Randy Holmes-Farley
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My Tank Thread
One common theme I think I'm seeing, people are correlating their increase in alkalinity consumption with a net positive effect on coral growth. While I certainly see the obvious reason why one might reach that idea, does the above suggest this correlation might be misplaced? Is it possible the increase in alk consumption is a result of processing the ammonia as stated above?
If so, for those of us that employ a one-part solution for supplementing alkalinity and calcium (i.e. all for reef or kalkwasser), would/could this increase in alk consumption throw off the "balanced formula" and exacerbate an imbalance of the two compounds? Likewise, I could see one potentially employing this to correct an existing imbalance as well. If a one-part dosing method produced too much alkalinity, this could be tuned to bring that down alleviating the requirement for supplemental alkalinity dosing.
As noted in post 1, ammonium chloride depletes alk and ammonium bicarbonate is net alk neutral.