Started Moonshiner's dosing, alkalinity spiked in Trident testing

[Reefifier]

I have a mixed reef Waterbox 275 and just started using Moonshiner's dosing. After an ICP test I added correction trace elements including boron and my Trident reading for alkalinity jumped from 7.89 to 13.4. I though I would have a heart attack and tested with Sailifert and the alkalinity was 8.2. Trident continues to read high as much as 13.8 on Trident after 36 hours. Corals and fish seem to be doing well. I have some cyano on my sand that comes and goes with the light cycle and some limited hair algae, but I am getting some good sps growth and sps/lps extension and not seeing anything closing up or any necrosis.

Has anyone had a similar experience? I am trying to decide if I should be doing water changes or some other intervention. I read that Boron can elevate alkalinity without increasing carbonate. Why the disparity between Trident and Sailifert? And what should I be doing? Any help or information would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Dosing soda ash, calcium chloride, magnesium, Acropower and Coral Snow.

Temp 78,
Salinity 1.025
pH 8.1,
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1479
Nitrate 11.4
Phosphate 0.04

 

[T-J]

I've been on the Shine for well over a year and have never had a spike like that. Maybe check with Andre on the FB page and see what he says.

 

[Coinzmans Reef]

Calibrate your Trident.

After I calibrate my Trident I test the calibration fluid for accuracy. When I test the tank I plus or minus the delta from the calibration test.

I also am a Moonshiner, never an issue.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

No proper addition of boron or trace elements will boost alk by more than about 1 dKH, which all comes from the full NSW amount of boron.

What coral snow are you using?

I agree the trident may be misbehaving.

 

[Reefifier]

No proper addition of boron or trace elements will boost alk by more than about 1 dKH, which all comes from the full NSW amount of boron.

What coral snow are you using?

I agree the trident may be misbehaving.

I am using the normal Coral Snow, not the plus version.

When I check with Sailifert alkalinity test, I get 8.6, while the trident continues at 13.96. Prior to adding the Moonshiner items, I was at at 7.8 on both. My initial dose of boron was 204ml of Moonshiners, to be repeated 1 more time on another day. I added a half dose (about 100ml) yesterday and didn't notice any more huge jumps, but I did see a small increase on the Trident from 13.4 to 13.96 meanwhile the Sailifert test appears unchanged.

I haven't recalibrated the trident yet, I will try that tomorrow. I was getting repeatable and consistent readings prior to this, but am now checking with Sailifert daily. The corals and fish look good and I am sticking to my regular soda ash schedule.

Also, I switched to BRS soda ash about 6 weeks ago for some gains in pH, there was an improvement of about 0.3 in the readings across the day. I am getting similar readings at this point. I am sending out another ICP test. Maybe that will help me track down what's going on.

I typically don't do much water changes, about 40g a month on a 240g volume. Should I increase this?

 

[Charlie the Reefer]

Moonshiner as well... REPRESENT!

Agreed, the alk spike just from dosing those elements seems fake news. It's a Trident issue.

It's possible something else occurred when you dosed the elements, perhaps the sample intake tube was clogged/impeded? Or something like that? My top suspicion would be some confounding event occurred that led to the haywire trident readings. Calibrate with the calibration fluid and double check that the trident is properly getting sample water/reagent tubes aren't impeded.

All that said - to echo others i def encourage reaching out to Andre.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I am using the normal Coral Snow, not the plus version.

The KZ product?

 

[Reefifier]

The KZ product?

Yes, that's it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, that's it.

it claims to contain calcium/magnesium carbonate. If that material is still in the water and gets sucked into an alk test, alk will likely read incorrectly high as it dissolves in the low pH of the alk test.

 

[Reefifier]

Today I switched out reagent a and recalibrate the trident, got 8.6 alk which is what the sailifert test was reading.
I thought the coral snow was insoluble calcium carbonate, but I didn't think of it dissolving at the lower pH.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Today I switched out reagent a and recalibrate the trident, got 8.6 alk which is what the sailifert test was reading.
I thought the coral snow was insoluble calcium carbonate, but I didn't think of it dissolving at the lower pH.

Glad you have this worked out!