Help with alk question

vmarquez1986 · Mar 3, 2024

I have im lagoon 25 ive been trying to take it slow on it. It has 2 clownfish a cleanup crew and it also has a small nickel size mushroom and a frag of gsp in the back. Friday night i tested alk with hannah it was at 8.3 ....2 days later sunday night i tested again it had dropped to 6.5 re tested 6.6. So i retested with api and it was between 6 and 7 so right on point with the hannah. Why would my alk go down almost a point a day with nothing in tank practically?

Salifert test
Cal is 480
Nit is 50

api
ammonia 0
Nitrite. 0

Pic for reference of empty tank

joseserrano · Mar 3, 2024

Maybe you are starting to grow Korallin algae

Hideyofish · Mar 3, 2024

I presume you didn’t do a water change in between, and it wasn’t a new bottle of Hanna reagent or a bottle less than 30% in it when you tested the first time? I find that the when the hanna reagent is less than 30% the numbers get wacky on me.

vmarquez1986 · Mar 3, 2024

Hideyofish said:

Actually yes probably like the 3rd test out of the bottle of reagent and the api test for what its worth measured the same

vmarquez1986 · Mar 3, 2024

joseserrano said:

I see no signs lol

five.five-six · Mar 3, 2024

The biggest problem low ALK with softies is the pH will be less stable. Softies do not consume much ALK at all.

I wouldn’t go over 10 DKH. On a tank your size, you can just use regular baking soda (NOT BAKING POWDER) Put it on a cookie sheet and bake it for 30 min at 350 degrees. once it’s cooled, store it in an airtight container. An airtight container. Did I mention you should keep it in an airtight container?

Anyways, add according to this old as dirt calculator

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Pick a product: sodium carbonate anhyd (Baked B. Soda)

vmarquez1986 · Mar 3, 2024

five.five-six said:

I see but u really think i should be dosing this early into the tank it has two frags thats it .......and i have a gallon of soda ash mixed just in case something like this happened

Tommy Ngo · Mar 3, 2024

Try checking on the Hanna again. I sometime get off reading when I didn’t do it right, so I do it 3x.

vmarquez1986 · Mar 3, 2024

Tommy Ngo said:

Api matched it to the dot

five.five-six · Mar 3, 2024

Same thing as soda ash. But a gallon of it for a 25 with softies? That’s quite a bit.

It’s not really “dosing” it’s more of making an adjustment.

Have you tested for magnesium? You could be precipitating calcium and bicarbonate.

vmarquez1986 · Mar 3, 2024

five.five-six said:

Brs sells the gallon mix thats why .....i dont even have a test kit for mag yet i dont even have enough coral waiting a couple more months to really start adding no rush. According to calculator i brought it up to about 7.5 well retest tomorrow night

Jimbo327 · Mar 3, 2024

Since your nitrates are 50 in an empty tank, I'm assuming that you are near the end of cycle? Pretty normal for your alkalinity to drop as ammonia is converted to nitrate. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just add part B to bring it back up.

OCDreef · Mar 4, 2024

Yes agree on the Magnesium. If you find that after adjusting your Alk it falls again then I would definitely invest in a good Mag kit and a quality Mag supplement. I have found that when my Mag levels have dropped to lower than ~1200 (1350 is ideal), Alk was usually impossible to keep stable. I know it's so annoying that there's a third component you have to consider but once you stabilize it it's really not that bad in a low consuming system.

five.five-six · Mar 4, 2024

vmarquez1986 said:

Could be the salt mix, could be a lot of things. Generally you don’t want to move the alk more than 1DKH in a 24 hr period.

vmarquez1986 · Mar 4, 2024

five.five-six said:

Yeah 1 dkh is exactly what im aiming for thanks

vmarquez1986 · Mar 4, 2024

Jimbo327 said:

Thanks im just going to bring it up and wait and see no rush

vmarquez1986 · Mar 4, 2024

Thanks guys for your help

five.five-six · Mar 4, 2024

vmarquez1986 said:

Ok, the way I read it you had a gallon mixed up. I always keep a supply of sodium bicarbonate on hand. For instance, the stupid check valve on my carbon doser starts to act up every year or two And the kalkwasser reactor can’t quite keep up with demand all by itself. I end up having to make adjustments while I wait for a replacement to arrive. I’ve tried cleaning them but they just never seem to work right once they clogged up once.

dansyr · Mar 4, 2024

also have a similarly sized tank and had some similar yo-yos early on with alk. Since you have relatively high ca but alk is dropping, i would put it down to microbial activity / carbon cycle changing more than precipitation, although i'm sure you have precipitation. Microbial metabolism often does weird things with HCO3- / CO2 balance, with the more microbial shifts early in tank life this is my go-to, although it's still pretty much speculation. but helps explain why we all don't have mountains of MgCO3 when this happens

pledosophy · Mar 4, 2024

There is nothing that would cause your alk to drop that fast in two days in your tank if you did not do a water change or add chemicals.

The test was wrong. The first time or the second time.

Help with alk question

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