Alk dropping ?

Steve very good explanation!

I know that my kH can drop from 13 to 8 to 7 in one day if I miss dosing. God forbid i miss 2 days and it is down to 5. I have to dose double the dose of alk twice a day versus 1x day (we are looking at alternative means to dose). It is a small tank with MASSIVE amount of stoney and LPS corals with MASSIVE MASSIVE amounts of coralline algea in it. Our mag stays around 10-1100 and calcium around 600. None of my tanks do i ever have to add calcium for some reason. I have been dosing mag around every other day (brightwell mag) and have a hard time keeping it up. I just purchased Kent Mag in attempts to bring it back up (this was effective when we had bryopsis to 1400) so hoping this helps. We are also just using IO salt versus reef crystals right now. Plus we have a high evaporation rate due to all the tanks we have

But I know in the past, when I was dosing Kalk, you really have to fine tune the dosing. I would.....still do with the 2 part ....test daily my levels for several weeks to ensure I had the right dosing schedule and was adjusting maybe every couple days until I got the right amount. Once that was achieved i still would test 1x a week to ensure it wouldnt drop.

I know this has no relation to the question, however anybody else test for Potassium? I was concerned because our blue SPS wasnt as blue as i thought so I figured this was down. Instead of being low we were high in potassium. Our K level was 600 and we do not dose k.

 

I have the Salifert pottasium test kit
its pretty easy to use, and I am currently maintaining at about 390 - 410
the color change is unmistakable , in fact it is easier to use this kit in terms of color change than the Alk kit ( is that the shade of pink I need or do I add 1 more drop type deal with the Alk kit IME)

the potassium test goes from off white yellow to blue on a single drop (instant color change)


might be a test kit error Mel, so a 2nd opinion may be worth while

Steve

 

yeah, i will have to look into that! I am using the Elos kit and it is a pain in the but! You do all this mixing in one vial then you take a syringe and place a second test tube over a card that has a circle in it with a black spot. You then add the solution into the test tube until you can no longer see the dot from the top. I figured there was some user error with this kit!

Most of these test kits are so hard to read.....like you said, do i need to add one more drop or is this the right shade! Wish someone would make an all in one electronic monitor! LOL

 

Bought a Magnesium kit and retested everything

Mag 1440
Alk 5.7
CA 490
PH 8.3

 

all fine except that Alk reading which I am sure is Dkh?

I would get that test result verified by either asking your LFS to perform test or someone you know in the hobby

what brand test kit is the Alk kit and are you sure it has not past its best before date?

worth double checking those readings before taking any remedial action IMO

The Mag is fine
The Ph is great
the Calcium is a tad high, but no major issue

 

Brand new Salifert kit

 

And the same Alk reading from my old API kit

 

Thanks again for your help Steve.

I spoke with my LFS last night who indicated he recently contacted Coralife about a large bad batch of salt he received, apparently with very low Alk readings, nearing 2 dkh.

We could not verify whether the salt I have from him was part of that batch. But I will be mixing up and testing a new batch of saltwater to check the Alk reading.

 

Well after testing a fresh batch of saltwater, here are the readings

Mag 1500
Alk 9.3
CA 560
PH 8.0
Salinity 1.026

So it looks like the low Alk is not from the salt mix, I did dose my tank with a buffer and have the Alk up to 8.0,looks like I will also increas my Kalk to help maintain the Alk levels.

 

After seeing these results, I am still convinced that your levels are normal for a SPS tank, and not a result of bad salt, bad test kits, etc. SPS tanks will consume a lot of alk. Just test daily and see how much it is consuming per day, and keep up with it by dosing accordingly. This will get extremely annoying (dosing daily to keep levels consistant), and thus, I recommend investing in a dosing pump or ATO (with kalk in top off water).