What do you keep alkalinty at?

[Newb73]

8.1 Measured by Hanna. I use Red Sea blue bucket and it mixes at 8.1, dialed in my dosing pump to hold it there so water changes are uneventful. When I had the black bucket water changes were stressful on all my corals. Alk in that bucket was up around 11.5-12.

Seems to be a problem with instant ocean to.

I recently switched to continuous water changes which made the salt selection somewhat irrelevant as it's like 1.4% per day and the addition/subtraction is so controlled that dialing in my dosing schedule got a heck of a lot easier.

Before that I always made it a point to test and calculate at the end of a cycle just BEFORE the water change....never right after one.

I actually look for salts that are high in Mg as I'll handle the CA and ALK easily but when the mag drops on my 225 it sometimes needs almost 2 liters of mg solution and I haven't yet set up continuous mag dosing.

If I choose a salt that's high in Mg then I need not do anything else.

Since I have to add 2 part NO MATTER what salt I choose......i just choose around the mg issue as it is not consumed as fast so my water changes can often meet the need.

 

[jimmyzhou]

7.4-7.8 Hanna

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Seems to be a problem with instant ocean to.

I recently switched to continuous water changes which made the salt selection somewhat irrelevant as it's like 1.4% per day and the addition/subtraction is so controlled that dialing in my dosing schedule got a heck of a lot easier.

Before that I always made it a point to test and calculate at the end of a cycle just BEFORE the water change....never right after one.

I actually look for salts that are high in Mg as I'll handle the CA and ALK easily but when the mag drops on my 225 it sometimes needs almost 2 liters of mg solution and I haven't yet set up continuous mag dosing.

If I choose a salt that's high in Mg then I need not do anything else.

Since I have to add 2 part NO MATTER what salt I choose......i just choose around the mg issue as it is not consumed as fast so my water changes can often meet the need.

Imagine trying to do a water change on a 14g tank, with a alk of 8.0 ish and your salt mixes at 11.5... I fried a few frags until I realized what I was doing. Noob mistake. Coral pro, must be better because it says pro on it, right? Lol

 

[Newb73]

Imagine trying to do a water change on a 14g tank, with a alk of 8.0 ish and your salt mixes at 11.5... I fried a few frags until I realized what I was doing. Noob mistake. Coral pro, must be better because it says pro on it, right? Lol

Just do 3 cups per day lol.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Just do 3 cups per day lol.

That's what I did until I ran out... I now have a salt that's the same as my tank, or I got my tank the same as my salt. Lol. I can do a 5 gallon water change(just about 50%) and it doesn't hurt anything.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Around 8.5 now. I used Red Sea Pro for a while but the high alk with undetectable nitrates caused issues with my sps. I upped my bioload, got nitrates to 10ppm, switched to Red Sea Normal salt, matched alk level with salt and adjusted kalk dose, now my sps are doing well.

 

[PoePoeDilly]

I like to split the goalposts at 9 for the greatest margin of error in both directions. Small house and heavy breathers, so it does help keep the pH up too. My alk demand skyrocketed just by running the skimmer air line outside, to the point of me being giddy, and a lil' bit nervous from the sudden change.

 

[HeulittSalmi]

I run one LPS tank around 7.1 and my SPS Dominant around 6.9

 

[Centerline]

I recommend 7-11 dKH, so yes. :)

Ya Man, Ive been running 10.5 - 11 for several months now - nice and stable.

 

[Centerline]

Imagine trying to do a water change on a 14g tank, with a alk of 8.0 ish and your salt mixes at 11.5... I fried a few frags until I realized what I was doing. Noob mistake. Coral pro, must be better because it says pro on it, right? Lol

I think the stuff is just very carefully manufactured.

 

[BigJohnny]

I actually think most people do not run ULNS, but some are afraid if their conditions accidentally drift that direction, they may have issues. :)

This for me^

 

[XNavyDiver]

I actually think most people do not run ULNS, but some are afraid if their conditions accidentally drift that direction, they may have issues. :)

This is what I think also, and it's what I'm afraid of also. I keep my alk around 8 to 8.5.