Alkalinity rising quickly

[gaving]

My alkalinity keeps rising and my corals are all taking a hit over the past week I am up 1 dkh I am not dosing or anything I haven’t put my hands in the tank in about 2 weeks when I last did a water change I do one this Sunday. Please help I am using salifter test kit and I have been testing very frequently. Here is my log or testing.

 

[Ryan3313]

Did you change what salt you were using?

 

[gaving]

I changed salts back in March to Red Sea blue bucket but since then no

 

[Ryan3313]

Are you stirring the salt before adding it to the water?

 

[gaving]

Yes I mix the bag every time I am doing a water change right now and Im going to check the dkh of the water

 

[Just John]

@Randy Holmes-Farley do you have any thoughts about this?

 

[Daftendire]

Your post says you haven't dosed anything but are you adding anything to increase nitrates? I've dosed NeoNitrate before which caused my alk to increase similarly to this.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How long has the tank been set up?

What kind of rock and/sand?

What type of water for top off?

Any additives at all? Nitrate dosing?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How are you measuring alkalinity? Some controllers have issues when the reagent begins to get low.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You can lower alkalinity with sodium bisulfate (or muriatic acid). Seachem acid buffer contains this.

It is best done in the water change water (you can drop alk there as low as you want) since it drops pH and you need to aerate to bring it up, but could be done very slowly in an aquarium.

 

[gaving]

Your post says you haven't dosed anything but are you adding anything to increase nitrates? I've dosed NeoNitrate before which caused my alk to increase similarly to this.

I am not and never have on this tank

 

[gaving]

How long has the tank been set up?

What kind of rock and/sand?

What type of water for top off?

Any additives at all? Nitrate dosing?

The tank was setup August 30 2020

Carib sea dry live rock and Carib sea araganite Figi pink sand.

I use Rodi water

nope

 

[gaving]

How are you measuring alkalinity? Some controllers have issues when the reagent begins to get low.

I use the salifert test kit I have been using the same one the entire time of this testing

 

[gaving]

You can lower alkalinity with sodium bisulfate (or muriatic acid). Seachem acid buffer contains this.

It is best done in the water change water (you can drop alk there as low as you want) since it drops pH and you need to aerate to bring it up, but could be done very slowly in an aquarium.

I just did a water change 1 minute ago and the dkh of the new water was 9.4 so hopefully that will help

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Has alk been rising all along, or only recently?

 

[gaving]

Has alk been rising all along, or only recently?

I tried dosing in may but I quickly stopped because I lost a frag and at the time I only had 4 so it impacted the amount needed it was a milipora normally it has been rising just never this quickly.

 

[ying yang]

Are you stirring the salt before adding it to the water?

Why stir the salt before adding it to the water to be mixed ?

So that it doesnt clump together and elements stick together or what ?
I never stir the salt and never heard that its good practice to stir the salt first before adding it to the water to be mixed.

 

[gaving]

Some salts separate over time and you will get fluctuations in the levels of the salt. So the alkalinity and mag could separate so you could be making saltwater with a dkh of 4 and mag of 1600.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I tried dosing in may but I quickly stopped because I lost a frag and at the time I only had 4 so it impacted the amount needed it was a milipora normally it has been rising just never this quickly.

But has the alk been rising since the tank was set up, or only for the time frame listed here?

 

[gaving]

But has the alk been rising since the tank was set up, or only for the time frame listed here?

No there was a good period around October-March where the tank was stable. Just over the past few weeks the alk has been raising just this week alk has gone up more then normal