Alkalinity Problem.

Few of my corals have not been looking to good over the last few days, so today i tested the Ph-8.2 and also the alkalinity its at a dire 7.3ish, is there any easy way i can raise this tonight until i can buy a buffer in the morning, and can anybody suggest a good one?

I thought if my alk was low then my ph would be also, or am i wrong, only thing i have been doing the last couple of weeks is raising my mag trying to get it at 1350 at the moment its 1250, then i will be raising my calcium at the moment its 390...

My frogspawn is looking a bit worse for wear, have put it higher up in the tank, 3 thirds up a 20 inch, under 156watt whites and 78 watt actinic. moved it from the flow abit as it doesent open up fully otherwise.

also if the frogspawn tentacles all overhang down the rock face is this ok....?

 

If your alk. is low i just use baking soda (not baking powder). Its always worked for me with no ill effects. If i remember right Tangster and other people use it also.

 

I have used it also, now remember, do it slowly! 1 teaspoon per every 20 gal. of tank water. Mix the soda in 2 cups pure water and add where there is plenty of movement (like near a power head.

 

ok thanks, how much will like 2 teaspoons of baking soda raise it?

 

Personally, I think you can get into a lot of trouble trying to separately solve chemical parameters. I had a lot of problems until Randy Holmes-Farley posted many of his articles, one being:
A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
There are a lot more articles of his and others on his archived links page:
Reef Central Online Community Archives - Reef Chemistry Articles

 

Hi stingray, You have a 55 gal. if your profile is up to date so you would use 2 1/2 teaspoons in 2 cups of pure fresh water. This should buffer the water enough to raise it 1 or 2 dkh. Add daily until you get to 10 dkh. It is fine to raise Alkalinity on it's own. Now, for the future, switch over to a 2 part system. I use Kent Marine, Tech CB. Part A is Calcium and part B is the buffer. Works great, that way you are buffering each time you are adding Calcium. After awhile you will learn to adjust how much you use of each to keep the parameters where you want them.

 

google jdecks reef calc
put in your info use baking soda as your product
and figure it to raise 1 a day
it will tell you exactly what to do

 

Ok have been out looking for baking soda, only thing i can find over here is,

Bicarbonate of soda, ingredients are, baicarbonate of soda.

Baking Powder, ingredients are, wheat flour, raising agents, disodium disphosphate, sodium bicarbonate, contains gluten.

So are any one of these 2 things baking soda, or is it something else???

 

It should be in any grocery store.
Normal baking soda:
scroll down to raising alkalinity.
ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda - BASICS - THE MAGIC OF ARM & HAMMER® BAKING SODA

 

They should have arm&hammer in the UK, shouldn't they?