Parameters not ready for coral, what to do next?

[mattr567]

I’ve had my tank running for about 3 months now and I’ve been keeping up with water changes and basic maintenance. I have 2 clownfish and made sure to keep the lights off. I want to add coral but my alkalinity is just too low and I’m not sure what to do about it since even water changes are not sufficing. I also can’t think of anything else eating up my alk in the tank. I attached a picture of my tank now as well as my parameters. Any ideas as to what my next steps should be?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

6.7 dKH is not too low to get a coral. It's not below the levels in the ocean.

That said, it's easy to boost alk with baking soda. :)

 

[towels]

You can get coral

I had lower alk than you and have only had one coral loss (one of my 5 hammers bailed). After I discovered the low al - I dosed dissolved baking soda in a bit of rodi water and poured it in every other day until I was at 8.3. I was at 5 and dosed around 30g total / 6G-10G of baking soda each time. There’s a calculator online that you can use

Regardless of the low alk - I’ve seen a solid amount of growth on all of my coral (except the one hammer). I mostly have SPS. My tank is even a tad younger than yours

 

[mattr567]

You can get coral

I had lower alk than you and have only had one coral loss (one of my 5 hammers bailed). After I discovered the low al - I dosed dissolved baking soda in a bit of rodi water and poured it in every other day until I was at 8.3. I was at 5 and dosed around 30g total / 6G-10G of baking soda each time. There’s a calculator online that you can use

So if I do dose the baking soda, how often do I have to keep up with the dosing or is it just a regular schedule thing?

 

[Fish Fan]

6.7 dKH is not too low to get a coral. It's not below the levels in the ocean.

That said, it's easy to boost alk with baking soda. :)

Do we really need to source like pharmaceutical grade sodium bicarbonate, or is good 'ole Arm and Hammer baking soda safe to use in our tanks? Thank you in advance!

 

[towels]

So if I do dose the baking soda, how often do I have to keep up with the dosing or is it just a regular schedule thing?

I dosed until I got to 8.3 and have been sitting there since. I don’t believe it will taper off unless there’s mass filtration/absorption going on. An expert can clarify. I was trying to avoid dosing anything as it’s a new tank but the coral loss expedited the process. It was very easy to get the alk back on track

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do we really need to source like pharmaceutical grade sodium bicarbonate, or is good 'ole Arm and Hammer baking soda safe to use in our tanks? Thank you in advance!

I have no evidence that pharma grade is even better than food grade. Even the required specifications may not be better, although I've not seen all of them. The search ai, which may be wrong, shows a 2 vs 3 ppm spec for arsenic, which is likely not realized in the products anyway, and is very low for our purposes. That's the only difference I've seen

I'd always use kitchen stuff. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So if I do dose the baking soda, how often do I have to keep up with the dosing or is it just a regular schedule thing?

If you have something consuming it, you will need to dose periodically.