Raising alkalinity

[reefGods]

My alkalinity is at 6.7 I am currently dozing all for reef Tropic Maron and I am using red sea

Foundation B (Alk) I know that you can raise it one 1 mm each day. Can I do 2 each day or three? and my calcium is at 470.

 

[RockRash]

I cant help, but I'm definitely in on any information. I'm using tropic marin pro and my alk after mixing is 6.8 I'd like to rase it.

 

[reefGods]

I cant help, but I'm definitely in on any information. I'm using tropic marin pro and my alk after mixing is 6.8 I'd like to rase it.

Salt wise I’m using Red Sea blue bucket I am using all for reef Tropic Marin I use that to keep it stable for some reason alkalinity went down to 6.7

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Why not just more AFR until you reach your alk goal? I'd do that.

Not sure what you mean by mm per day, but if you want to raise alk with an alk supplement, that is fine but you may find you need to keep dosing it to keep the alk higher than the AFR currently keeps it.

What is your alk target?

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Why not just more AFR until you reach your alk goal? I'd do that.

Not sure what you mean by mm per day, but if you want to raise alk with an alk supplement, that is fine but you may find you need to keep dosing it to keep the alk higher than the AFR currently keeps it.

What is your alk target?

Wouldnt that blast his calcium up quite a bit with it already at 470? I'm currently doing this same thing and going to start AFR soon

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Wouldnt that blast his calcium up quite a bit with it already at 470? I'm currently doing this same thing and going to start AFR soon

Depends on his goal, but if he raises alk to 8 dKH from 6.7 dKH with AFR, that will only put calcium at 479 ppm, up from 470 ppm.

It boosts calcium by 20 ppm for each 2.8 dKH of alk.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Depends on his goal, but if he raises alk to 8 dKH from 6.7 dKH with AFR, that will only put calcium at 479 ppm, up from 470 ppm.

It boosts calcium by 20 ppm for each 2.8 dKH of alk.

Oh jeez! I expected more! My alk was 6.4 when I tested yesterday so I got it up to 7.3 yesterday and my calcium is right at 380, so I figured if I got my alk up to 8.5ish I could dose AFR to get my calcium up and my alk up a little bit while having a nice buffer up and down where as not to shoot too high. I didn't realize how little AFR moved calcium in relation to alk though! This might change my plans some

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Oh jeez! I expected more! My alk was 6.4 when I tested yesterday so I got it up to 7.3 yesterday and my calcium is right at 380, so I figured if I got my alk up to 8.5ish I could dose AFR to get my calcium up and my alk up a little bit while having a nice buffer up and down where as not to shoot too high. I didn't realize how little AFR moved calcium in relation to alk though! This might change my plans some

The alk to calcium ratio in AFR matches that in kalkwasser and in the formation of pure calcium carbonate.

In a reef tank, both kalk and AFR can slightly overdose calcium when used to maintain alk because some magnesium gets into the calcium carbonate structure in place of some calcium.

That's more of an issue when coralline is a big driver of alk and calcium use, and less when it is hard corals. The effect is small and slow to develop, however.

 

[Reign1]

I recently found I had this problem also. I had been doing Kalk at night and Alk during day. My Alk was in the mid 6's . I have been slowly bumping up my ALk dosing (due to my calcium being around 450) .. Thankfully my Alk yesterday was 8.1.. I think key is to do it slow so you dont stress any corals...

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

I recently found I had this problem also. I had been doing Kalk at night and Alk during day. My Alk was in the mid 6's . I have been slowly bumping up my ALk dosing (due to my calcium being around 450) .. Thankfully my Alk yesterday was 8.1.. I think key is to do it slow so you dont stress any corals...

Yea i did .9dkh increase yesterday over the course of r or 5 hours and my corals never looked happier lol. Idk how long my alk was that low but apparently they didn't appreciate it.

 

[reefGods]

Why not just more AFR until you reach your alk goal? I'd do that.

Not sure what you mean by mm per day, but if you want to raise alk with an alk supplement, that is fine but you may find you need to keep dosing it to keep the alk higher than the AFR currently keeps it.

What is your alk target?

well, if I add more all for reef to raise my alkalinity then my calcium will go up My calcium is at 470 if I just use one supplement that is just for alkalinity than my calcium be fine. It’ll probably go down but that’s OK.

 

[reefGods]

Wouldnt that blast his calcium up quite a bit with it already at 470? I'm currently doing this same thing and going to start AFR soon

my alkalinity is the problem, but I’m going to be using Red Sea alkalinity to concentrate alkalinity only once I get to a stable point where I need to be 8.1 then I will be dosing all for reef again and testing every single day

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

well, if I add more all for reef to raise my alkalinity then my calcium will go up My calcium is at 470

Yes and no. I addressed it already in this thread:

If you raise alk to 8 dKH from 6.7 dKH with AFR, that will only put calcium at 479 ppm, up from 470 ppm.

It boosts calcium by 20 ppm for each 2.8 dKH of alk.


That, and the fact that you will have to adjust the AFR dose anyway (or keep dosing alk) to keep it there, tells me the best option is to slowly raise AFR dose until it stabilizes at your alk target.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

my alkalinity is the problem, but I’m going to be using Red Sea alkalinity to concentrate alkalinity only once I get to a stable point where I need to be 8.1 then I will be dosing all for reef again and testing every single day

Which will work, but is not how I would do it for the reasons given above.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Which will work, but is not how I would do it for the reasons given above.

Thoughts on the fact that AFR mentions and I think others(may be wrong) have said that AFR isn't a good option for raising but is more suited towards maintaining? Is that just because of the cost to raise vs other supplements? Because I have nothing afr and some other supplements that were given to me so I could do it either way

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thoughts on the fact that AFR mentions and I think others(may be wrong) have said that AFR isn't a good option for raising but is more suited towards maintaining? Is that just because of the cost to raise vs other supplements? Because I have nothing afr and some other supplements that were given to me so I could do it either way

Which is absolutely true for raising calcium (a 40 ppm boost to calcium boosts alk by 5.6 dKH), but really isn't true for typical alk boosting (a fact I frequently point out but just doesn't seem to stick).

I'm also strongly against dosing AFR based on calcium the way Tropic Marin recommends, based on the relationships described above and the fact that calcium measurement is not really accurate enough in typical folks hands to be a good option. If calcium testing is off by a very plausible 10-20 ppm, and you correct for it, alk will swing around like crazy.

 

[BryanM]

I would (and did) just raise my AFR dose until I got it to maintain the alk that I wanted.

There's another thread around here where the OP was dosing two or three things, and two of them were for alk, and way over did it. I like trying to keep things simple.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Which is absolutely true for raising calcium (a 40 ppm boost to calcium boosts alk by 5.6 dKH), but really isn't true for typical alk boosting (a fact I frequently point out but just doesn't seem to stick).

I'm also strongly against dosing AFR based on calcium the way Tropic Marin recommends, based on the relationships described above and the fact that calcium measurement is not really accurate enough in typical folks hands to be a good option. If calcium testing is off by a very plausible 10-20 ppm, and you correct for it, alk will swing around like crazy.

Ah that makes sense. Thank you sir! I've only had corals about 2 months and I'm just getting to the point where these numbers are finally relevant to me! I was going to maintain via water changes but nutrients are too low for me to want to do that currently.

So as far as the OP goes, where they have a calcium in the 470 ranges, they'll just have to keep an eye on calcium after they raise it with AFR and make sure it isn't trending up with regular alk maintenance using AFR

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So as far as the OP goes, where they have a calcium in the 470 ranges, they'll just have to keep an eye on calcium after they raise it with AFR and make sure it isn't trending up with regular alk maintenance using AFR

Normal water changes will likely keep calcium from rising too much (I would not be concerned to at least 550 ppm).