What is happening to my Alkalinity?

[Tinfoil_Anemone]

This is a long post so just a forewarning…..

I am pretty confused as to where all my alkalinity is going and looking for some personalized help. Although I have read other discussions like this none of them quite fit the bill. First my parameters:

Temp: 78 F
PH: 8.2 - 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 5.2
Phosphate: 0.02
Alkalinity (Try to Keep) 9.4
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1320
Salinity: 35 PPT

I do weekly 20% water changes with Red Sea Blue bucket. I test alkalinity and adjust to around 9.4 before I put it into the tank every Sunday then test my alkalinity again to make sure it’s at my intended “9.4” I test with both Red Sea Pro test kit and the Hanna dkh tester and both come in within a few points for example .2 or .1 ..

Now the problem.. this tank is pretty new at only 3 months old and is using 1 - 1.2 Dkh in a 24 hour period in alkalinity… It’s an IM 25 Lagoon with about 15 lbs of branching live rock from Australia purchased from pristine reefs and 20 lbs of special grade Carib sand. The rock was “cured” in a tub after purchase for 3 months prior to using in the tank and was completely white and devoid of color by the time I added it. I have a stock of one small torch another Small pectinia 2 tiny montis a super tiny Birds Nest some zoas and a mushroom right now with 2 fish. It has some very light hair algae in some small spots that are cleaned up nicely by my 3 trochus and 6 blue legged hermits. Only other algae is dark green now covering the rocks and isn’t filamentous it’s just like a green “coloration” to the rocks and a few small growing spots of green coralline growing on the back glass no more than an eraser head size for each one.. maybe twenty spots in total and one large quarter sized patch on the rock work itself that stands out from the other green colored algae it’s surrounded by… The rest is just film algae I need to clean weekly.

It’s frustrating as I dose daily to keep it up which is fine but this much consumption already? It seems so strange when the tank is pretty barren.. I’ll check it at the same time each night and it’s back down to 8.4 or so. I go and dose the recommended amount on the reef alk calcs. Check it after 30 mins where it says it’s back up to 9.4 and then the next night it’s back down to 8.4… what in the world is eating all this alkalinity?? My heaters looks fine and are clean my pumps are clean so I am not seeing any precipitation and I am dosing directly with a syringe into a power head on full blast so I don’t even see a cloud. No hard sand.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading. But that’s all the info I can think to provide and really just have no idea what’s eating is so fast. I’m a little worried I am missing something or even that just once I get more corals established I’m going to be eating 5dkh a day. I was really hoping I could just manually dose for this tank but it’s already seeming like I’m going to have to employ different methods soon to keep it up.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There may be precipitation of calcium carbonate onto the sand and rock. That is spurred by bare surfaces, higher alk and higher pH. That is slowed by organics, magnesium, phosphate, and bacteria.

You might let alk decline to 7 dKH for a while, and stop any efforts to raise pH, if you are doing any.

 

[Tinfoil_Anemone]

There may be precipitation of calcium carbonate onto the sand and rock. That is spurred by bare surfaces, higher alk and higher pH. That is slowed by organics, magnesium, phosphate, and bacteria.

You might let alk decline to 7 dKH for a while, and stop any efforts to raise pH, if you are doing any.

Interesting, so I have let it sit at 7 for about one week while I was seeing if the consumption changed but it seemed to continue its demand… would it still consume just as much alkalinity if I dropped it to seven?? What about the health of my corals? And should I still dose to keep it at 7 at least?? As if I don’t dose at all it falls into the 5s… how covered with organics do the rocks and sand have to be? They seems to have a good thin covering on them but I guess it really just comes down to the long term stability and how long it’s been established? (Which hasn’t been long obviously) thank you for your reply. Sorry for the late response as I work nights

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Demand drops fast as alk drops so it’s reasonable unlikely to drop into the 5’s.

But I would dose baking soda to maintain 7 dKH. No coral is unhealthy because the alk is 7 dKH.

 

[Tinfoil_Anemone]

Demand drops fast as alk drops so it’s reasonable unlikely to drop into the 5’s.

But I would dose baking soda to maintain 7 dKH. No coral is unhealthy because the alk is 7 dKH.

Ok that sounds doable to me. Thank you for your reply… would you anticipate consumption to go down over time then as rocks get more covered with organics? Would it ever be possible to run this tank at a higher alkalinity or would it just shoot back up in consumption?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok that sounds doable to me. Thank you for your reply… would you anticipate consumption to go down over time then as rocks get more covered with organics? Would it ever be possible to run this tank at a higher alkalinity or would it just shoot back up in consumption?

If that is the cause of the demand, then yes, and others have seen that reduction after reset.

 

[Tinfoil_Anemone]

If that is the cause of the demand, then yes, and others have seen that reduction after reset.

Ahh okay… so theoretically how long should I shoot for 7 on alkalinity? I’d assume until the system is quite a bit more established then? Does the rock work and sand just get saturated eventually and consumption lowers or is it the organics that actually stop the process? Thanks again for your time and answer my questions I have been stooped for quite a while on this

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ahh okay… so theoretically how long should I shoot for 7 on alkalinity? I’d assume until the system is quite a bit more established then? Does the rock work and sand just get saturated eventually and consumption lowers or is it the organics that actually stop the process? Thanks again for your time and answer my questions I have been stooped for quite a while on this

My usual recommendation is a few days to a week. But there's no reason to not go longer. Corals do just fine at 7 dKH.

 

[ChaoticQcumber]

This is a long post so just a forewarning…..

I am pretty confused as to where all my alkalinity is going and looking for some personalized help. Although I have read other discussions like this none of them quite fit the bill. First my parameters:

Temp: 78 F
PH: 8.2 - 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 5.2
Phosphate: 0.02
Alkalinity (Try to Keep) 9.4
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1320
Salinity: 35 PPT

I do weekly 20% water changes with Red Sea Blue bucket. I test alkalinity and adjust to around 9.4 before I put it into the tank every Sunday then test my alkalinity again to make sure it’s at my intended “9.4” I test with both Red Sea Pro test kit and the Hanna dkh tester and both come in within a few points for example .2 or .1 ..

Now the problem.. this tank is pretty new at only 3 months old and is using 1 - 1.2 Dkh in a 24 hour period in alkalinity… It’s an IM 25 Lagoon with about 15 lbs of branching live rock from Australia purchased from pristine reefs and 20 lbs of special grade Carib sand. The rock was “cured” in a tub after purchase for 3 months prior to using in the tank and was completely white and devoid of color by the time I added it. I have a stock of one small torch another Small pectinia 2 tiny montis a super tiny Birds Nest some zoas and a mushroom right now with 2 fish. It has some very light hair algae in some small spots that are cleaned up nicely by my 3 trochus and 6 blue legged hermits. Only other algae is dark green now covering the rocks and isn’t filamentous it’s just like a green “coloration” to the rocks and a few small growing spots of green coralline growing on the back glass no more than an eraser head size for each one.. maybe twenty spots in total and one large quarter sized patch on the rock work itself that stands out from the other green colored algae it’s surrounded by… The rest is just film algae I need to clean weekly.

It’s frustrating as I dose daily to keep it up which is fine but this much consumption already? It seems so strange when the tank is pretty barren.. I’ll check it at the same time each night and it’s back down to 8.4 or so. I go and dose the recommended amount on the reef alk calcs. Check it after 30 mins where it says it’s back up to 9.4 and then the next night it’s back down to 8.4… what in the world is eating all this alkalinity?? My heaters looks fine and are clean my pumps are clean so I am not seeing any precipitation and I am dosing directly with a syringe into a power head on full blast so I don’t even see a cloud. No hard sand.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading. But that’s all the info I can think to provide and really just have no idea what’s eating is so fast. I’m a little worried I am missing something or even that just once I get more corals established I’m going to be eating 5dkh a day. I was really hoping I could just manually dose for this tank but it’s already seeming like I’m going to have to employ different methods soon to keep it up.

So I’m nowhere near an expert, but when I was about the same amount of time into my tank with a similar setup and whatnot, we made some changes around the house that I didn’t expect to change my alk but it did. We *finally* put doors into our new house (it took a while because life, and our tanks are still more important than finishing home improvements), so the airflow pattern in the entire house changed. I was also leaving our doors open because we have basically three walls of just sliding doors and it’s been beautiful where I live. My tank is situated fairly close to the sliding door and when it’s open all the way, it’s almost like it’s outside. The alk would drop constantly like that, even in the bigger tank we have. I cannot for the life of me remember where we saw that having the doors open and my two pups in a more “contained” area (not as much airflow as the house was getting) made the parameters all wonky but now that I don’t have the big doors open as much, the tanks have been much more stable. I’m also not sure how normal of a procedure it is to test your water change water before it goes into the tank, but I test for alk and salinity before I do a water change now too. But like I said, I’m no expert and I’m pretty new to this hobby. Just sharing my personal experience! I hope you get the results you’re looking for soon!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The alk would drop constantly like that, even in the bigger tank we have. I cannot for the life of me remember where we saw that having the doors open and my two pups in a more “contained” area (not as much airflow as the house was getting) made the parameters all wonky but now that I don’t have the big doors open as much, the tanks have been much more stable.

Maybe more stable but at a lower pH, where corals are growing more slowly and so using less alkalinity. :)

 

[dayttu17]

Maybe more stable but at a lower pH, where corals are growing more slowly and so using less alkalinity. :)

I don’t want to hijack this thread. Randy, is there any way to direct message. With you? Would like advice on my tank after being out of this hobby for a long time.

 

[CraigLiz]

I had similar problems when I started my tank about a year ago. My salt mixes at 8 dkh. For a few months I really struggled to get my alkalinity up. At my lowest point I was in the high 4's. I would go to my LFS and try to figure out how this was happening and why. I even got a few headscratches from the LFS about my alakalinity. I was confused as well when this was happening, all I had in my tank was a few tiny zoas and a leather and a stylo. I would constantly think, where is everything going?
In the end, the only thing that truly helped me was dosing. My LFS sold me something to increase the alkalinity with instructions. After a few successful months of that, I started using all for reef with a dosing pump as I couldn't stand measuring and adding every few days, which I was still having minor swings because of how I was dosing. I wasn't really excited about getting more equipment, but I can not dispute the results I have been getting with the dosing pump. My experience with something somewhat similar is don't fight it, figure out a good way to get the alkalinity where you need it/want it. I can say from experience that the swing I had a while back in alkalinity took a toll on my coral.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don’t want to hijack this thread. Randy, is there any way to direct message. With you? Would like advice on my tank after being out of this hobby for a long time.

Sorry, no. Best to start a specific thread on it. :)