Extremely low akalinity at only 4 dkh!

[RedTheReefer]

Hello. I decided to measure my akalinity for the first time ever in a year. Oops!

It measures at 4.4 dkh on the Hanna checker. I'm pretty surprised at this reading so I decided to retest it and low and behold, I got a 4.5 dkh reading. Wow. I don't see any ill effects of this low dkh other than zero coralline algae growth. Things are still growing and even my indo torch grew a new head. my monti caps and sps are slowly growing as well.

I decided to measure my new saltwater and it measured at 7 dkh. I use Tropic marin pro salt. 7 dkh is what this salt measures at correct? I just want to make sure I am testing my water correctly since this checker is new to me.

I think its time to start dosing to bring this back up! I was thinking kalk or all for reef.

 

[PokeFish]

Yes dose. Slowly make the alk right. If you alk and ph is this low, check you calcium. Might be high..

 

[RedTheReefer]

thanks. I'll check my calcium as well. I'm going to monitor my akalinity/calcium over the course of this week to see what I should dose. If my calcium is extremely high, would I have no other choice but to go to 2 part dosing?

My ph sits around 7.8-8.0 on API test kit. It is really hard to read for me so I might pick up a hanna ph tester then if I decide to go kalk.

 

[homer1475]

Kalk will not raise your levels, it only maintains.

You need to SLOWLY bring that DKH up to at least 7DKH before you can figure out consumption. Yes your corals will grow at lower alkalinity, but at a very slow pace. Once you bring it up, you will find consumption will change.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would not assume this 4 dKH value is accurate. It would be pretty hard to get that low.

But if it is, baking soda is a good way to raise it.

 

[RedTheReefer]

What's the best way to bring it up?

This tank is a 10 gallon by the way. I could do water changes but then my nitrates will bottom out.

 

[RedTheReefer]

I would not assume this 4 dKH value is accurate. It would be pretty hard to get that low.

But if it is, baking soda is a good way to raise it.

I thought so too so I did measure new saltwater and it came out at 7 dKH at 34 ppt with Tropic Marin Pro salt. That is normal right? I'll look into baking soda.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I thought so too so I did measure new saltwater and it came out at 7 dKH at 34 ppt with Tropic Marin Pro salt. That is normal right? I'll look into baking soda.

Yes,. I saw that but I am still skeptical. 4 dKH may be close to the lowest I have seen reported in 20 years of reading hundreds of thousands of posts.

 

[piranhaman00]

Yes,. I saw that but I am still skeptical. 4 dKH may be close to the lowest I have seen reported in 20 years of reading hundreds of thousands of posts.

Dumb question time. If you had a tank packed full of stony corals consuming 1dkh a day. Would you not go from 7dkh to 2dkh in 5 days? How does that work?

I am asking because I dose alk in a FOWLR, something is using about 0.1 dkh a day. If I just stop dosing will it reach a point where it stops going down?

 

[StlSalt]

My ph sits around 7.8-8.0 on API test kit. It is really hard to read for me so I might pick up a hanna ph tester then if I decide to go kalk.

I just made this change after 5 years of fussing with API PH tests and trying to determine the color. I don't know why I didin't get the Hanna checker earlier. It's so easy to use.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Dumb question time. If you had a tank packed full of stony corals consuming 1dkh a day. Would you not go from 7dkh to 2dkh in 5 days? How does that work?

I am asking because I dose alk in a FOWLR, something is using about 0.1 dkh a day. If I just stop dosing will it reach a point where it stops going down?

Definitely not. Demand declines as alk declines since both coral growth and abiotic precipitation drop as alk declines.

Below 6 dKH, both essentially stop. Especially abiotic precipitation It definitely stops, and coral growth, if any, is super slow.

Also, rocks and sand begin to dissolve since the tank becomes undersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate.

Walk away from your tank and come back a month later, alk is unlikely to be below 5 dKH.

 

[piranhaman00]

Definitely not. Demand declines as alk declines since both coral growth and abiotic precipitation drop as alk declines.

Below 6 dKH, both essentially stop. Especially abiotic precipitation It definitely stops, and coral growth, if any, is super slow.

Also, rocks and sand begin to dissolve since the tank becomes undersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate.

Walk away from your tank and come back a month later, alk is unlikely to be below 5 dKH.

Interesting thanks!

 

[Dkeller_nc]

What's the best way to bring it up?

This tank is a 10 gallon by the way. I could do water changes but then my nitrates will bottom out.

Very low alkalinity is much more of a threat to your stony coral's health than very low nitrates. It is even possible for stony coral skeletons to slowly dissolve in water with that low of an alkalinity, though along with Randy, I'm very skeptical that you actually have tank water that is that low in alk.

Having said that, I suppose it's possible that your alk is that low if your specific gravity is really low as well, especially if it's recently dropped well below 1.026 and rocks/sand haven't had a chance to re-dissolve into the water to raise the alkalinity.

From the standpoint of correcting this, I would suggest a series of 30% water changes once per day for 4 or 5 days. Water changes aren't a good way of maintaining alkalinity, and if your tank was a lot bigger I'd suggest dosing an alkalinity supplement rather than water changes, but with such a small tank, changing 30% is really easy. Once you get the alk back into the 6-ish range, it's time to start thinking about a dosing strategy, or possibly switching to a considerably higher alkalinity salt mix and employing the large water change strategy that a lot of folks use with nano tanks.

 

[RedTheReefer]

Very low alkalinity is much more of a threat to your stony coral's health than very low nitrates. It is even possible for stony coral skeletons to slowly dissolve in water with that low of an alkalinity, though along with Randy, I'm very skeptical that you actually have tank water that is that low in alk.

Having said that, I suppose it's possible that your alk is that low if your specific gravity is really low as well, especially if it's recently dropped well below 1.026 and rocks/sand haven't had a chance to re-dissolve into the water to raise the alkalinity.

From the standpoint of correcting this, I would suggest a series of 30% water changes once per day for 4 or 5 days. Water changes aren't a good way of maintaining alkalinity, and if your tank was a lot bigger I'd suggest dosing an alkalinity supplement rather than water changes, but with such a small tank, changing 30% is really easy. Once you get the alk back into the 6-ish range, it's time to start thinking about a dosing strategy, or possibly switching to a considerably higher alkalinity salt mix and employing the large water change strategy that a lot of folks use with nano tanks.

Thank you for the advice. I'll do exactly what you said. I was skeptical at first too but I measured my water twice and new saltwater. I believe my reading was correct because TM Pro measured at 7dKH. This Hanna checker is completely new, straight of the box. I did not measure my salinity but I have no reason to believe it was off because my water level looked good.

I'll try measuring akalinity with my old API test kit tonight and see what I get. I don't think there is any human error in how I performed the test with the Hanna checker.

Once I get my levels up, I'll probably start maintaining my dKH with Kalk because of the PH benefits.

 

[RedTheReefer]

Just tested with my API kit, and the color went from blue to yellow around the 4th or 5th drop meaning that my dKH is between 4-5 dKH. This is inline with the Hanna checker. I did get a Red Sea kit to triple check but I don't think I need to go any further. Should I?

I will start doing water changes every other day at 2 gallons just to make it a little slower and monitor my alkalinity everyday until I get to at least 6 dKH and will look into kalk/all for reef dosing.

 

[RedTheReefer]

Okay. 2 Gallon WC complete.

Alkalinity measures at 5.1 dKH on the Hanna checker.

It previously measured at 4.5 dKH. Is this increase too much? Should I do smaller WCs?

 

[dadnjesse]

I would check your Salinity

 

[RedTheReefer]

I would check your Salinity

Salinity is all good at 34 ppt using the Hanna checker.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Okay. 2 Gallon WC complete.

Alkalinity measures at 5.1 dKH on the Hanna checker.

It previously measured at 4.5 dKH. Is this increase too much? Should I do smaller WCs?

That's fine.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Okay. 2 Gallon WC complete.

Alkalinity measures at 5.1 dKH on the Hanna checker.

It previously measured at 4.5 dKH. Is this increase too much? Should I do smaller WCs?

The typical rule of thumb for tanks with corals that are extremely sensitive to alkalinity changes (acropora species, for the most part) is no more than 1 dKH per day. Personally, I'd be a little more conservative than that and keep the increase down to 0.5 dKH per day.