New salt less DKH than target Alk

Miami Reef

10K Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Messages
11,229
Reaction score
20,875
Location
Miami Beach
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’m a bit confused about this. My target alk is 8dkh and the salt mix is 7dkh.

If I fine tune my dosing pump to maintain at 8dkh. Then I do a 10% water change so does that now mean my alk is maintaining at a lower dkh?

Or does that mean corals will consume less available alk until it rises back up to 8dkh and maintains itself? Would it be better to add alk to the salt mix to bring it to 8dkh?

@Randy Holmes-Farley
 

RobB'z Reef

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
2,783
Reaction score
5,773
Location
Eau Claire
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Dose your new salt to 8dkh before adding. If you add salt water with a lower dKH it will bring down your tank proportional to the percentage of water you change. So if you did a 50% change with 7dkh new salt your new dKH in your tank would be 7.5.
 

Garf

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 23, 2020
Messages
5,179
Reaction score
6,002
Location
BEEFINGHAM
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’m a bit confused about this. My target alk is 8dkh and the salt mix is 7dkh.

If I fine tune my dosing pump to maintain at 8dkh. Then I do a 10% water change so does that now mean my alk is maintaining at a lower dkh?

Or does that mean corals will consume less available alk until it rises back up to 8dkh and maintains itself? Would it be better to add alk to the salt mix to bring it to 8dkh?

@Randy Holmes-Farley
Are you sure you’ve got it at the proper s.g.?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
67,520
Reaction score
63,971
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It's not unusual for the salt mix for water change to not exactly match the tank. You just need to account for that when doing water changes.

in this case, a salt mix at 7 dKH and a tank at 8 dKH, with a 15% change, the alk drops from 8 dKH to 7.85 dKH. It's not much of a drop.

You can accept the slightly lower alk, you can dose the tank, or you can dose the salt mix. I'd use baking soda.
 
OP
OP
Miami Reef

Miami Reef

10K Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Messages
11,229
Reaction score
20,875
Location
Miami Beach
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It's not unusual for the salt mix for water change to not exactly match the tank. You just need to account for that when doing water changes.

in this case, a salt mix at 7 dKH and a tank at 8 dKH, with a 15% change, the alk drops from 8 dKH to 7.85 dKH. It's not much of a drop.

You can accept the slightly lower alk, you can dose the tank, or you can dose the salt mix. I'd use baking soda.
Baking soda from supermarket?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
67,520
Reaction score
63,971
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0

Form or function: Do you consider your rock work to be art or the platform for your coral?

  • Primarily art focused.

    Votes: 15 8.0%
  • Primarily a platform for coral.

    Votes: 34 18.1%
  • A bit of each - both art and a platform.

    Votes: 124 66.0%
  • Neither.

    Votes: 9 4.8%
  • Other.

    Votes: 6 3.2%
Back
Top