alk and all parameters......until you see how much your new tank will need with the corals you add

Yes, I will add one fish and coral at a time over a period of days and test. I will also start with low intensity light. I have Kessels 360xE tuna blue.

 

[Sam7]

I have anemones, bubble corals, rock flower anemone's, a leather coral, mushroom and fish.

nice looking corals

 

[Lisa Cain]

ok i gotcha now lol....keep us posted as to what your tank really is.....

I will keep you posted.

 

[Lisa Cain]

nice looking corals

Thanks, I try hard to keep everything okay. The transfer to the new tank is a little scary.

 

[Sam7]

Thanks, I try hard to keep everything okay. The transfer to the new tank is a little scary.

it will be fine ...just try to get the two tanks as close as possible parameter wise

 

[Lisa Cain]

it will be fine ...just try to get the two tanks as close as possible parameter wise

Yes, I will try . I have been measuring the parameters of both tanks. I wake up measuring before I go to work. The only parameter that I have to make sure of is the alkalinity.

 

[Lisa Cain]

nice looking corals

I looked at your build thread, nice tank!!! and corals. Do you have a glass top on your tank?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Natural Seawater is 7-8 dKH therefore, I assume it is to high.

Just an FYI, and despite many incorrect sources of hobby info (also including the google search AI), average natural seawater (35 ppt) is closer to 6.4 dKH, and would very rarely be above 7 dKH (only when salinity is above 38 ppt, sg = 1.029) .

It's fine to target alk in the 7-11 dKH range, but corals do not naturally get exposed to levels above 7 dKH except in unusual situations.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you!!!!!!! My other parameters are okay. I have to find a ph test.

I would not worry about pH early in the game, and a ph test kit is not reliable, IMO. pH is of secondary importance.

 

[Lisa Cain]

I would not worry about pH early in the game, and a ph test kit is not reliable, IMO. pH is of secondary importance.

Thanks, I took my water to a local fish store that has a very expensive water testing apparatus and the alkalinity was 7.9 . I have no idea why last night it tested 12.5 with the Salifert Reef kit.

 

[Lisa Cain]

I would not worry about pH early in the game, and a ph test kit is not reliable, IMO. pH is of secondary importance.

Thanks I took my water to a local fish store that has a very expensive water testing apparatus and the alkalinity was 7.9 . I have no idea why last night it tested 12.5 with the Salifert testing kit.

 

[Jamie9]

Keep in mind, different salts have different Alk. I have one that gives an Alk of 8, another that gives 12. I often mix them together to make my water change at 10. It's possible you got high Alk salt water if you are buying it at the LFS (also easy to be off by 0.5 or more if the test kit isn't great.) Don't start AFR until you have demand and you get your water first to where you want to maintain it.

 

[Lisa Cain]

Keep in mind, different salts have different Alk. I have one that gives an Alk of 8, another that gives 12. I often mix them together to make my water change at 10. It's possible you got high Alk salt water if you are buying it at the LFS (also easy to be off by 0.5 or more if the test kit isn't great.) Don't start AFR until you have demand and you get your water first to where you want to maintain it.

Thank you.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks, I took my water to a local fish store that has a very expensive water testing apparatus and the alkalinity was 7.9 . I have no idea why last night it tested 12.5 with the Salifert Reef kit.

That’s probably accurate, but if you mean an Aquaspin,,it does not seem to be super accurate, just a high volume apparatus.