Controlling Alk in a small Nano

So I have a small nano, about 14 gallons total volume (22 Gallons without rock) and everything is really taking off. I have many kinds of LPS and a bunch of softies. I also have a healthy assortment of hermit crabs, snails, purple coral banded shrimp and an emerald crab along with 3 fish.

Lately I've noticed my PH and Alk has been low while the rest of my parameters are right on the money. I've done lots of research but it gets really confusing. I figured I'll first try the washing soda method (cooked baking soda). I dosed and got my alk back up to the proper readings last week. However this week they are back down. Does it sound right to have to dose the washing soda as a normal routine, daily? I figured I'd get the alk up and it would be stable, didn't expect it to be back down that fast.
Parameters:
Nitrate >5
Nitrite 0
Alk between 80 and 100ppm
PH normally 7.4
Calc ~450
Mag 1300

I perform weekly 3 gallon water changes and use chemi pure elite which is changed out every 2 months. To get my alk up to between 120 and 180 it took around 2 tsp of soda. I added the soda\ro mixture over a period of 3-4 days. Let me know if this sounds right for such a small tank. For the record I'm using test strips for nitrate\trite\ph\alk, although I will probably pickup a real alk test kit soon.

 

Until you can properly test (not using strips) I would discontinue dosing. Its possible your getting an incorrect alk reading from the strips. Along with your other test strip readings.

 

I 2nd better kits. That said, I am not surprised by the alk and pH issues in a nano. I experience that with my 30 gallon. I don't have experience with baking soda, but .. refugium and kalk helped the pH. And alk is handled as part of a 3 part dosing routine with my doser. You've stumbled on the challenges of nano keeping. Good luck.

 

I'll pickup a kit this week. I do have good kits for PH\Nitrates\trites\Calc and Mg, only One I'm missing is alk so I'll get it.
Tested last night a few hours after dosing 1/2 tsp of washing soda.
PH on strip was around 8.0-8.2 and on the liquid kit was 8.2-8.4 so it's off slightly.
Alk on the strip went way up to around 240ppm
Nitrates with the liquid kit was 0
Calc with liquid was 540
Mg with liquid was 1600 - Must still be a little high from when I battled bryopsis.

 

Here's your readings from you first post:
Parameters:
Nitrate >5
Nitrite 0
Alk between 80 and 100ppm
PH normally 7.4
Calc ~450
Mag 1300

Now your readings from today:
PH on strip was around 8.0-8.2 and on the liquid kit was 8.2-8.4 so it's off slightly.
Alk on the strip went way up to around 240ppm
Nitrates with the liquid kit was 0
Calc with liquid was 540
Mg with liquid was 1600 - Must still be a little high from when I battled bryopsis.

We're looking at a 24hrs difference here. Something isn't right!!! Stop using the test strips period! Stop giving us the readings from the test strips as they are incorrect and we can not help you properly with these kind of readings. What liquid kits did you get? What salt are you using? What is your SG and salinity reading?

Also from the liquid tests I'd say STOP dosing washing soda. I wouldn't be so concerned about your PH, really! It fluctuates throughout the day. Only time to be overly concerned is if it drops below 7.8 and stays there or rises above 8.4 and stays there.

 

You can discredit the test strips if you like, but I'm still going to use them for comparison.
I picked up the Selifert Alk test kit. Here is the result from that.
March 1st
Alk= 6.4KH = 114ppm
Here's the result from my test strip
Alk = ~120ppm.

Based on the strip alone, my alk went way down since my last post. But since those have been dubbed inaccurate, I will continue to test daily with the selifert and see if I am actually getting a drop in alk on a daily basis. So far in the past few weeks I've dosed 2.5 tsp of cooked baking soda and my alk is still a little low, so that must mean something.

 

I also must mention that on the 28th, the day after my last soda dose when the alk went up real high, my coral colors were brighter and more colorful than they have been in a long time, not that they're dull or anything but they were really popping, unless it was my imagination.
I plan on doing a water change today, which should bring down my Mg levels a little more. After a day or two I will retest my alk.

 

Based on my findings so far, my ALK appears to drop in .3 dKH per day........

I guess there is something I need to do about this unless I want my alk low all the time.

 

So my routine has been to use baked arm and hammer baking soda. I mix (2) Tablespoons with some RO in an old poland spring bottle. I dose about 1\10th of the bottle each morning and my alk has been testing 8dKH. Since doing so my corals are very vibrant and coraline has been taking off, not that I care much for the coraline. I purchased a siefert calcium test kit and my inital reading was ~520. I don't know if thats correct, but I'll be bringing a sample to my LFS to have a comparison test run.

Anyone have any ideas why I would need to dose so much baking soda? Corals consuming the alk, coraline consuming the alk, decaying matter?

 

Sounds like normal alk usage to me. I dose using ESV's 2 part and I'm dosing 15ml of both ca/alk daily. I'm thinking my total water volume is around 20g and I have a lot of corals. LPS, softies and a clam. My alk drops daily. I've also discovered that it's best if I dose my alk at night and ca during the day. No swings this way and an ATO does wonders for stability also.

Low alkalinity can also lead to low pH. For example, if alkalinity is not supplemented as fast as it is removed by calcification, the pH will likely drop. This drop will occur with all alkalinity supplementation schemes, but will be most observable when using schemes that do not themselves raise pH (such as CaCO3/CO2 reactors or additives using unbaked baking soda). In this situation, the obvious solution is to somehow add more alkalinity. The higher the combined respiration of the aquarium, the larger the diurnal swings will be as alkalinity falls.