alk is at five and i cant get it to raise

[harobikes1988]

so I started testing my water again the other day and I noticed my alk was at 5 and my cal is at 480 and mag is at 1470 I cant seem to get my alk to go up I have increased dosing my alk but it doesn't seem to budge maybe I am over looking something any help would be appreciated

[pyithar]

alkalinity 5 meq/L is pretty high already! why do you want to raise it?

[pyithar]

it's about 14 in dKH btw.

[harobikes1988]

Wow I feel pretty stupid right now I was thinking it was 5 dkh so should I stop dosing and do a couple water changes to bring it down I'm sorry I didn't realize that

[harobikes1988]

I just double checked I was right it's at five dkh

[sublime9182]

I just double checked I was right it's at five dkh

What kit are you using? I know my api says 6 no matter what I went and got red sea and it was 11

[harobikes1988]

Salifert for mag and alk I use api for calcium and the rest

[mcgyvr]

you should use "baking soda" (sodium bicarbonate) to raise your alk when thats all you want raised.. (SLOWLY over days)
Don't attempt to do it with typical 2 part dosing solution

[harobikes1988]

How much do you dose per gallon and do you just mix it with water and poor it in

[A sea K]

you should use "baking soda" (sodium bicarbonate) to raise your alk when thats all you want raised.. (SLOWLY over days)
Don't attempt to do it with typical 2 part dosing solution

Interested in this as I always used the alk portion of my 2-part alone to raise dkh.

[oscarinw]

This page is bookmarked for me. Use the alkalinity formula (part2) for recipe #1
LINK (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/#5)

[m0nkie]

Interested in this as I always used the alk portion of my 2-part alone to raise dkh.

I think it depends on your current PH level. I have normal ph and using the 2 part alkalinity is just fine

[harobikes1988]

Thanks for the link oscarinw I may give it a shot but if just dosing the alk from my two part will work I can do that but I have heard they wouldn't work if they were not used at the same time which doesn't make sense to me it seems that ever since I upgraded I can't keep the all stable it is starting to get to me I lost a few nice chalices in the past and my collection I have now is starting to recede around the rim and I believe this is from the low alk

[DSMpunk]

Mix up a batch of fresh saltwater and test for alk. It should be a reasonable number. My reef crystals comes in at about 9 dkh at 1.026 on my red sea kit.

If it shows 5 or less I would suspect a testing error.

[harobikes1988]

ik this is a little late but I still have been dosing a lot of alk to keep it up around seven I will test my salt and see what it comes out to the next waterchange I do I have been dosing 90 ml of my bionic just to keep it around seven I don't believe it is a testing error though I have tested multiple times and follow directions everytime just to make sure I don't miss a step and I use the salifert test kits