Alkalinity is high

[ReefBoy7]

Hello reefers!

I have had my Red Sea Reefer 425xl setup for about 4 years now and have been reefing since for about 15 years now. To be completely honest though, I don't have much experience when it comes to managing different levels in the tank.

I have always stuck with biweekly water changes and siphoning put any fish poop that's settled between my rocks. I've had incredible growth over the years for not testing at all

J just started testing as I noticed my corals lost a little of their brilliant coloration and noticed my Alkalinity is a bit high for my liking(comparative to reasearch I've done recently)

Long story short, I'm wondering if I will need to dose to bring the alkalinity down slowly or if I should even look into a doser to keep things stable going forward? I did buy Hanna Nitrate, Alkalinity and Calcium checkers (using up remaining salifert phos) and will be more serious about checking/maintaining parameters going forward. Here are my parameters!

Salinity- 1.025
Phosphate-.01'ish
Nitrate-
Alkalinity- 11.9(last night) 12.3(this morning)
Calcium- 380
Temp- 81 (it'll be cooling down in socal soon and temp will go back to 78）

Equipment:
2 Kessil a160we lights
1 mp40qd, 1 Koralia 700(?)
Two little fishies Phosphate reactor 150
Reef Octopus Skimmer 110sss

Sump algae's:
Chaeto+Caulerpa fern(growing like a champ)
Miracle mud in glass dish

Any help is greatly appreciated and I'm sorry if I'm asking a repeat question here on the forum. I did research quite a bit over the past couple of days and figured having a discussion with some pros would be in my tank's best interest!

 

[MnFish1]

Triple check your tests. Alkalinity - unless there is a nitrate issue will decrease on its own - what is the alkalinity of the make-up water

 

[Garf]

Hello reefers!

I have had my Red Sea Reefer 425xl setup for about 4 years now and have been reefing since for about 15 years now. To be completely honest though, I don't have much experience when it comes to managing different levels in the tank.

I have always stuck with biweekly water changes and siphoning put any fish poop that's settled between my rocks. I've had incredible growth over the years for not testing at all

J just started testing as I noticed my corals lost a little of their brilliant coloration and noticed my Alkalinity is a bit high for my liking(comparative to reasearch I've done recently)

Long story short, I'm wondering if I will need to dose to bring the alkalinity down slowly or if I should even look into a doser to keep things stable going forward? I did buy Hanna Nitrate, Alkalinity and Calcium checkers (using up remaining salifert phos) and will be more serious about checking/maintaining parameters going forward. Here are my parameters!

Salinity- 1.025
Phosphate-.01'ish
Nitrate-
Alkalinity- 11.9(last night) 12.3(this morning)
Calcium- 380
Temp- 81 (it'll be cooling down in socal soon and temp will go back to 78）

Equipment:
2 Kessil a160we lights
1 mp40qd, 1 Koralia 700(?)
Two little fishies Phosphate reactor 150
Reef Octopus Skimmer 110sss

Sump algae's:
Chaeto+Caulerpa fern(growing like a champ)
Miracle mud in glass dish

Any help is greatly appreciated and I'm sorry if I'm asking a repeat question here on the forum. I did research quite a bit over the past couple of days and figured having a discussion with some pros would be in my tank's best interest!

That checker is ppm, not DKH.

Edit - looks like that converts to 6.9dkh

 

[ReefBoy7]

That checker is ppm, not DKH.

Edit - looks like that converts to 6.9dkh

Ohh! So my DKH is 6.876

 

[Garf]

Ohh! So my DKH is 6.876

Indeed

 

[ReefBoy7]

Triple check your tests. Alkalinity - unless there is a nitrate issue will decrease on its own - what is the alkalinity of the make-up water

I'll check it again right now! My nitrates are reading 10.

I did previously have a phosphate and nitrate issue where my phosphate was .68 and nitrate was 20. That's what encouraged me to start testing

 

[ReefBoy7]

Indeed

Apparently my C+ in reading comprehension continues to haunt me

Then my alkalinity is in fact low (if anything) sounds like I should look into raising this number slowly.

 

[ReefBoy7]

I'll check it again right now! My nitrates are reading 10.

I did previously have a phosphate and nitrate issue where my phosphate was .68 and nitrate was 20. That's what encouraged me to start testing

Triple check your tests. Alkalinity - unless there is a nitrate issue will decrease on its own - what is the alkalinity of the make-up water

Make up water Alkalinity- 5.7DKH
Tank Alkalinity- 6.82dkh

 

[Garf]

Make up water Alkalinity- 5.7DKH

Sounds very low for new salt water. How are you checking salinity?

 

[ReefBoy7]

Sounds very low for new salt water. How are you checking salinity?

I use a couple of Milwaukee Refractometers for my salinity. I have one in my tank stand and another in my garage by my water.

I'm getting my water from the fish store still... next upgrade will be rodi hookup in the laundry room/garage.

 

[Garf]

Milwaukee Refractometers for my salinity.

Ok, I know very little to nothing about those but I expect if they are calibrated properly they should be fine.

 

[ReefBoy7]

the black one stats

Ok, I know very little to nothing about those but I expect if they are calibrated properly they should be fine.

Yeah they both read between 1.024-1.025( one in the garage needs to be calibrated often, im sure due to the heat?)

 

[ReefBoy7]

I did add a couple corals yesterday from Reefapalooza. Here's a vid of new and previous corals. All seem happy, meat coral is not puffed as much as it was in the show tank yesterday. Maybe 60% puffed up. Seems like they are noticing the lack of alkalinity

That algae on the sand is like a green cyano that I've almost gotten rid of. A month ago my mother in law(living in spare room) decided to turn the lights about 15% brighter and I didn't realize it until I started getting cyano problems. Through persistent water changes and dilligent scrubbing it's having a harder time reproducing

 

[ReefBoy7]

Vid 1

 

[MnFish1]

Natural seawater has an alkalinity of 7-8 - it's not that far off. However, your make up water is off - I'm still thinking there is an issue with your testing

 

[ReefBoy7]

Vid 2 -meat coral

Not sure if these vids help? Trying to understand if my corals are doing well or trying to tell me to raise alk lol

 

[ReefBoy7]

Natural seawater has an alkalinity of 7-8 - it's not that far off. However, your make up water is off - I'm still thinking there is an issue with your testing

I'm following the brs vids on youtube for alkalinity testing. Let me test again real quick!

 

[ReefBoy7]

Vids don't seem to be loading. Meat coral

 

[ReefBoy7]

Banana torch

 

[ReefBoy7]

Jellybean(?) rainbow chalice