Alkalinity is high

ReefBoy7

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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!

IMG_3184.jpeg
 
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ReefBoy7

ReefBoy7

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Make up water:
Salinity- 1.025
Alkalinity- 5.926DKH this time.
 

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ReefBoy7

ReefBoy7

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Working on getting a hold of the lfs to ask them to measure their alk and let me know what they read. Thanks so far for helping me troubleshoot this!
 
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ReefBoy7

ReefBoy7

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Wow, so the lfs measured their alkalinity at 7.8DKH. I'm going to bring my water in tomorrow so they can test+ take a look at my Alkalinity tester. Worst case they can sell me a better brand...

Thanks again for everyone's help and hinting to me that my test could be wrong!
 
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Reign1

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Yeah good catch.. sounds like your ALK is low and you need to regularly dose for it.
makeup water ALK seems a little low. I would run a test again with different cuvette.
 
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ReefBoy7

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Yeah good catch.. sounds like your ALK is low and you need to regularly dose for it.
makeup water ALK seems a little low. I would run a test again with different cuvette.
That's a great rec. I'll run one with another cuvette. I heard they can be finicky from reviews I read online. Thank you!
 
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EricR

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

Sounds very low for new salt water. How are you checking salinity?
Yeah -- personally, I'd think about this more.
I don't think ANY normal salt mixes to <6 dKH at normal salinity.

Did you say what salt mix you're using? (might've missed that)
 
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ReefBoy7

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Yeah -- personally, I'd think about this more.
I don't think ANY normal salt mixes to <6 dKH at normal salinity.

Did you say what salt mix you're using? (might've missed that)
I'm still getting water from the lfs. I'll ask tomorrow when I go in to get my water tested and checker looked at
 
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