Low alkalinity, safe way to raise it?

[joseph.timbs]

I lost my salifert test booklet and didn’t realize my alk level has been consistently around 6.5. I have had settled there for a month or so and the months before that hovered around 8. I dose all-for-reef at 5 ml’s a day through doser. Figured I’ll raise it to 6 ml’s a day and try to raise the alk level .1-.2 points a day.. good plan or just keep it where it is? Or perhaps another method or strategy? Like maybe starting kalkwasser along with all-for-reef for ph boost or would that raise it to much?

Other levels are seemingly corresponding with Alk., Calcium 385, Magnesium 1325.

I don’t think they have much to do with it except for ph maybe, but phosphate around .05, nitrates 5-10. I don’t have a probe currently but I use Co2 buffer through protein skimmer and usually was 8.1-8.4 when I had a probe. Temp 78.5-79.5.

15% water change every 1-2 weeks. Aqua Forrest hybrid salt. Mixed reef, emphasis on Acropora. 40g breeder 10g sump with ATO, 4 years old with black box led’s. If anything else you’d like to know in order to help, shoot.

 

[goosemans]

Calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate is probably easiest to use to make corrections

 

[Garf]

I lost my salifert test booklet and didn’t realize my alk level has been consistently around 6.5. I have had settled there for a month or so and the months before that hovered around 8. I dose all-for-reef at 5 ml’s a day through doser. Figured I’ll raise it to 6 ml’s a day and try to raise the alk level .1-.2 points a day.. good plan or just keep it where it is? Or perhaps another method or strategy? Like maybe starting kalkwasser along with all-for-reef for ph boost or would that raise it to much?

Other levels are seemingly corresponding with Alk., Calcium 385, Magnesium 1325.

I don’t think they have much to do with it except for ph maybe, but phosphate around .05, nitrates 5-10. I don’t have a probe currently but I use Co2 buffer through protein skimmer and usually was 8.1-8.4 when I had a probe. Temp 78.5-79.5.

15% water change every 1-2 weeks. Aqua Forrest hybrid salt. Mixed reef, emphasis on Acropora. 40g breeder 10g sump with ATO, 4 years old with black box led’s. If anything else you’d like to know in order to help, shoot.

Considering Alk and calcium are a little low I'd just up the all for reef a bit. It's always a good idea to have some 2 part on hand though.

 

[rishma]

Should you raise alkalinity? My opinion is yes. I’d also raise calcium while you are at it.

How should you do it? That depends on what you have on hand. I use both AFR and kalk to raise/maintain alkalinity and calcium.

Increasing your AFR dose is fine. To increase your alkalinity addition by 0.1 dKH, you’d increase your dose by about 2.5ml. So your increase of 1 ml is a small change.

Kalkwasser works great too. To add 0.1 dKH to your tank, you’ll want to dose about 130ml.

You can use either, or both, and you can likely dose more than those numbers to raise alkalinity faster than 0.1dkh a day without problems. You will probably find that alkalinity consumption goes up as you raise dKH, so it won’t be linear. Keep in mind it takes a day or two to see alkalinity additions from AFR.

The alkalinity people target is quite variable, but I’d don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone recommend as low as 6.5. I would raise it. In the process, you’ll learn how much you need to dose to sustain that level going forward.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I lost my salifert test booklet and didn’t realize my alk level has been consistently around 6.5. I have had settled there for a month or so and the months before that hovered around 8. I dose all-for-reef at 5 ml’s a day through doser. Figured I’ll raise it to 6 ml’s a day and try to raise the alk level .1-.2 points a day.. good plan or just keep it where it is? Or perhaps another method or strategy? Like maybe starting kalkwasser along with all-for-reef for ph boost or would that raise it to much?

Other levels are seemingly corresponding with Alk., Calcium 385, Magnesium 1325.

I don’t think they have much to do with it except for ph maybe, but phosphate around .05, nitrates 5-10. I don’t have a probe currently but I use Co2 buffer through protein skimmer and usually was 8.1-8.4 when I had a probe. Temp 78.5-79.5.

15% water change every 1-2 weeks. Aqua Forrest hybrid salt. Mixed reef, emphasis on Acropora. 40g breeder 10g sump with ATO, 4 years old with black box led’s. If anything else you’d like to know in order to help, shoot.

This plan sounds fine to me.

 

[joseph.timbs]

Considering Alk and calcium are a little low I'd just up the all for reef a bit. It's always a good idea to have some 2 part on hand though.

Yes sir, alk and cal. On stand by.. I just buy Mag when needed

 

[joseph.timbs]

Should you raise alkalinity? My opinion is yes. I’d also raise calcium while you are at it.

How should you do it? That depends on what you have on hand. I use both AFR and kalk to raise/maintain alkalinity and calcium.

Increasing your AFR dose is fine. To increase your alkalinity addition by 0.1 dKH, you’d increase your dose by about 2.5ml. So your increase of 1 ml is a small change.

Kalkwasser works great too. To add 0.1 dKH to your tank, you’ll want to dose about 130ml.

You can use either, or both, and you can likely dose more than those numbers to raise alkalinity faster than 0.1dkh a day without problems. You will probably find that alkalinity consumption goes up as you raise dKH, so it won’t be linear. Keep in mind it takes a day or two to see alkalinity additions from AFR.

The alkalinity people target is quite variable, but I’d don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone recommend as low as 6.5. I would raise it. In the process, you’ll learn how much you need to dose to sustain that level going forward.

Thanks man, didn’t think about the alk consumption going up along the way, I’ll look out for that. I’m going to be testing DkH every day for a bit so I’m thinking bout kalk for the ph benefit , this might be a great time to do it. Probably will just go safe with AFR because my ATO is inconsistent at best.