What’s the old school secret to Alkalinity stability?

[ectoaesthetics]

Been doing this for years and years... Since I was 9; I'm nearly 40 now. We used to be all about limewater and hand dosing... it was worse much worse. There are a number of things that I have the ability to fall back on "older school" methods that worked. Honestly right now I run a nano so its just water changes with the RARE kalkwasser drip. HOWEVER, my next build will be 60 gallon that has been in the works for two years (too long... yikes!). That tank will have something like the Trident or an Alktronic on it -no questions asked. This is one of those rare instances where I believe the latest and greatest gizmos DO make life better in reefing (that and push button/auto water changes - I still like push button over auto but i'm old skool).

Also battled dinos on this tank (not my first time -but the first time that I actually had any idea what really causes them)... My solution has simply been to way over feed coral food. I know that you are not supposed to overfeed Reef Chili but I am currently feeding nearly 20x the recommended amount to keep nitrates and phosphates above the line. I could cut my 'fuge lighting a bit more (which I have reduced quite a bit as it is) -but I would simply rather feed my corals MORE than cut output. Sponge growth is so insane that I am nearly pulling sponge out with tweezers on a weekly or biweekly basis!! I would always rather up feeding than dose phosphates or nitrates to the tank -for what it is worth. Heck I would rather raise baby brine and feed them (which I also do) to the tank ANYDAY than dose nutrients. The mo' plankton the mo' happy the tank will be.

 

[blasterman]

Alk instability? Hold my beer. I have a 10 gal crammed full of rapidly growing montipora that with the heat wave and tank hitting 85f during the day is eating 2dKH in 24 hours. The tank is too small for dosing pumps and I'm going through boxes of baking soda like crazy. I use Salfert alk tests in low resolution mode which are accurate enough and cheap enough and quick enough to keep my sanity.

Mine is an extreme case because most people dont grow that much SPS in a small tank. This is why bigger tanks are better when it comes to water consistency.

Also, I'm not familiar with the OPs tank, but unless alk is being consumed at a consistent rate then it wont be stable. Young tanks are highly unstable when it comes to alk levels and young tanks without lots of SPS consuming alk and calcium have unstable dKH. For some reason this forum is full of posters that meet that criteria but wont listen. They think their 1inch acro frags are consuming alk when most of it is being sucked up by post cycle diatom blooms.

Calcium reactors lower pH a bit and hence increase the calcium carbonate saturation triangle and keeps dKH from getting wacky. I miss my old 125gal and reactor.

I've also found that elevated mag levels keeps dKH consumption more linear * in tanks with heavy SPS consumption!!!!!*. However, contrary to other reefers not found elevated mag levels improve coral growth.

 

[fcmatt]

Switch to anemones and clownfish and stop obsessing over sticks!

;-)

Seriously tho.. i have 3 pieces of acro over growing my frag rack I have not glued down, one acan, and two monti. The rest are anemones. This in about 60 to 70 gallons of water total. It really takes the stress off me chasing alk due to not needing a ton of it for quite a while. Yes I have to dose but the usage is lower then some crazy tanks we have here.

Quality pieces over many pieces. Give yourself time. Don't drop in 20 frags of acro and then go crazy!

I have been doing this a long time it seems and I realized I don't want to invest 10k into a small tank and try to go "pro". It is a hobby. One day I will automate alk or something but I am def not stressing about it because I have 5k of sticks in my tank.

 

[Jeff Nellist]

I’m getting frustrated with keeping alkalinity stable without daily testing and adjustment. And when things do get to the point where they are stable as soon as I stop daily testing something goes out of whack and I end up with an alk swing. I’m using two part on dosers. A few months back phosphates spiked High, and alk consumption dropped driving my alkalinity way up. I stopped dosing for a couple days to let it naturally come down but birds nest and montis where not happy. I got it back stabilized and corals bounced back and where looking good. Then the outside temp went up, House AC started kicking on, and my PH dropped. Again alk consumption dropped and drive my levels high. I caught it because I was daily testing and adjust as required with no issue. Then decided to crack a window and my PH went back up and all dropped lol

All the new toys are neat and all but $1000 plus trying to keep reagents stocked is just not doable. So what’s the secret before all the toys? I would think even with calcium reactor your going to have to fight adjustments from outside factors.

Hi, since I went onto full Triton everything has gone stable I cannot fault it, there are a few options so I went for dosing Core7 with first chamber of my sump full of bubble Caulerpa you can also use Chaeto and illuminated with a Kessil H80.
When I first started with Triton my pH dropped to 7 so was advised to vent my skimmer outside, since I did that it is around 8-8.2.
Have a look.! It's well worth it

 

[stephj03]

The secret is that it wasn't actually that stable. IMO expectations of the avg hobbyist were just lower.

Ppl use to get their hands wet for dosing/maintenance and cleaning. Now a lot of that is automated so ppl now spend that time on "interventions" to fix things that are going slower than desired.

Nobody wants to admit it, but killing a lot of livestock use to be part of a multi yr learning curve for most hobbyists to achieve what today's beginners want to see within 6mo with zero losses. Alk was all over the place compared to today's standards during this period which could last 2yrs.

Only a handful of ppl use to be able to actually achieve fast, pain free stability and in many cases they were known by name.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I will say that when I switched from dosing to a reactor that things got a LOT more table. The added benefit with the CalRx is that it is also adding trace elements that two part does not.

I think the more important thing to remember is that growth and calcification rates are a result of a complex interaction between ALL of your different parameters. There are a MYRIAD of things that affect uptake. Corals are like plants in this regard (in my head anyways).
Is it brighter.. more growth.
Brighter but colder? A little less growth.
Higher alk..more POTENTIAL for growth.. do you have the nutrients to support that growth?
Pollutants in the tank..like from your hands.. slower growth
Feeding? Boost of growth.
Fluctuating phos and nitrate.. likely slower growth

So when you factor in common, yet not noticed changes to the tank.. PH, temperature swings, nutrient levels, alk numbers, feeding, total number of corals, fish harassing corals, affects from handling things. This is where the "old school" approach of "LEAVE IT ALONE" and just monitor things promotes stability.

An aquarium is basically a huge and expensive balance scale with a big time lag after you add or take a away weights on either side. "chasing numbers" means you can never really balance the scales because each scale is built differently and because it is soo slow, you add something and come back the next day "ooops" too much, then add something to the other side.. etc. etc. add naseum.

 

[Anchor]

Glad I poked my face into this thread.. I have learned more about stabilty, or should I say how to look at stability than I had understood before.. Thank you All.

 

[RobertPoorman]

I'm new to reefing and all the chemistry that it beholds... the following link somewhat demystified it for me as the title suggests. I hope it's of some help and use.

good video