Do I need to lower my Alkalinity?

[samrggzy]

Quick backstory, I have a 32 gallon biocube that's been running for about a year and a half now. I have been coasting well with weekly 5 gallon water changes and given the tank has looked great I had not tested the water for about 2 months. I was preparing to add a new fish and decided to test my parameters to make sure they were all looking good before I added the fish. All my parameters looked normal besides Alkalinity which was showing 3.4 DKH on my Hanna checker. I knew this was insanely low for Alk and to try to raise my levels I bough BRS Soda Ash and followed the dosing instructions on their website. Over the course of about 3 days I dosed 3.75 oz. of the Soda Ash and distilled water mixture to the tank. During this time I was checking Alk multiple times a day seeing a slight increase to 4.1. Over the course of testing I had ran out of Reagent and had to order a new bottle. The first test with the new bottle of Reagent the Hanna checker read 12.9 DKH! I knew there was no way that my Alk had risen 8 DKH in less than a day and have come to the conclusion that the old bottle of reagent was most likely expired and giving me bad readings. So now that I've unnecessarily dosed Soda Ash to my tank and raised my Alk to nearly 13 I have the exact opposite problem that I thought I had in the first place. Is 12.9 DKH high enough to warrant any drastic measures or should I just let it drop by itself? My tank is all euphyllia and leather corals with one small acan colony.

 

[musel101]

Quick backstory, I have a 32 gallon biocube that's been running for about a year and a half now. I have been coasting well with weekly 5 gallon water changes and given the tank has looked great I had not tested the water for about 2 months. I was preparing to add a new fish and decided to test my parameters to make sure they were all looking good before I added the fish. All my parameters looked normal besides Alkalinity which was showing 3.4 DKH on my Hanna checker. I knew this was insanely low for Alk and to try to raise my levels I bough BRS Soda Ash and followed the dosing instructions on their website. Over the course of about 3 days I dosed 3.75 oz. of the Soda Ash and distilled water mixture to the tank. During this time I was checking Alk multiple times a day seeing a slight increase to 4.1. Over the course of testing I had ran out of Reagent and had to order a new bottle. The first test with the new bottle of Reagent the Hanna checker read 12.9 DKH! I knew there was know way that my Alk had risen 8 DKH in less than a day and have come to the conclusion that the old bottle of reagent was most likely expired and giving me bad readings. So now that I've unnecessarily dosed Soda Ash to my tank and raised my Alk to nearly 13 I have the exact opposite problem that I thought I had in the first place. Is 12.9 DKH high enough to warrant any drastic measures or should I just let it drop by itself? My tank is all euphyllia and leather corals with one small acan colony.

If it was me, I’d do a 20% water change if you want to be cautious. Or really just let it come down naturally doesn’t seem that crazy high I mean 12 is the top of where you wanna be

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

I would take that water to your local store to double check where it actually is at before you do anymore adjusting then go from there. But in my experience euphyllia in my tank gets ticked off at anything over 9 so i keep my tank at 8.

If they are closing up then yes you want to drop it a bit

 

[Macbalacano]

Agree on the double testing just to be safe.

Personally, as long as your corals aren't showing any signs of stress. I would just let Alk lower on its own over time as its consumed. You could do smaller water changes, but I would personally not let it drop more than 1 Dkh a day and I would aim for 0.5 Dkh a day drop.

 

[musel101]

Agree on the double testing just to be safe.

Personally, as long as your corals aren't showing any signs of stress. I would just let Alk lower on its own over time as its consumed. You could do smaller water changes, but I would personally not let it drop more than 1 Dkh a day and I would aim for 0.5 Dkh a day drop.

I agree as long as the corals don’t look like they’re stressed out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you have adequate N and P, I do not think there’s much evidence to suggest that high alk is an issue, but rapidly changing alk can certainly be a problem.