Temp vs alk

Rmckoy

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Curious if there is a relation between temp and alk .

if a system is mature and maintained 79°f at 7.5dkh
If the temp lowers to 73° with cold weather does it effect alkalinity ?

increase or decrease ?
 

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Curious if there is a relation between temp and alk .

if a system is mature and maintained 79°f at 7.5dkh
If the temp lowers to 73° with cold weather does it effect alkalinity ?

increase or decrease ?
I imagine, if your corals are not happy or RTNing due to the low temp, and your still dosing, the Alk will go up.
 

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Rmckoy

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@Randy Holmes-Farley
is there anything to explain the sudden increase in alkalinity if temp is the only thing that’s changed ?

salinity is 1.025 with recently calibrated Hanna checker

phosphates are slightly elevated to .12 ppm
Nitrates are 5ppm
Temp is currently raising slowly and now at 74°
Sps are the only ones effected and rapidly losing flesh ( rtn )

will colder temps have any effects on fish or inverts ?
 

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Not dosing anything but alk increased to 8.12dkh from 7.5 when temp dropped from 79 to 74
Just curious, how low is your pH and how do you get away with no dosing. I had a softy tank years ago and topped off with a 30% kalk dose.
 
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Just curious, how low is your pH and how do you get away with no dosing. I had a softy tank years ago and topped off with a 30% kalk dose.
Softies shouldn’t consume barely anything ….,

they are not building skeleton .
at one time I was dosing minimal 2 part with sps , and lps .
In another post awhile ago shout euphilia growth … I have had the same 2 head hammer frags for almost 2 years and they have not grown at all .
A rate someone else claimed they grew fast and gained multiple heads in only months .

why …. I have no idea why mine don’t grow
 

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Softies shouldn’t consume barely anything ….,

they are not building skeleton .
at one time I was dosing minimal 2 part with sps , and lps .
In another post awhile ago shout euphilia growth … I have had the same 2 head hammer frags for almost 2 years and they have not grown at all .
A rate someone else claimed they grew fast and gained multiple heads in only months .

why …. I have no idea why mine don’t grow
No, softies don’t use a lot, but coralline algae does. You’ve got loads of that, it appears.
 
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Rmckoy

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No, softies don’t use a lot, but coralline algae does. You’ve got loads of that, it appears.
I have a new patch of cyano on the bottom and in my cheato compartment of my sump .

I have noticed small amounts of gha on heater but I can’t see that being the issue
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Curious if there is a relation between temp and alk .

if a system is mature and maintained 79°f at 7.5dkh
If the temp lowers to 73° with cold weather does it effect alkalinity ?

increase or decrease ?

Temperature has no effect substantial on alkalinity, but it may have some effect on the biologic and abiotic processes that add or consume alkalinity.
 
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Rmckoy

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Temperature has no effect on alkalinity, but it may have some effect on the biologic and abiotic processes that add or consume alkalinity.
Even if temp were to slow consumption of alk there is no explanation for why alk increased almost 1dkh in a week …
Is there anything to think without dosing what could cause alk increase ?

cyano growth , gha ,

I have been soaking food in vita chem ? Is it possible this product could increase alk ?
 
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Just curious, how low is your pH and how do you get away with no dosing. I had a softy tank years ago and topped off with a 30% kalk dose.
The only ph test I own is a api kit. .
I rarely ever test ph .

I’d assume ammonia is tested more . Which it is never tested …

ph is one I was always led to believe it’s not important to test as it fluctuates
As long as everything else is stable , ph will be where it needs to be .

knowing there is a sliding doors beside my tank , which is opened often throughout the day .
I am not worried about c02 increasing high enough to impact ph .
 

Ocean’s Piece

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Temperature has no effect substantial on alkalinity, but it may have some effect on the biologic and abiotic processes that add or consume alkalinity.
Would it be right to assume that the only reason why temperature would have an impact on alkalinity is that temperature and salinity are inversely proportional, causing a change in alk due to a salinity increase or decrease due to temperature? Or do slight salinity changes affect alk that much?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Even if temp were to slow consumption of alk there is no explanation for why alk increased almost 1dkh in a week …
Is there anything to think without dosing what could cause alk increase ?

cyano growth , gha ,

I have been soaking food in vita chem ? Is it possible this product could increase alk ?

I mentioned it can alter processes that add it and remove it. Since there are a number of these, I would not want to speculate on which predominate as temperatures impact all of them.

A change of 1 dKH a week seems low and is close tot eh ability to accurately measure, IMO.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Would it be right to assume that the only reason why temperature would have an impact on alkalinity is that temperature and salinity are inversely proportional, causing a change in alk due to a salinity increase or decrease due to temperature? Or do slight salinity changes affect alk that much?

Temperature has zero impact on salinity (salinity is measured in mg/kg, and the amount of salt in 1 kg of seawater cannot change as the temperature changes), although it can mess with devices used to measure salinity and hence those devices may often need temperature corrections as temperatures change.

Temperature does impact the rate of nearly every biological and abiotic process in a reef tank to some extent including the rate of precipitation or dissolution of calcium carbonate, growth rates of all sorts of organism, and even the pH.
 

Ocean’s Piece

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although it can mess with devices used to measure salinity and hence those devices may often need temperature corrections as temperatures change.
Ahh, that makes sense. Was kinda confused on how that made sense, but just a misunderstanding on my part.
 

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