Lowest dkh for sps.

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Just started adding some acro frags to my tank which has been running about 7 months now.

added them two weeks ago, look fine. Checked my alk today and it’s 6!

Used Hannah, and salifert. Instant ocean salt, I don’t have any coraline or many corals (10 frags ) in this 180.

not sure where all the alk is going. Chaeto, phosgard?

A fish only tank that has accumulated nitrate will necessarily have a lower alkalinity than the starting salt mix. For each 50 ppm of nitrate produced, alkalinity is depleted by 2.3 dKH.

Another way that alkalinity is depleted is by simple formation of calcium carbonate, by organisms, or on heaters and pumps and bare sand and rock surfaces.

6 dKH is OK, but slowly raising it to at least 7+ dKH may be better.

FWIW, I think normal IO is perfectly fine.
 

GlassMunky

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I keep my alk at 6.5-7 and they do well. I have let it drop to 5.5-6 by mistake and saw no real issue, I just made sure to increase it slowly.
ALL of my corals, SPS, LPS, EVERYTHING starts looking angry and pale if my ALK drops below 7
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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ALL of my corals, SPS, LPS, EVERYTHING starts looking angry and pale if my ALK drops below 7

Don't release them back into the wild then. lol
 

JCOLE

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Will do. I have two suspects, well 3. Batches of IO I have been getting are much lower than the 10 I had over the summer. Or, I just started using phosgard as well as chaeto.
Lastly, I d have a lot of fish, maybe that’s driving the alk down more than I thought

Is your PO4 high? If not then personally I would remove Phosguard. I have had nothing but problems when using Phosguard. It will strip PO4 really quick from the water. If your levels are not high then it can cause more problems than it's worth.
 

Reeffraff

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We have as low as 5,7 at times when the consumption goes up and we haven't adjusted the addetives. No signs of corals suffering what I've seen. 6-6,5 dKH is where we usually are in our reef tanks. I'm more afraid of high KH :)

This has been my general experience as well. In my tank lower alk hasn't seemed to affect sps corals but elevated (even when raised very slowly) has caused problems multiple times.
 
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Wildreefs

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Ok well lots of possibilities as to why. I will remove the phosgard, had it, but was always skeptical of it and often heard people having isssues with soft coral, which I don’t have anyhow.

nitrate can certainly be a factor. I’ve been doing aggressive water changes prior to coral induction, however I have about 45 fish. I change sock every3 days before they clog, run a slimmer wet, stated using chaeto about 2 weeks ago.

and lastly, salinity may be an issue as well. For the first time in owning a tank in 20 years I can not get refractometer solution. I got a bottle offline, the 2 little fishies one, and after inconsistent reading, even back to back, I tossed it. The stuff I like to use, the pinpoint , no one seems to have . Both LFS near me who normally gave it do not with all that’s going on in the country.

I brought my water to LFS, 1.025, however, being he doesn’t have calibration fluid, it’s a guess if his refractometer is correct . May be 1.023 for all I know.

in the passed I have recalibrated it monthly, sometimes more if I placed it down harder than normal. I just dont have access to 1 I trust at the moment .
 
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Wildreefs

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Silly question, but can I just add straight baking soda to the sump, or does it have to be mixed up in RO water first before going in?
 

madweazl

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I've had growth spurts in my tank while I was out of town working only to return to a tank that looked great at 5.6 dKh. I wouldn't worry about it much, just bring it back into the range you desire thoughtfully and go about your business. Sharp changes can be bad but the gradual decline isn't detrimental to their health.
 

X-37B

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Just adding a +1 to the votes for natural alk (about 7). I've seen nothing but trouble at 8+.

And yeah, stability is great, but if we're trying to maintain a constant level it's worth discussing what that level is :)
I have ran alk at 8 for several years now with no issues. In my 120 it is always 8-8.2 Hanna and po4 runs .02-.06 with n03 running 1-2.
When quoting alk levels I like to see what people run po4 and n03 as they go hand in hand imo.
Salifert says 7.4-7.7 and elos says 8.
I use the Hanna as its the fastest.
My spread is 7.5-8.5 that im comfortable with.
 
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Wildreefs

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I am making the Randy’s 2 part now. If I’m at 6, what should I safely bring it to today? 6.5?
 

DiZASTiX

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Just started adding some acro frags to my tank which has been running about 7 months now.

added them two weeks ago, look fine. Checked my alk today and it’s 6!

Used Hannah, and salifert. Instant ocean salt, I don’t have any coraline or many corals (10 frags ) in this 180.

not sure where all the alk is going. Chaeto, phosgard?

Ammonia being turned into nitrate depletes alk. Randy Holmes-Farley covered this some time ago.
You can "free" that alk by carbon dosing.

I experience this in my 13.5 gal, which converts a lot of ammonia. The alk drop is matched by the alk increase from carbon dosing, but I'll experience a net drop when I'm phosphate becoming the limiting reagent.
 

Mical

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nitrate can certainly be a factor. I’ve been doing aggressive water changes prior to coral induction, however I have about 45 fish. I change sock every3 days before they clog, run a slimmer wet, stated using chaeto about 2 weeks ago.

You have 45 fish in a 180 gal tank?
 

Paul Bradford

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Ok well lots of possibilities as to why. I will remove the phosgard, had it, but was always skeptical of it and often heard people having isssues with soft coral, which I don’t have anyhow.

nitrate can certainly be a factor. I’ve been doing aggressive water changes prior to coral induction, however I have about 45 fish. I change sock every3 days before they clog, run a slimmer wet, stated using chaeto about 2 weeks ago.

and lastly, salinity may be an issue as well. For the first time in owning a tank in 20 years I can not get refractometer solution. I got a bottle offline, the 2 little fishies one, and after inconsistent reading, even back to back, I tossed it. The stuff I like to use, the pinpoint , no one seems to have . Both LFS near me who normally gave it do not with all that’s going on in the country.

I brought my water to LFS, 1.025, however, being he doesn’t have calibration fluid, it’s a guess if his refractometer is correct . May be 1.023 for all I know.

in the passed I have recalibrated it monthly, sometimes more if I placed it down harder than normal. I just dont have access to 1 I trust at the moment .
This is the best....when it’s in stock. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/high-precision-hydrometer-tropic-marin.html
 

Phildago

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Ammonia being turned into nitrate depletes alk. Randy Holmes-Farley covered this some time ago.
You can "free" that alk by carbon dosing.

I experience this in my 13.5 gal, which converts a lot of ammonia. The alk drop is matched by the alk increase from carbon dosing, but I'll experience a net drop when I'm phosphate becoming the limiting reagent.
I had no idea this occurs. I may consider adding some ever clear to my alk solution. I'm going to have to look into how it would effect solubility.

Edit:based on solubility I think another route would be better.
 
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Ricky_Reef

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I find 9 to 9.5 is my happy spot.... That combined with my Co2 scrubber and ATS keeps my Ph between 8.0 and 8.35.
 

DiZASTiX

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I had no idea this occurs. I may consider adding some ever clear to my alk solution. I'm going to have to look into how it would effect solubility.

Edit:based on solubility I think another route would be better.

On the 8th, I dosed enough disodium phosphate (?) to raise phosphate from 0.00 to 0.07. A lot of the variation in alk is attributable to other functions, but some was due to the utilisation of nitrate and phosphate by carbon dosing -related bacteria (ZEOstart 3 and ZEObac, in my case). Phosphate dropped back to 0.00, so I redosed another 10 mL of my solution, which should bring it up to around the same 0.07 point, give or take user error in measuring that volume.


Product:

Screen Shot 2020-04-08 at 8.16.44 PM.png
 

waterskiguy

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Pick a salt that you want to use and go with whatever level the salt mixes at. I use HW Reefer and it mixes at 9 dKh. I keep my tank at 9 dKh so it doesn’t fluctuate after water changes. Salt might be enough to replenish your levels right now, but will need to be supplemented at some point. My opinion is to get your salt, levels and other chemistry stable right now, before you start to add additional corals with higher demand.
 

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