Alkalinity Problems.

Hi i am new to this forum so please be gentle with me.

I have a 180ltr tank and it has been set up for 9 weeks now.
I have been testing the stats and have noticed that my Alk has dropped from normal to low.

This has been like this for a couple of weeks now and i am getting concerned as to why.

Here are my water stats......
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
PH 8.2 has always been 8.4
Nitrate 5
Calcium 460
Phos 0.1

Tank mates
2... percula clowns
1... firefish
1... 6 line wrasse
1... skunk cleaner shrimp
3... red leg hermit crabs
4... turbo snails.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

How low is "low?"

 

I would purchase a test kit that actually gives a measurement of ALK.

How often are you doing water changes and with what salt?

J

 

Hi

HI,
I am very new too, but from my reading , I noticed that everything in the tank tends to use ALk up be it bacteria , coral, algae, fish, so to keep it we need supplements , some use kalkwasser to raise ca and kh together, it can be tricky, others use buffer.
By a good KH test at your lps and measure it as needed if it gets low you will see a ph shift down, make changes slowly fish can die if things change to fast.


Doug

this helped me understand water better, hope it helps, ask questions if your confused its critical to your fish, most tanks are OK for about 2 weeks and then the soup starts to go south either due to metabolic changes in water conditions my first bad experience was due to not testing KH and I exceded the norms and crashed this cause a major precip event that used up ca, mg. and killed some inverts. so testing is critical to keeping saltwater. I now keep a saltwater diary on my water test. It will help me to not over react and shock the system.The kh, mg and ca are a group that has to move around together any drastic change to only one can cause problems. I don't test PH only KH.
A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com


if you can't afford test kits get your lps to help with phos,mag, phos causes algae, mag prevents precip but can be toxic if too high. and each kit can have different units so be sure your measuring in the right units for interp KH .

 

Welcome to 3reef!!!
Alkalinity many times has a opposite reaction to calcium! That is why WE use a calcium/alkalinity combination dosing regimine.