Why am I unable to change the pH and Alkalinity of my reef tanks

arking_mark

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Ok so I did read the whole article but still not sure how I should proceed. I believe The article is saying I should be adding equal parts alk and cal. But if I add the 50ml daily of cal along with the daily water changes calcium goes up into the 500s. This is why I stopped dosing cal to have a steady cal of 460. I’m still confused as to what would be best for my system. Most likely will just keep only dosing alk.

Just occasionally monitor Ca and adjust as needed then. Other factors that may contribute to "apparent" imbalance consumption could be your water changes which may have elevated Ca or lower Alk than your tank.
 

mdb_talon

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Definitely.

The four alkalinity supplements typically used are:

1. acetate or formate (usually in all in one products). They raise CO2 and lower pH
2. bicarbonate. Very slight pH lowering from CO2 addition.
3. carbonate. Substantial pH raising from CO2 "consumption"
4. hydroxide. Largest pH boost from most CO2 "consumption"

Products like 8.4 and many similar "buffers" are just a mixture of bicarbonate and carbonate.

Thank you. I assumed it was something like that since you said only alk and co2 impact ph, but was not sure.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Ok so I did read the whole article but still not sure how I should proceed. I believe The article is saying I should be adding equal parts alk and cal. But if I add the 50ml daily of cal along with the daily water changes calcium goes up into the 500s. This is why I stopped dosing cal to have a steady cal of 460. I’m still confused as to what would be best for my system. Most likely will just keep only dosing alk.

There are some minor sources of alk depletion that do not consume calcium.

If you find calcium is rising too much (not just that you think it is stable without dosing), then by all means dose less or none. :)
 

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