Lower alkalinity in a new reef tank

[19Jonathan82]

Hello Reefers,

I am new to the hobby and I converted my freshwater tank to a reef tank. I am still cycling it so I only have sand and water and 2 small Aragonite dead rocks

Here is my setup:
Oase Highline 600 aquarium (160 gallons)
Oase Biotherm 850 canister with built in heater

On day 1, 2 and 3 I started noticing that my canister filter was spitting out small white solid material (snowing is whats its called accoridng to Google) and today on day 3 my Hanna alkalinity checker was delivered. I measured 15 dkh. I read that the ideal alkalinity is between 8-12 dkh

So I became scared and rushed to Google AI to ask it how to lower my alkalinity

It suggested numerous things from chemical solutions to water changing with lower dkh marine salts or just plain leaving it alone and allow time to pass

What it did not suggest was intentionally using multiple heaters to speed up the snowing

So I came here to suggest it. If your tank is new and you dont mind the "snowing" add heaters to lower the alkalinity

Google AI has never encountered this solution so I would like to name it "Hofwijks Alkalinity hack" if this ever takes off

I will add the heaters and keep testing my alkalinity every week

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

[Jamie9]

What dkh is your salt mix? At 15 unless you are dosing something I’d suspect a bad test. And…don’t worry about it too much while you are cycling and there’s no coral in there (but do make sure it’s around 8-9 when you add corals).