Why is my alk dropping all of the sudden

impur

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I am at a loss as to why my alk levels are dropping. I maintain params with a Bubble Magus triple doser. I have tested almost once a week since I installed in in April and params have been rock solid:

calcium 440ppm
alk 9.0dKH
mag 1400ppm

During that time I did a 10% WC about twice a month.

Recently I have been removing corals to my biocube in an attempt to get rid of hydroids (which is going great!) and also just started going back to doing weekly WCs (last 3 weeks) due to some corals just not looking well. That is all that has changed, i did not adjust my dosing.

So, having less corals in the tank than previously, why would my alk consumption tick up? Its not that far out of whack, but its dropped about .2dKH every week for the last 6 weeks, and now sits at 8.0dKH. My calcium is exactly the same, as is my magnesium.

Any ideas?
 

kuyatwo

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Make sure the alk is dripping. I had my dosing tube crack and lose prime


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impur

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Make sure the alk is dripping. I had my dosing tube crack and lose prime


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Yah, it cakes up on the exit tubing but I get that off at least once a week

What are the parameters of the water your using for the water changes?

I thought about that last night so I tested

8.6dKH
440ppm
1350ppm
 

dwilliams87

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When I had the same issue it was bad batch of salt. It was aquavitros salinity, and mixed at 6dkh. My alk was dropping out and couldn't figure it out until I testes my salt several times.
 
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impur

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When I had the same issue it was bad batch of salt. It was aquavitros salinity, and mixed at 6dkh. My alk was dropping out and couldn't figure it out until I testes my salt several times.

Yah thats already ruled out if you read above.
 

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