Dosing Alk

Recently I started battling low CA and Alk and started dosing BRS CA and Alk. I never had issues before and my CA was always 430-450 and my Alk was around 10 but with all my coral growth it started to creep down. I was hoping WC would replenish enough to keep dosing at bay but after awhile it became apparent this was not going to be the case.

Well after dosing a TON of CA and Alk my CA is finally back where I want it. RedSea measures 450 and API measures 460. My Alk however is still low, 7.6 with RedSea and 8.0 with API. I tried to dose the Alk but it seems to precipitate out immediately after dosing resulting in no rise in alk levels. My pH I started monitoring with a pinpoint monitor and it seems to measure 7.6-7.7 in the AM and around 8.0 in the evening. I thought maybe Mag was low but my Mag has never been low and after testing my RedSea kit shows it to be 1440, kit is only a month old. My old redsea kit used to test around the same, 1400-1500, but had to be replaced after I ran out of solution. I read of some other reefers having issues with the RS kit testing about 300 higher on Mag than what other kits showed their water to actually be at so am thinking of getting a Salifert kit for Mag to doublecheck my levels and dose if needed.

Sorry for the long post, anyone have any input on my situation? My wife makes fun of me and calls me the mad chemist because of how many tests I run on the reef. Takes me a good 1-2hours once a week to run all the test and I record the numbers in a notepad to reference if need me.

 

How often are you dosing?? First thing to do is figure out amount of alk being used daily and amount needed to replenish it. Then dose that amount at the same time every day. Auto doses are wonderful things.... Then if need to raise add a bit to your daily dose and test alk, once desired level reached back your dose back to original amount. Testing regular to keep an eye on levels and your dosing amounts helps.

 

I was dosing multiple times a day to help prevent to rapid a pH increase but my Alk levels never seem to rise above 8 or 9 and no matter how high I would get it by morning my pH was 7.7 and alk 7-8 again.

 

I take it you are manually dosing then? what times of the day are you doing them?

I dose calcium in the morning just before my lights go on and ALK about half an hour after lights out and dont have issues bringing either up when needed. alk is sitting at 10DKH as of yesterday

 

Just dump some baking soda in! i have a 100gal system, and 1tsp=1dk raise. Dont go up more then 2dkh a day!

 

He is already using BRS supplements tho, he doesnt need to use a different product to do the same job.

 

im just sayin....its A LOTTT cheaper haha

 

I don't think my problem is just dosing though as whenever I add Alk it seems to form a white cloud. The only reason I could think for this happening with a CA at 450 would be the Mag being too low causing the Alk to precipitate out

 

Well everyone on here told me my mag was out of wack and that was why my alk was at 6dkh. So i went and spent $50 on test kit and mag. Then tested, and it was perfect.

SOOOO for 3 days I just tested alk, then added 2tsp of baking soda. It went up about 1.5-2dkh a day. When it hit 11 i stopped. Tested the next day and it was stable. Now I just dose 2tsp of baking soda a week to stay at 10-11dkh.

Make sure you pre mix the alk sup in some fresh RO water and dont just dump the powder in. And if you use baking soda you can bake it so that it wont increase the PH.

If you are seeing no increase an hour after dosing alk then it may be your mag!

 

Reef Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply

select alcalinity calculator, enter system volume, select dkh, enter desired alk(11dkh), select dry sodium bicarbonate(baking soda) then hit calculate. It will tell you how much to dose.