help with ALK

[fish&corals]

my ALK is super high .. i use the api tests for KH and your suppose to do 7 to 11 drops and it will turn a yellow ... i have a 180 gallon reef mix .. noticed the other day my acans and most of my LPS were not looking good .. tested my water and it takes 17 drops to get the deep blue to yellow on my test .. ((( way to HIGH ))) everything else is good across the board .. rites are 0 .. rates are 0 PH is 8.4 .. amo 0 cal 480 mag 1325 salt is 1.025 i use for salt red sea coral pro been using it for a long time ..

anyone know how to drop it fast but slow .. did some reading and a few people say seltzer water will drop it but you have to keep a eye on your PH cause it will drop too any ideas would really be helpful .. i did a 20% water change this morning still sitting high .. i do water changes each week ..

 

[swannyson7]

Do you by any chance know what your actual DKH is? If your calcium is all the way up at 480, I doubt that your alk is all that high. In order to achive such a high alk & Ca level, I'm assuming you're dosing 2 part, topping off with kalk, or using a calcium reactor. If dosing 2 part, I would reduce or halt your alk dosing for a couple days and monitor changes. If using a Ca Rx, I'd adjust the effluent rate and monitor levels for a few days. And if you're topping off with kalk, then just don't add any kalk for a day or two. If you're not doing anything to adjust Ca/Alk, then I'm curious as to what salt you're using and also might question the test results.

 

[fish&corals]

i was using 1 part 2 part but have stopped that .. salt is red sea pro .. just tested my cal again its over 500ppm .. i would say around 540 ppm .. test only goes to 500 ..

 

[swannyson7]

Red Sea Coral Pro does mix at high Calcium and alk levels, but shouldn't be anything too high. According to Red Sea's website, at a specific gravity of 1.026 it will have calcium in the range of 455-475 mg/l and alk in the range of 12.3-12.7 DKH. I'd just forego dosing for a couple days to reach the desired levels and then resume at a decreased dose to maintain desired parameters. Your corals & coraline will use up the calcium & alk in the tank and allow it to drop down to desired levels.

 

[fish&corals]

yea i shut my lights off so it should i hope drop .. i have stopped dosing tho for sure .. im just worried it will kill my corals ..

 

[swannyson7]

Do you know the actual alk level? Not sure how to convert the drops to DKH or Meq/l, as I've never used the ATI tests. A calcium level in the 500 range isn't going to hurt anything, but I'd be a bit concerned if the alk is too high. If it's severely high, I would do a couple water changes to bring it down, but a massive water change with a huge alk swing is going to be even more detrimental. Slow and steady wins the race with alk changes. I noticed in your intro thread that you were big into LPS which is much more forgiving than SPS when it comes to alk swings, so I wouldn't be too worried.

 

[fish&corals]

yea i got 2 pieces of SPS i just get upset when i lose corals .. yea im going to try and bring it down as slow as i can .. i figured with the lights off might help it along .. but like i said someone told me i could add seltzer water but i wanted to see if you or anyone else has heard of this method ..

 

[swannyson7]

I've heard of the seltzer method, but I've never tried it myself. Sorry I can't be more help in that department

 

[fish&corals]

naw your being a big help .. thank you so much .. i just hope it can come down .. making ro/di right now for another water change in the morning ..

 

[fish&corals]

anyone else have any ideas .. did another water change today still sitting high .. its driving me crazy ...

 

[GR808]

Do another water change but try another batch of salt mix. Maybe you got a bad batch of the Red Sea.

 

[Trebor]

Red Sea Coral Pro does mix at high Calcium and alk levels, but shouldn't be anything too high. According to Red Sea's website, at a specific gravity of 1.026 it will have calcium in the range of 455-475 mg/l and alk in the range of 12.3-12.7 DKH. I'd just forego dosing for a couple days to reach the desired levels and then resume at a decreased dose to maintain desired parameters. Your corals & coraline will use up the calcium & alk in the tank and allow it to drop down to desired levels.

+1 I would keep light cycle the same, just do like swannyson said it should drop on it's own.

 

[fish&corals]

yea it has started to drop down now .. i think my corals are def sucking it up .. i did lose some things kind of upset about that but they tank is starting to swing back where it should be .. thank you all for the help ..