Cant Keep ALK Stable Anymore!

[FishNerdVlogsYT]

For the longest time I kept my alkalinity rock solid as 9.3 in my nano reef by just dosing 4 ml daily. now it seems that I cant keep it from swinging all over the place and I'm starting to fear for my corals as my acans, euphyllia, and poccilopora are showing signs of stress, (closed or pulled back polyps).

Alk swings happened as follows:

Feb 24 - 11.5 - turned dosing down to 2ml daily

Feb 25 - 10.2 - big drop, turned dosing to 3 ml to slow it.

Feb 26 - 9.3 - another big drop, turned dosing back to 4ml

Feb 28 - 10.5 - what the heck IS GOING ON, turned dosing to 2ml

Mar 2 - 9.3 - turned dosing to 3ml

Mar 4 - 10.9 - How the heck is this even happening!? Turned dosing down to 2ml

Mar 6 - 9.9- Well I'm screwed... better post on R2R. turned dosing to 3ml

Amazingly my acros are still thriving through all of this! I didnt waterchange this week for fear of causing another swing. Ca has remained steady at 440 the whole time. Tank pic and stock list below:

Tank Specs :
Fluval Evo 13.5 Gallon
No skimmer
Filterfloss and marinepure spheres in back chamber 1
Cheato in chamber 2
Ai Prime Light
AutoAqua ATO

Stock:
2 clowns
2 Greenband gobies
1 harlequin shrimp
1 tuxedo urchin
hermits
snails

red Montipora
mint monti
Strawberry fields monti
galaxea
green poccilopora
purple torch
green frogspawn
acans
zoas
watermelon chalice
watermelon favia

added right before issues started:

Joe the coral acro
no name green acro
JF Headbanger acro
gold leptoseris booger frag

any help would be much appreciated!!!

 

[Brad Miller]

Hi,
I’m sure you already thought of this, but maybe your test kit is off, have you tried another one ?
And are you testing at the same time of day...at night well after feeding time ?

 

[FishNerdVlogsYT]

Hi,
I’m sure you already thought of this, but maybe your test kit is off, have you tried another one ?
And are you testing at the same time of day...at night well after feeding time ?

If the test kit is off wouldnt it be at least equally off and not jumping all over the place? And no, I totally forgot to test at the same time of day! I'll Make sure to do that now, thanks!

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Check for low mag. Great looking tank.

 

[KrisReef]

Yup, what S. Fish said,
also what are you dosing?
Did you get a new batch?
Is your doser cloughed or otherwise impaired?
Have the corals been growing?

 

[FishNerdVlogsYT]

Check for low mag. Great looking tank.

thanks, will do

 

[FishNerdVlogsYT]

Yup, what S. Fish said,
also what are you dosing?
Did you get a new batch?
Is your doser cloughed or otherwise impaired?
Have the corals been growing?

I'm dosing Bionic and its the same batch as ive had for months. I checked the doser first thing and it seems to be fine... My corals have been growing like mad recently, especially the acros.

 

[FishNerdVlogsYT]

Mg is down to 1200... I think skipping the waterchange may have kicked me in the ****. will do a change tomorrow morning (making sure the water is exactly the same) and update then.

 

[KrisReef]

Magnesium gets removed slowly from the water by corals that are growing along with Calcium and alkalinity. You will probably need to add mag supplement to bring the tank levels up. When Mg is correct the alk level should stabilize.
Once this occurs you will need to add Mg occasionally going forward to help keep all levels stable.

I try to keep mine at least at 1360, up to 1400, is my target but I been higher than this. I’ve never had issues with “too high” mg, too low can be a problem.

 

[Punchanello]

I has a problem similar to this but realised it had to do with my sump level randomly changing and my ATO dumping RO water in to the tank messing with the levels.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I would drop filter floss and apply both carbon and filter sponge or even product called poly filter.
Consider a nano skimmer such as Tunze 9004 or the icecap Mini which I have which has changed the looks of my coral since installing it. Both are mini and work well

 

[FishNerdVlogsYT]

UPDATE:

Started testing at the same time every day, did a waterchange, and I decided to take a risk... after adding the new acros the alk started doing this, so it seemed like the corals were using too much alk for 2ml per day, and not enough for 3ml. To solve this I got a piece of bonsai acro from a hobbiest friend and wham! Alk has been stable at 10.2 for 3 days.

Granted, that alk is still high but I’m going to give it a little while before trying to lower it a bit. Better a little high but still stable than have another swing right? I’m sure it was a combination of all the measures that helped even it out. Thanks for the help guys and I’ll keep updating if need be!

 

[Anupam]

hmmm