Tips on keeping Alkalinity down in a coral quarantine tank?

[Enad]

Hi there,

I've been running a 15-gallon coral quarantine tank with live rock for the last few months, getting it prepped for some high end Elegances I will be receiving soon. Parameters are mostly fine. All I do is a weekly water change, and it keeps everything in check for the most part - however my Alk is a bit high and I'm not really sure how to keep it low given the tank has nothing in it but live rock.

Same goes for Calcium to some degree, which is sitting right over 500. My Alk is around 12.5-13 currently. This was all tested yesterday immediately following a 4-gallon water change.


Not really sure how to keep these parameters down without something to consume them. Perhaps doing less frequent water changes? I will soon have the Elegances in there, which I imagine will consume some of the Alk and Calcium. I'm just hoping the high Alk doesn't pose a problem when introducing them..

Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated!

 

[Jekyl]

Use a salt mix that has lower values.

 

[Troylee]

Sounds like you’re using reef crystals… I use it and love it! But switching to regular io salt will decrease them both if you’re truly not dosing anything.

 

[Enad]

I believe my LFS uses Reef Evolution. I haven't checked the params on that in a while, but I've been using it for the last year or so in my display tank and my Alk is normal in there. Though I have plenty of LPS consuming the Alk, of course.

I'm not in a position to find a new LFS to get water from so any other tips besides different salt mix?

Thanks!

 

[Jekyl]

I believe my LFS uses Reef Evolution. I haven't checked the params on that in a while, but I've been using it for the last year or so in my display tank and my Alk is normal in there. Though I have plenty of LPS consuming the Alk, of course.

I'm not in a position to find a new LFS to get water from so any other tips besides different salt mix?

Thanks!

I would make my own instead of buying it. Spending the money and time on a grow out tank and relying on an underpaid employee for consistency doesn't sit right with me.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You can lower it with sodium bisulfate, but that may also not be needed.

 

[Enad]

I would make my own instead of buying it. Spending the money and time on a grow out tank and relying on an underpaid employee for consistency doesn't sit right with me.

I don't own my own home, so I'm not about to risk setting up an RODI system in a rental when I know the chances are pretty high that it'll flood my apartment. Plus I simply don't have the space for an RODI system.

My LFS is fairly boutique. It's a well known and reputed shop in the PNW area. I'm friends with everyone there, I'm not worried about the water I get from them.

You can lower it with sodium bisulfate, but that may also not be needed.

I see. I mean, the question is...does an Alk at 12-13 pose any real risk to corals as long as it remains consistent? Also, if I did go this route - how safe is sodium bisulfate for corals? If I introduce these Elegance to a tank with 12-13 Alk, I'd probably try to bring it down to a similar level as my display tank before transferring them over. I plan to keep them in quarantine for at least 2 months or so in order to really light acclimate them.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I see. I mean, the question is...does an Alk at 12-13 pose any real risk to corals as long as it remains consistent? Also, if I did go this route - how safe is sodium bisulfate for corals? If I introduce these Elegance to a tank with 12-13 Alk, I'd probably try to bring it down to a similar level as my display tank before transferring them over. I plan to keep them in quarantine for at least 2 months or so in order to really light acclimate them.

That was my reason for saying: "but that may also not be needed. The alk is likely OK, but it's also going to drop from organisms in it.

 

[Enad]

That was my reason for saying: "but that may also not be needed. The alk is likely OK, but it's also going to drop from organisms in it.

Right - I figured it may be a non-issue. Just wanted to post here in case there was something easy I could do to lower it. I've seen the Seachem Acid Buffer product, but I just don't think it'll be necessary ultimately.

 

[JayM]

I don't own my own home, so I'm not about to risk setting up an RODI system in a rental when I know the chances are pretty high that it'll flood my apartment. Plus I simply don't have the space for an RODI system.

My LFS is fairly boutique. It's a well known and reputed shop in the PNW area. I'm friends with everyone there, I'm not worried about the water I get from them.



I see. I mean, the question is...does an Alk at 12-13 pose any real risk to corals as long as it remains consistent? Also, if I did go this route - how safe is sodium bisulfate for corals? If I introduce these Elegance to a tank with 12-13 Alk, I'd probably try to bring it down to a similar level as my display tank before transferring them over. I plan to keep them in quarantine for at least 2 months or so in order to really light acclimate them.

Maybe buy RO/DI from your LFS and mix your own with a different salt? Shouldn't be terribly inconvenient for a 15 gallon tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Right - I figured it may be a non-issue. Just wanted to post here in case there was something easy I could do to lower it. I've seen the Seachem Acid Buffer product, but I just don't think it'll be necessary ultimately.

Where do you keep your display alk at? many people would put used water change water into a new frag tank.

 

[Enad]

Where do you keep your display alk at? many people would put used water change water into a new frag tank.

Honestly haven't checked in awhile as everything has been looking great for ages. Last I checked it was in the 8-9 range. I keep a very consistent weekly water change schedule and don't dose anything. I imagine it has remained in the same window.

As for using the tank water - yeah that's what I would typically do but in this case the quarantine tank is specifically for Elegance corals and I'm very paranoid about Elegance Coral Syndrome. I've had a few Elegances succumb to it in my main tank, so for these higher end variants that I'm getting in - I want to do a proper quarantine. Right now I have another Elegance in my display that has been recovering from ECS for months. It's not sick anymore but my plan is to keep these new Elegance in quarantine for a few months and then roughly a month before I plan to move them into the display tank, I will find a new home for my existing Elegance and do a months' worth of water changes before introducing the new Elegances to the tank.

Long story short - I don't want cross contamination.

 

[Troylee]

Honestly haven't checked in awhile as everything has been looking great for ages. Last I checked it was in the 8-9 range. I keep a very consistent weekly water change schedule and don't dose anything. I imagine it has remained in the same window.

As for using the tank water - yeah that's what I would typically do but in this case the quarantine tank is specifically for Elegance corals and I'm very paranoid about Elegance Coral Syndrome. I've had a few Elegances succumb to it in my main tank, so for these higher end variants that I'm getting in - I want to do a proper quarantine. Right now I have another Elegance in my display that has been recovering from ECS for months. It's not sick anymore but my plan is to keep these new Elegance in quarantine for a few months and then roughly a month before I plan to move them into the display tank, I will find a new home for my existing Elegance and do a months' worth of water changes before introducing the new Elegances to the tank.

Long story short - I don't want cross contamination.

So what exactly are you doing differently in the grow out vs the display? Are you saying these elegance come with the disease? How do you exactly treat them? I’ve never heard of this myself so I’m curious… is it something that can’t be treated in the display?

 

[Enad]

So what exactly are you doing differently in the grow out vs the display? Are you saying these elegance come with the disease? How do you exactly treat them? I’ve never heard of this myself so I’m curious… is it something that can’t be treated in the display?

It's mostly proper light acclimation - the water is just being extra careful. By no means am I an expert on ECS, but it's commonly attributed to improper light acclimation which many Elegance(especially Indo) seem to need. What's happened in the past is many of my Elegance will do well for a few weeks but eventually start going downhill and exhibiting the symptoms of ECS - which from my research typically stems from not being properly acclimated to the higher intensity lighting we often have on our reef tanks.

Right now - I have one Elegance that has survived ECS. It was doing great for many months, but I made the mistake of adding another Elegance to the tank, which must've got ECS shortly thereafter and spread it to my healthy one. The original healthy one managed to survive after a freshwater dip and is like 3 months into it's very, very slow recovery.

So, the concept for the 15g Quarantine tank is to have a Kessil A80 providing low lighting that I will slowly ramp up over the course of a few months, and I'd just prefer to keep the water separate from the display tank right now due to the Elegance currently living within the display.

My corals/Anemones enjoy the stronger lighting of my display tank so I don't want to have to drastically lower the lights for months to accommodate 1 or 2 corals. That's why I'll start with the Quarantine tank for Elegance.

 

[Troylee]

It's mostly proper light acclimation - the water is just being extra careful. By no means am I an expert on ECS, but it's commonly attributed to improper light acclimation which many Elegance(especially Indo) seem to need. What's happened in the past is many of my Elegance will do well for a few weeks but eventually start going downhill and exhibiting the symptoms of ECS - which from my research typically stems from not being properly acclimated to the higher intensity lighting we often have on our reef tanks.

Right now - I have one Elegance that has survived ECS. It was doing great for many months, but I made the mistake of adding another Elegance to the tank, which must've got ECS shortly thereafter and spread it to my healthy one. The original healthy one managed to survive after a freshwater dip and is like 3 months into it's very, very slow recovery.

So, the concept for the 15g Quarantine tank is to have a Kessil A80 providing low lighting that I will slowly ramp up over the course of a few months, and I'd just prefer to keep the water separate from the display tank right now due to the Elegance currently living within the display.

My corals/Anemones enjoy the stronger lighting of my display tank so I don't want to have to drastically lower the lights for months to accommodate 1 or 2 corals. That's why I'll start with the Quarantine tank for Elegance.

Got it… yeah I just read a article from Orion on the subject.. interesting..

 

[mook1178]

Alkalinity is conservative with salinity. Depending on your salinity, you could just add DI water to bring it down. However, I don't think you are in a high range that is detriental.

 

[Enad]

Alkalinity is conservative with salinity. Depending on your salinity, you could just add DI water to bring it down. However, I don't think you are in a high range that is detriental.

Gotcha - interesting. My salinity is right where it needs to be a 1.025 so I don't think I want to mess with it by adding more fresh water.