Dvanlier05
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If the alk slowly dropped, they will acclimate. It helps that u keep low nutrients. If you bring up, im sure u no do it slowly
Crazy low Alk, but my Corals look better than ever
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OP
OP
24” 8 Bulb ATI Powermodule
LARedstickreefer
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I like how the Acros sit atop the rocks like the ruling class, looking down over the kingdom.
Mount Olympus!
Mount Olympus!
OP
OP
I’m not trying to fix it. I’m letting it ride. It’s kind of hard to argue with the results I’ve been having for 6 plus months. Color is steadily getting better, and I’m getting decent growth. I’m just trying to maintain my reactor to stay consistent.
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
good luck, keep us updated. There was another member who ran his pretty low for a few months too
C. Eymann
2500 Club Member
Running lower alk is not really new, when I ran a Zeovit system I kept mine around 6.5-7dkh as per recommendations of Korallin Zucht to get the best results of the Zeo system.
While most recommend to keep non-ULN closed systems at 9-11, the average DKh of seawater is 7, so it shouldn't be suprising to see corals thrive around this level, or even slightly below it.
While most recommend to keep non-ULN closed systems at 9-11, the average DKh of seawater is 7, so it shouldn't be suprising to see corals thrive around this level, or even slightly below it.
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
He’s running his dkh at 4-5 though.
OP
OP
Things are still good. Alk has climbed up to about 5.7-5.9 dkh. These photos were taken in March.
That...Things are still good. Alk has climbed up to about 5.7-5.9 dkh. These photos were taken in March.
Is a cool a55 tank
Vette67
Reefing since 1997
I ran my reef for 15 years without ever checking alk. Or calcium, or pH. I had fantastic acro growth. Then last month, I figured actual data might be a good thing, so I bought some testers. My first alk reading shocked me.
Given my acro growth rate, I would have expected things to be more normal than this. So, I panicked, got the sodium bicarbonate, and within about 3 day, and 25 teaspoons later, I got my alk back up to 8.
Now who knows how many days / weeks / years my system was running that low. And who knows what that did to my pH. I will say that within a couple days of increasing my alk, my LPS’s were more open. I’m betting that had more to do with higher pH than higher alk, but I’ll never know for sure. My guess is the the acros seem to be more tolerant of lower alk, and maybe lower pH than the LPS’s are. At least my branching frogspawn looks better than it has in a long time. But my acros look exactly the same as they did in alk 5.2 water.
Given my acro growth rate, I would have expected things to be more normal than this. So, I panicked, got the sodium bicarbonate, and within about 3 day, and 25 teaspoons later, I got my alk back up to 8.
Now who knows how many days / weeks / years my system was running that low. And who knows what that did to my pH. I will say that within a couple days of increasing my alk, my LPS’s were more open. I’m betting that had more to do with higher pH than higher alk, but I’ll never know for sure. My guess is the the acros seem to be more tolerant of lower alk, and maybe lower pH than the LPS’s are. At least my branching frogspawn looks better than it has in a long time. But my acros look exactly the same as they did in alk 5.2 water.
BAUCE
Well-Known Member
Didn’t even know that level of blue was possible with T5. What bulbs are you running?
OP
OP
My current bulb combo is 6 blue plus and 2 coral plus. The powermodule is a Led/T5 hybrid. I also have two reefbrite xho strips on it.
r20crazy
Well-Known Member
my lps tank has been 6.5 dKH for a long time even using h20cean salt and 10% weekly wcs... slowly switched to RS pro and added kalk to ato…. and after a month it seems stuck at 7dkh... guess that's where it wants to be
tehmadreefer
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Low alk seems to have always been best for me. My tank likes 6.4 when I try to raise to 7/7.2 I get burnt tips every time...
blasterman
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My general experience is the bigger the tank and more stable it is the lower alk can run. One of the best looking SPS tanks I've ever seen the owner didn't do water changes or dose. Not a massive amount of SPS, but what he did have had great growth and were very healthy.
I'm assuming the posts above from people with healthy tanks and yet low alk levels have crushed coral beds, right? What happens in a captive tank is fish respirate along with the natural nitrogen cycle which creates enough acid to buffer the tank naturally. Same process as a calcium reactor, just occurs via crushed coral in the tank bed via naturally produced acids.
The problem you can run into is something tips the equilibrium, or starts growing crazy and stripping all the alk.
I'm assuming the posts above from people with healthy tanks and yet low alk levels have crushed coral beds, right? What happens in a captive tank is fish respirate along with the natural nitrogen cycle which creates enough acid to buffer the tank naturally. Same process as a calcium reactor, just occurs via crushed coral in the tank bed via naturally produced acids.
The problem you can run into is something tips the equilibrium, or starts growing crazy and stripping all the alk.
BAUCE
Well-Known Member
Ah that definitely explains the color. I go back and forth trying to figure out if I like that as much as just T5. It looks great.
OP
OP
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