Alkalinity will not raise

[Nohatch]

I generally keep my alk level at 9.6 testing with salifert test and It is very steady at this #. I use 2 part esv with a dosing pump. I didn't test for 2 weeks. 3 days ago I tested and it was 8.6. I manually dosed trying to get back to 9.6. It did not raise at all. I tried a couple more times and always test at 8.6. I turned the dosing pump off 24 hrs ago and alk is still 8.6. What could be causing this? The tank is mainly sps. All the coral seems very happy and looks great! Any info would be great. Thank you

My tank is 140g total with the sump and is bare bottom. Here are the levels i am able to test for.

Alk.. 8.6
Cal.. 420
Mag.. 1290
Phos.. .04
Nitrate.. undetectable on salifert
Salinity.. 1.026

 

[lapin]

A testing error maybe

 

[lilgrounchuck]

I’d be careful dosing more until you verify your results. Your kit could be off

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Do you have somewhere you can go to verify? Maybe test fresh salt mix water and verify against what you expect it to mix to?

 

[Nohatch]

A testing error maybe

It is possible. I have tested 10-12 times the past few days and always get 8.6

 

[Nohatch]

Do you have somewhere you can go to verify? Maybe test fresh salt mix water and verify against what you expect it to mix to?

I will do that. I'll mix up a fresh batch and test my test kit. Thank you

 

[lpsouth1978]

It is possible. I have tested 10-12 times the past few days and always get 8.6

What test are you using?

 

[Nohatch]

What test are you using?

Salifert

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How much alkalinity, in dKH per day were you dosing? If very low, stopping it might be hard to notice.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

It is possible. I have tested 10-12 times the past few days and always get 8.6

Either your tank is consuming alk exponentially faster than normal, or something is off. I'm going with the latter. You should probably stop dosing, or at least just go back to your normal regimen after doing a medium water change to try and un-do what your extra dosing did. That'll help get you closer to your baseline. Honestly though, if my numbers start to stray any direction and everything is going well, I don't try to swing anything. That usually results in a bad reaction across the board. I'll halt it, and adjust slowly to go back to the norm, but most of these things (at least the ones in my tank) are pretty cool with really gradual slides in numbers.

 

[Nohatch]

How much alkalinity, in dKH per day were you dosing? If very low, stopping it might be hard to notice.

I believe 1 dkh but I do not remember my original starting dkh. I dose 40ml a day.

 

[Nohatch]

Either your tank is consuming alk exponentially faster than normal, or something is off. I'm going with the latter. You should probably stop dosing, or at least just go back to your normal regimen after doing a medium water change to try and un-do what your extra dosing did. That'll help get you closer to your baseline. Honestly though, if my numbers start to stray any direction and everything is going well, I don't try to swing anything. That usually results in a bad reaction across the board. I'll halt it, and adjust slowly to go back to the norm, but most of these things (at least the ones in my tank) are pretty cool with really gradual slides in numbers.

Thank you I will definitely take that advice! I need to slow down sometimes. I just thought I should be able to see some movement after adding alk. A water change is a good place to start.

 

[Spieg]

How much ESV Part A did you add manually, and are you sure you are adding A and not B (I mistakenly switched containers before)? To boost 140 gallons from 8.6 to 9.6 should take a pretty large amount (about 62 ml). If you're dosing 40ml per day in your system, that's a lot more than 1dkh...

One of the best test verification tools I've found to be bottle of AccuraSea sold by Two Little Fishies (actual seawater in a bottle that is great for test comparison to tank water).

 

[Nohatch]

How much ESV Part A did you add manually, and are you sure you are adding A and not B (I mistakenly switched containers before)? To boost 140 gallons from 8.6 to 9.6 should take a pretty large amount (about 62 ml).

One of the best test verification tools I've found to be bottle of AccuraSea sold by Two Little Fishies (actual seawater in a bottle that is great for test comparison to tank water).

I actually checked the bottles to make sure it was alk. I only dosed 30ml. I didn't want to dose too much at once but thought I should of saw some movement in my # with that amount.

Thank you. I'm definitely going to look into that. It sounds great to test against