Help!! Found Alk at 12, I have 1 day to fix it.

[rishma]

100L LPS tank, light bioload.

I leave for 23 days on Tuesday. a faulty Hanna Alk reagent and me overdosing All-for-Reef resulted in a dKH of 12 this morning.

For the last month I have been dialing up my All-For-Reef dose trying to raise Alk from what I thought was high 6.x to about 8-8.5 dKH. I missed some early indications that my Hanna checker was wrong because I was not getting the Alk response I anticipated.

I do not know what my alkalinity was 1 month ago when I started increasing dose of AFR. That bad bottle of reagent has been in use for a while. I normally dose 300 ml of Kalk per night and previously a very small 1ml/day AFR. It’s a 100L tank. My tank is fairly low demand.

I dosed 5ml of AFR for a few weeks and on wednesday I increased the dose 8.3ml, thinking I had found the Alk consumption and was trying to match it.

My Hanna reagent ran out this morning, Alk was 7.3 dKH on the last test this morning. I opened and new reagent and tested again. 12.0 dKH. I verified with a Red Sea Alk test. Came in about 12.0.

So, I am mixing some water to do a water change, turned off AFR dosing pump, but I am unsure what else to do. I leave town Tuesday. I typically leave my tank for a month at a time and my daughter just feeds the fish. I could teach her how test alk.

I am sure other elements are high too, because it was all-for-reef. I haven’t bothered checking.

Yes, corals looks unhappy but not dying.

Advice??

Thank you.

 

[The_Paradox]

If it went up slowly I would just let it go down slowly to whatever you want. It will be fine.

 

[arcangelreef]

I honestly wouldnt do a thing.. Leave the tank let your daughter feed it and test it when you get home.
You said yourself you have very little consumption. chances are it will drift back down on its own by the time you get home.

 

[sfin52]

Let it slowly drop

 

[rishma]

If it went up slowly I would just let it go down slowly to whatever you want. It will be fine.

I honestly wouldnt do a thing.. Leave the tank let your daughter feed it and test it when you get home.
You said yourself you have very little consumption. chances are it will drift back down on its own by the time you get home.

Let it slowly drop

Ok! Seems like good advice.

Should I stop dosing Kalk at night? The pH will swing more but it seems like I don’t need to be adding anything else at this point.

 

[sfin52]

Ok! Seems like good advice.

Should I stop dosing Kalk at night? The pH will swing more but it seems like I don’t need to be adding anything else at this point.

Yes that's best option.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Ok! Seems like good advice.

Should I stop dosing Kalk at night? The pH will swing more but it seems like I don’t need to be adding anything else at this point.

That's kind of a catch 22... kalkwasser helps with pH but also raises alk... corals consume more alk when pH is high... plus I find that corals tolerate higher alk when pH holds at 8.30.

The tough variable is that you're going away for a month and you have a day to make corrections.

Stopping cold turkey would work if you're there to monitor and restart automatic dosing when things get back on track. The fear is that drastically stopping all dosing for a month could be just as bad.

If it were me, knowing that the corals are at least surviving, I wouldn't stop everything, I would simply cut current dosing in half and allow the parameters to drop slowly while you're out of town.

I'd also verify that alk is indeed high with another brand of alkalinity tester.

 

[rishma]

That's kind of a catch 22... kalkwasser helps with pH but also raises alk... corals consume more alk when pH is high... plus I find that corals tolerate higher alk when pH holds at 8.30.

The tough variable is that you're going away for a month and you have a day to make corrections.

Stopping cold turkey would work if you're there to monitor and restart automatic dosing when things get back on track. The fear is that drastically stopping all dosing for a month could be just as bad.

If it were me, knowing that the corals are at least surviving, I wouldn't stop everything, I would simply cut current dosing in half and allow the parameters to drop slowly while you're out of town.

I'd also verify that alk is indeed high with another brand of alkalinity tester.

Thanks. I’ll cut Kalk dose in half and stop AFR. That seems better than going cold turkey on Kalk because that’s been consistently dosed for years. Alk and other elements should still drift down because I know the alk demand is more than 150ml of Kalk/day.

I am confident alk is that high with multiple Hanna checker and RedSea Alk tests this morning they are reading within about 0.3dkh of each other and both near 12.

 

[ryshark]

That's kind of a catch 22... kalkwasser helps with pH but also raises alk... corals consume more alk when pH is high... plus I find that corals tolerate higher alk when pH holds at 8.30.

The tough variable is that you're going away for a month and you have a day to make corrections.

Stopping cold turkey would work if you're there to monitor and restart automatic dosing when things get back on track. The fear is that drastically stopping all dosing for a month could be just as bad.

If it were me, knowing that the corals are at least surviving, I wouldn't stop everything, I would simply cut current dosing in half and allow the parameters to drop slowly while you're out of town.

I'd also verify that alk is indeed high with another brand of alkalinity tester.

I was thinking the same thing. I’d cut it in half, in this situation.

 

[ErikVR]

I am in the exact same boat as you!

Been using AFR for about a month now to go from (what my new hanna checker read) ALK levels of 6.0 to go to 8.0. I had no doubt the tester was fine because all my other hanna testers have been accurate.

I noticed that my corals were not happy for the last week or so. So I did a water change and tested the fresh saltwater. The tester said it was at 5.0 while the specs on the box say it should be 7.2 at 1.025.

So I took old my red sea test kit and did a manual test. It was literally off the scale!!!
Opened a new bottle of reagent and it read 13.9!!!

I'm thoroughly disappointed.

My bad batch was lot 0795 with an exp date of 06/2024.
Be warned!

 

[gbroadbridge]

100L LPS tank, light bioload.

I leave for 23 days on Tuesday. a faulty Hanna Alk reagent and me overdosing All-for-Reef resulted in a dKH of 12 this morning.

For the last month I have been dialing up my All-For-Reef dose trying to raise Alk from what I thought was high 6.x to about 8-8.5 dKH. I missed some early indications that my Hanna checker was wrong because I was not getting the Alk response I anticipated.

I do not know what my alkalinity was 1 month ago when I started increasing dose of AFR. That bad bottle of reagent has been in use for a while. I normally dose 300 ml of Kalk per night and previously a very small 1ml/day AFR. It’s a 100L tank. My tank is fairly low demand.

I dosed 5ml of AFR for a few weeks and on wednesday I increased the dose 8.3ml, thinking I had found the Alk consumption and was trying to match it.

My Hanna reagent ran out this morning, Alk was 7.3 dKH on the last test this morning. I opened and new reagent and tested again. 12.0 dKH. I verified with a Red Sea Alk test. Came in about 12.0.

So, I am mixing some water to do a water change, turned off AFR dosing pump, but I am unsure what else to do. I leave town Tuesday. I typically leave my tank for a month at a time and my daughter just feeds the fish. I could teach her how test alk.

I am sure other elements are high too, because it was all-for-reef. I haven’t bothered checking.

Yes, corals looks unhappy but not dying.

Advice??

Thank you.

Dial back the AFR and Just let the Alk come down on it's own.

Worst thing you can do is try to fix things in a hurry.

 

[gbroadbridge]

So I took old my red sea test kit and did a manual test. It was literally off the scale!!!
Opened a new bottle of reagent and it read 13.9!!!

I hope you folks realise that Hanna Alk reagent is only good for about 8 weeks once opened.
If you want it to last longer you can refrigerate it.

 

[ErikVR]

I hope you folks realise that Hanna Alk reagent is only good for about 8 weeks once opened.
If you want it to last longer you can refrigerate it.

I keep it in the fridge.
The tester was purchased only a month ago when I started with AFR.

 

[Spare time]

PS I kept my alk at 12-13 for a long time. No issues. Just don't run an ULNS with that number.

 

[ErikVR]

PS I kept my alk at 12-13 for a long time. No issues. Just don't run an ULNS with that number.

The things I noticed the most is that my Gonio isn't extending fully anymore and my BTA is fully deflating halfway through the photo period. Because I (apparently) went from 7.2 to 13.9 in two weeks (instead of 6 to 8) I'm a little worried.

 

[Dburr1014]

The things I noticed the most is that my Gonio isn't extending fully anymore and my BTA is fully deflating halfway through the photo period. Because I (apparently) went from 7.2 to 13.9 in two weeks (instead of 6 to 8) I'm a little worried.

No worries.
Alk can be fine 1dkh per 24 hours. I don't recommend it but my system has been fine the multiple times it has.

 

[Brian1f1]

Mine ran up on me too, hit about 14 before I caught it. Was also adding kalk for years, in my case saturated via ATO. Started adding All for Reef about a month ago at starting dose of 5mg per 26g (47ml per day). Coral didn't seem to mind it at all... I've gradually reduced Kalk level in ATO (maybe about 1 tsp per gallon or so now, unclear because I've been diluting it as it's used with RO water direct from the unit) and maintained AFR dosage since approx. New Year's. As of now down to 12.5.

I started dosing ESV nitrate and upped feeding (was at .35, dropped to 0 with adding nitrate and a vinegar accidental overdose a couple weeks ago 0 to about .1 now, which I hope it stabilizes at) at about the same time I started add the ARF at 2ppm per day. Went from 0 to about 13 yesterday. So I cut it to .6ppm per day with the belief/hope that it will allow it to very slowly fall to sub 10 and I will likely bump it back up to about 1 per day, which I think is what I will eventually need to maintain at about 10.

A bit of numbers chasing, but it seems to be getting results. Eliminated a pretty significant GHA problem and no adverse effects on coral from the alk issue.

Importantly, I think the reason the sky high alk didn't hurt anything was because I kept my nutrients up. Those of you finding yourselves with alk accidentally above 10 make sure you aren't sitting at 0 nutrients!

 

[Spare time]

The things I noticed the most is that my Gonio isn't extending fully anymore and my BTA is fully deflating halfway through the photo period. Because I (apparently) went from 7.2 to 13.9 in two weeks (instead of 6 to 8) I'm a little worried.

Bubbletips shouldn't care. Alk is irrelevant to them

 

[jda]

Let it come down on it's own. You can likely do more harm trying to lower it than you will just letting it lower naturally. Stop messing with stuff. You are likely not helping. Just montior until you get your alk to 8, or wherever you want it. Then, I would use specific stuff like 2 or 3 part so that you don't get too many things out of whack with an all-in-one product.

 

[rishma]

I hope you folks realise that Hanna Alk reagent is only good for about 8 weeks once opened.
If you want it to last longer you can refrigerate it.

I did not know this. I’m sure it’s in the directions or something. Thank you.