Very high alkalinity levels!

[Hunter90 HD]

Hi reefers,

I am in need of some serious advise, I am new to reefing so learning the ropes, but basically I have a very bad problem with a very high alkalinity level.

To give you some information on my setup, I have a Fluval 57 tank, running on OU water and Red Sea salt for SPS dominant systems.

I have two LPS corals and two small clown fish at the moment.

I currently test the waters foundations (Ca, KH, and MG) with Red Sea Foundation Pro test kit and I have the following readings for my tank.

Mg - 1200
KH - 7.5 Meq/L and 21 dKH!
Ca - 510
No3 - 0
No2 - 0

Salinity - 1.26ppm, calibrated yesterday using RO water

My corals are only opening slightly and I am really concerned about the alkalinity it is off the charts and I do not know why .

My filter media is:

Mechanical : Sponges, plastic media
Biological : Ceramic Bio rings
Chemical : Red Sea carbon, Micro-Lift Sili-Out (Silicate remover)

I am currently using Red Sea NO3 PO4 -X (NOPOX) to reduce algae and having lots of surface agitation.

My source OU water values is:

Mg - 0
KH - 4.5 Meq/L 12.6 dKH
Ca - 140

I am really stuck here, I’ve googled these issues and forums suggest to change the water, ensure good O2 is in the water to combat Carbon dioxide making the water more acidic but my levels still struggling to lower.

I did read that you can use calcium to combat high alkalinity levels but as I have 510 Ca I don’t want to make the water unstable and cause a crash in the PH.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Lee

 

[laverda]

Lower you salinity to 1.025 will help a little. What is the alk of you MSW? Are you dosing anything? 2 part?

 

[PBar]

Hello,
my first reaction is to rerun the alkalinity test to be sure that it is indeed quite high
Alkalinity rises if nitrate is falling by consumption... but your case if too extreme for that probably.

Prepare some water and also check the again the alkalinity level... normally I would do water changes to fix that.
Keep in mind that if you really have that level of alk, don‘t bring it down too fast as well.

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Lower you salinity to 1.025 will help a little. What is the alk of you MSW? Are you dosing anything? 2 part?

Thank you for your reply. My alk of my Marine Salt Water is 7.5 Meq/L and 21 dKH. No dosing at the moment although I do have all the Red Sea foundations to dose. I will lower my alkalinity now to 1.025...
I should mention I have a green algae issue at the moment comes back quick which I am treating with Red Sea NOPOX

 

[Treefer32]

I'm not familiar with the red sea alk test, but are you sure you're reading it right? I use the red sea pro calcium and mg tests and they seem relatively accurate. I don't know if it's even possible to get alk that high. If your source water is 12, then, unless you're dosing something else that adds alkalinity, it would be impossible to be above 12dkh.

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Hello,
my first reaction is to rerun the alkalinity test to be sure that it is indeed quite high
Alkalinity rises if nitrate is falling by consumption... but your case if too extreme for that probably.

Prepare some water and also check the again the alkalinity level... normally I would do water changes to fix that.
Keep in mind that if you really have that level of alk, don‘t bring it down too fast as well.

I will rerun them now, and test the aquarium and RO water. It seems high coming out of the RO unit at 12dkh

 

[PBar]

Just noted one thing... are you sure that result unit is Meq/L?

 

[Hunter90 HD]

I'm not familiar with the red sea alk test, but are you sure you're reading it right? I use the red sea pro calcium and mg tests and they seem relatively accurate. I don't know if it's even possible to get alk that high. If your source water is 12, then, unless you're dosing something else that adds alkalinity, it would be impossible to be above 12dkh.

It has puzzled me as I haven’t found many forums with reefers reporting this much high alkalinity. I will run the test again see if I am reading it wrong, I will perform a 20% water change tonight to try to lower the levels. I haven’t been adding no dosing to cause a spike in alkalinity, only using NOPOX at the moment, it’s got me puzzled

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Just noted one thing... are you sure that result unit is Meq/L?

I am pretty sure I used 1.46 of titrant using the Red Sea Alk test following the below instructions

 

[Rmckoy]

Just noted one thing... are you sure that result unit is Meq/L?

I’ve always saw the 2 and using that same kit
I believe the 7.5 is in fact the dkh

7.5 being perfect !
What does the tank look like ?

 

[Hunter90 HD]

I’ve always saw the 2 and using that same kit
I believe the 7.5 is in fact the dkh

7.5 being perfect !
What does the tank look like ?

Tank looks like this, got a bit of an algae problem at the moment, I cleaned that glass 2 days ago and it’s come back rapid.

7.5 is the Meq/L the dKH is at 21 according to the test kit, will rerun the test now..

 

[Rmckoy]

I’ve always saw the 2 and using that same kit
I believe the 7.5 is in fact the dkh

7.5 being perfect !
What does the tank look like ?

Something seams off ..

I had a issue with that particular kit and it never changed colours .
this is the reason I switched to salifert , and Hanna .
Could that high result be test error or expired regiment ?

 

[takitaj]

So your saying you used 1.46 ml of titrant? So you used the entire 1ml syringe then another .46 ml before the color change?

 

[Spare time]

Stop dosing nopox if you don't have a skimmer. It will cause a bacterial bloom and suffocate your fish. Just use a phosphate test and some phosphate remover.

 

[Hunter90 HD]

So your saying you used 1.46 ml of titrant? So you used the entire 1ml syringe then another .46 ml before the color cha

correct that is the titrant I used

 

[Hunter90 HD]

It has puzzled me as I haven’t found many forums with reefers reporting this much high alkalinity. I will run the test again see if I am reading it wrong, I will perform a 20% water change tonight to try to lower the levels. I haven’t been adding no dosing to cause a spike in alkalinity, only using NOPOX at the moment, it’s got me puzzled

I just re ran the test and now I’ve got 8.6 Meq/L and 24.1 dKH, something is not right

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Stop dosing nopox if you don't have a skimmer. It will cause a bacterial bloom and suffocate your fish. Just use a phosphate test and some phosphate remover.

Thank you, I will cease using this now and source a phosphate test and remover

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Something seams off ..

I had a issue with that particular kit and it never changed colours .
this is the reason I switched to salifert , and Hanna .
Could that high result be test error or expired regiment ?

I just re ran the test and got 8.6 Meq/L and 24.1 dKH, something is not right. I checked the date and the expiry is 11/22

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Just to add I clean my test equipment with RO water and Citric acid after every test, I always flush the citric acid away before leaving to dry

 

[Treefer32]

Magnesium of 1200 I don't believe would support a kh of 24. I believe Calcium and alkinity would precipitate out causing a crash of both alk and Ca. Your not dosing kalk water are you? Topping off with fresh RO water not salt water? I suspect, your alkalinity is fine, but, I would retest with a different test kit. Something isn't right unless your dosing something else...