hexcolor reef
Valuable Member
I wanted to write about this subject as I too started to dig into the world of chemistry and became determined to simplify the thousands of words and simple but yet complicated chemistry equations about Alkalinity. come to find out its not that complicated! So let's uncomplicated Alkalinity!
WARNING SOME NERD STUFF WILL HAPPEN HERE, NOOOOOTTTTTTT REALLLY
!!!!
Lets start with what is Alkalinity?
To put it simply Alkalinity is a buffer against ACID. Which means less fluctuations in PH. YADAH YADAH YDAH! What else do we already know?!
Well did you know Alkalinity is also in calcium and mg? A liquid with a PH of 8.3 Alk comes from carbonate ions, and PH below 4.5 is bicarbonate ions? Of course you did. Lets put a pin in that.
So you want to set up or maintain an already running reef tank, but your Alk is running above what your salt is measured for. Lets set up a couple scenarios.
What water did you use to set up that reef tank or what water are you using in your ATO reservoir?
A lot of us use RO duh!!! But we can use what we learn here about using tap water and why its not so much of a good idea to use.
If you ever measured your RO water Alk level it mostly would be at around 1kh or 2kh. Which means that water is acidic and the Alk will come from bicarbonate ions.
Now here's what you probably didn't know acidic liquid will have trillions of hydrogen ions, alot more hydrogen ions than a higher PH / ALK solution. Which would give us CO3/2-
RO vs Distilled water:
RO water has less calcium and magnesium than distilled water hence less alkalinity and more hydrogen ions. Which is what you want when mixing reef salt and or Wanting to dilute Alkalinity in reef tank. Another reason we use Vodka or Vinegar to bring Alk levels down. Again hundreds trillions of hydrogen ions. Let's put a pin in that!
Again we want CO3/2-
Now lets get into mixing salts:
Obviously we want to use a salt where we would want our tank parameters at. ranging from Alk 7.5-12kh. So let's keep this short sweet. Us RO water and make sure the KH is lower than 2kh. Which most of us believe it is since its RO water but all filtrations are not made that same. calcium and magnesium can still be in the water which will allow more Alkalinity to be present. not by much but enough to raise a salt mixture kh from 7.5kh to 8.5kh and so on. Alot of questions on R2R about why my salt is rated for 8kh but when I mix it I'm getting 9kh. Well it was just answered!!!
Now Lets talk everyone favorite subject dosing:
Dosing Kalkwasser, dosing my favorite All for Reef, raises Alkalinity. and if you're not carefully dosing these solutions you will get a very high Alk reading.
if you were paying g attention to above information then you know once you get above a PH level of 8.0-8.3 Alkalinity is now carbonate ions. At these levels it's absorbing calcium and magnesium at a much faster rate. The higher dosing of these solutions is what causes a very fast spike in Alk rise in reef tanks. You're essentially feeding Alkalinity. Which is why we get precipitation if the rolls were reversed because Alk / PH is lower and can not absorb the extra calcium in the water.
So lets wrap this up I think:
We all jump to dose or tanks or push Alk levels to highs for faster coral growth. But first we need to make sure our corals are consuming Alk Calcium Magnesium before we dose these solutions. We also need to make sure we are starting with RO water that is 1kh or below. A PH of 0 is and KH again 0, gives us carbonic acid. Meaning there is no Alkalinity/calcium/mg in the water.
How about lowering Alk. Vodka / Vinegar? These only work temporally because once you add acidic substance to a very high Alkaline solution your releasing carbon dioxide / bicarbonates but how much bicarbonates is in the water at a PH of 8.0-8.3 and KH of 10-12? Not very much so it will always raise back to a higher kh.
To add bit here. You can always dose Calcium while dosing other additives that raises your Alk levels just to keep it in check. Of course you would need to do calculations to dose the right amount. You can raise your lights and up your flow to combat high all until you bring your levels down safely. Very simple and keep it simple. Successful reefing!
WARNING SOME NERD STUFF WILL HAPPEN HERE, NOOOOOTTTTTTT REALLLY
!!!!
Lets start with what is Alkalinity?
To put it simply Alkalinity is a buffer against ACID. Which means less fluctuations in PH. YADAH YADAH YDAH! What else do we already know?!
Well did you know Alkalinity is also in calcium and mg? A liquid with a PH of 8.3 Alk comes from carbonate ions, and PH below 4.5 is bicarbonate ions? Of course you did. Lets put a pin in that.
So you want to set up or maintain an already running reef tank, but your Alk is running above what your salt is measured for. Lets set up a couple scenarios.
What water did you use to set up that reef tank or what water are you using in your ATO reservoir?
A lot of us use RO duh!!! But we can use what we learn here about using tap water and why its not so much of a good idea to use.
If you ever measured your RO water Alk level it mostly would be at around 1kh or 2kh. Which means that water is acidic and the Alk will come from bicarbonate ions.
Now here's what you probably didn't know acidic liquid will have trillions of hydrogen ions, alot more hydrogen ions than a higher PH / ALK solution. Which would give us CO3/2-
RO vs Distilled water:
RO water has less calcium and magnesium than distilled water hence less alkalinity and more hydrogen ions. Which is what you want when mixing reef salt and or Wanting to dilute Alkalinity in reef tank. Another reason we use Vodka or Vinegar to bring Alk levels down. Again hundreds trillions of hydrogen ions. Let's put a pin in that!
Again we want CO3/2-
Now lets get into mixing salts:
Obviously we want to use a salt where we would want our tank parameters at. ranging from Alk 7.5-12kh. So let's keep this short sweet. Us RO water and make sure the KH is lower than 2kh. Which most of us believe it is since its RO water but all filtrations are not made that same. calcium and magnesium can still be in the water which will allow more Alkalinity to be present. not by much but enough to raise a salt mixture kh from 7.5kh to 8.5kh and so on. Alot of questions on R2R about why my salt is rated for 8kh but when I mix it I'm getting 9kh. Well it was just answered!!!
Now Lets talk everyone favorite subject dosing:
Dosing Kalkwasser, dosing my favorite All for Reef, raises Alkalinity. and if you're not carefully dosing these solutions you will get a very high Alk reading.
if you were paying g attention to above information then you know once you get above a PH level of 8.0-8.3 Alkalinity is now carbonate ions. At these levels it's absorbing calcium and magnesium at a much faster rate. The higher dosing of these solutions is what causes a very fast spike in Alk rise in reef tanks. You're essentially feeding Alkalinity. Which is why we get precipitation if the rolls were reversed because Alk / PH is lower and can not absorb the extra calcium in the water.
So lets wrap this up I think:
We all jump to dose or tanks or push Alk levels to highs for faster coral growth. But first we need to make sure our corals are consuming Alk Calcium Magnesium before we dose these solutions. We also need to make sure we are starting with RO water that is 1kh or below. A PH of 0 is and KH again 0, gives us carbonic acid. Meaning there is no Alkalinity/calcium/mg in the water.
How about lowering Alk. Vodka / Vinegar? These only work temporally because once you add acidic substance to a very high Alkaline solution your releasing carbon dioxide / bicarbonates but how much bicarbonates is in the water at a PH of 8.0-8.3 and KH of 10-12? Not very much so it will always raise back to a higher kh.
To add bit here. You can always dose Calcium while dosing other additives that raises your Alk levels just to keep it in check. Of course you would need to do calculations to dose the right amount. You can raise your lights and up your flow to combat high all until you bring your levels down safely. Very simple and keep it simple. Successful reefing!
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