Alk 4.5 DKH ..what to do ..

[Greyson]

Just got my salifert kit finally and the DKH is LOWWWW 4.5

here are current params.

KH - 4.5 dkh
Calcium - 440
ph - 7.8

calcium is fine, dkh and ph are on the low side.. what can i do to increase this ?

[Docdiggy]

I'd question the test if your Ph is 7.8. If it's true start dosing.

[Greyson]

bump.

[d2mini]

Give it more than two minutes before bumping your thread. ;)

Kalkwasser in your ATO (or dosed manually or via a dosing pump) would bring up both your alk and your ph.

[whiteshark]

I question the test as well. Did you check it against the check solution that comes in the kit? If it is correct then it is time to slowly buffer it up.

[Greyson]

Give it more than two minutes before bumping your thread. ;)

Kalkwasser in your ATO (or dosed manually or via a dosing pump) would bring up both your alk and your ph.

I actually don't have either at the moment .. any other way i can do this? maybe use something like b ionic?

[tkeracer619]

Check using the supplied sample fluid. I would question the test first and confirm it before dosing.

[outssider]

dose baking soda little at a time by dissolving it in some ro/di water. you can get it at the grocery store.

[Greyson]

Check using the supplied sample fluid. I would question the test first and confirm it before dosing.

i think the test is correct ...one of my rocks went from purple to white in two days.

[Greyson]

Just ran over to petco picked up some fluval sea Alk. It was pretty cheap. Came home, increased alk from 4.5 to about 7 dkh...and within 10 min all the sps polyps started popping out, that was a close one. will raise it a little higher tomorrow.

[Dapg8gt]

Read this
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

Sudden alk spikes are one of the most contributing factors to tank crashes. And fwiw you just basically purposefully spiked your alk.

Things need to be done slowly not a 3 dkh jump in a matter of minutes. There is plenty of resources to read on here, I'd suggest reading a few of them just to get the basics down and not have to wait for answers unless it's something not covered in the basics or something you don't understand fully.. Read the stickies written by sk8tr also( not sure if I spelled the screen name right but you can't miss the stickies in the new to the hobby forums. Good luck and I hope it all works out for the best.

[DasCamel]

Good rule in this hobby, unless proven otherwise do it slowly.

[Greyson]

i Agree i didn't dump it all in one shot .. i put in 1/3 of how much i wanted to put it .. gave it a little time, then repeated. i read up that i can safely add up to 3 dkh MAX. considering my coralline algae was literally dying before my eyes i think i should be safe. it also fixed my ph. So i will monitor it tomorrow and gradually raise it as needed.

[whiteshark]

Well, time will tell how this worked out, but now I question, if indeed your alk was that low in the first place, what made it go so low so fast?

[Greyson]

Well, time will tell how this worked out, but now I question, if indeed your alk was that low in the first place, what made it go so low so fast?

Thats what i have been trying to figure out. I do small weekly water changes religiously, i thought that would keep things pretty stable but it seems. My SG is always 1.024-25 depending on if it needs to be topped off or not, since i do not use an ATO. ( yet)

nitrates - 0
phos - not sure but in the low range for sure
my temp is 82 - 82.4 lights on
81 - 81.3 with lights off. its pretty steady all the time
Calcium is always between 420-440

not sure why my this happened ..i just wanna make sure it doesn't happen again.

[d2mini]

Someone mentioned "fast" but I didn't see a timeline.
When was the last time you checked Alk?
Once your coralline and your coral start to take off, water changes will not be able to keep up with the demand of Alk and Calcium, but especially Alk.
You should start looking into a more permanent means of dosing and checking your alk once a week at a minimum.

[whiteshark]

i think the test is correct ...one of my rocks went from purple to white in two days.

Someone mentioned "fast" but I didn't see a timeline.
When was the last time you checked Alk?
Once your coralline and your coral start to take off, water changes will not be able to keep up with the demand of Alk and Calcium, but especially Alk.
You should start looking into a more permanent means of dosing and checking your alk once a week at a minimum.

I mentioned fast because of that post, but I suppose it could be that the corals/coralline were sucking up alk and it just got that low. Then the effects happened rapidly once it reached that point.

[apexkeeper]

If you've got SPS and good coraline growth small water changes are probably no where near enough to keep up with the alk demand.

[Greyson]

yeah the tank inhabitants are probably using it up and these water changes are just not enough. So i will just keep an eye on my levels and dose manually until i get something automatic

[Greyson]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EVD944A/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

will probably get this.

[Greyson]

measured my ph and alk today..

ph droped down to 7.8 again ...
alk was about 6.8 dkh..

dosed another 5 ml of this alk brought the ph up to 8.0 and the dkh to around 8 - 8.5.

i may need to dose kalk soon.

[tilo]

Thanks for posting your situation, although I haven't ran into this issue, I'm glad I found this read.

Anyway, keep an eye on precipitation on pumps and glass near where your dosing ALK as well as sand getting really chunky.

How often do you do water changes?
I don't seem to be dosing as much and your sig says you have an 18, I have a 40. Maybe I have a problem!? :worried:

[Dapg8gt]

Just a word of advice also don't focus on your pH. Basing any dosing of supplements on it will just lead to problems . 7.8 is totally normal and not anything to be alarmed of. Keeping alk consistent will lead to pH falling into place.

I would get a baseline on your consumption over the course of 1-3 days, Avg it out then use one of the calculators and dose your alk supplement daily in accordance to your consumption rate and water volume . Don't forget about checking magnesium also if that's below Avg you will have a hard time keeping your cal and alk in check.

[bobbravo2]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EVD944A/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

will probably get this.

That's the one I use. Great device. Only complaint is the alarm, which is easily removed by de-soldering it from the PCB. Now it's a perfect ATO. Alarm was useful on a nano, on a 65 with 20 sump: it was more of an annoyance!

[Greyson]

Love all the replys thanks everyone.

Yeah i will be averaging everything out for the next few days and see where i stand .. i think once i find a steady dkh of around 8-9 i will maintain that as best i can.
I honestly thought that staying on top of my water changes would be okay but i guess not.

[B.BASH]

One of the biggest problems I've encountered in reef keeping is too many people take a reactive approach as opposed to proactive when caring for delicate creatures you should know their requirements and be prepared to sustain them do your homework and make sure you are prepared before you introduce livestock to your system there is plenty of info available for hobbyists to make informed decisions this will save you money and precious marine life happy reefing and take your time

[Greyson]

One of the biggest problems I've encountered in reef keeping is too many people take a reactive approach as opposed to proactive when caring for delicate creatures you should know their requirements and be prepared to sustain them do your homework and make sure you are prepared before you introduce livestock to your system there is plenty of info available for hobbyists to make informed decisions this will save you money and precious marine life happy reefing and take your time

no offense, but i ran out of of alk kit.. and was waiting on to ship from amazon. Don't jump to conclusions. This isn't a thread to point fingers are me, this was a thread to help me. IGNORED.

[B.BASH]

Sorry if I came if the wrong way meant no disrespect just trying to point out a well planned system can avoid crashes and save money in the long run Alk is one of the most important nutrients in a reef understanding it will help with success drastic changes can seriously impact your tank adjustments need to made over long periods chances are it dropped slowly raising quickly will most likely have harmful effects any damage was already done raising it slowly over 7- 10 days would be safer

[B.BASH]

Also I was not ignoring your plea for help many others already answered your immediate question my point was not to react to the situation by quickly raising levels which could be just as if not more harmful than low alk if you plan to add more livestock it's best to be prepared for such things like nutrient depletion this will save you grief in the long run again meant no disrespect

[Greyson]

Also I was not ignoring your plea for help many others already answered your immediate question my point was not to react to the situation by quickly raising levels which could be just as if not more harmful than low alk if you plan to add more livestock it's best to be prepared for such things like nutrient depletion this will save you grief in the long run again meant no disrespect


i didn't quickly raise anything ... i raised my dkh to a maximum "safe" amount that reef keepers have success with without harming their system. There is no general right amount to raise it, not to mention that i didn't dump a ton of alk into my tank..i dripped 5 mls gradually and took periods in between. I also tested in between each dose. So i don't know where i did it "too quickly". The depletion came suddenly, it wasn't gradual and i still don't know why. But my dkh is a steady 7.5 and holding. Besides my coralline turning white in some areas i did not lose any coral. My garf bonsai lost a little pigment around the edge of the plug that its mounted on. Thats about it. I got the store bought alk because i was able to dose it much more carefully than baking soda like many people recommended. I'm not irresponsible at reef keeping i just did not have some things on hand. It happens, i just wanted educated opinions on this matter, not criticized for an issue.

[B.BASH]

Just ran over to petco picked up some fluval sea Alk. It was pretty cheap. Came home, increased alk from 4.5 to about 7 dkh...and within 10 min all the sps polyps started popping out, that was a close one. will raise it a little higher tomorrow.

Time frame?

[Greyson]

yes, within 10 min of the last dose. And im getting tired of you being a "smart @ss" so this is the last comment you will be receiving from me .

[Roccus]

If you've got SPS and good coraline growth small water changes are probably no where near enough to keep up with the alk demand.

to this end... I just went through a similar thing... my tank ( 75 gallon) is 9 months old... I normally did my testing once a month.... and performed weekly 20% water changes... assuming ( incorrectly....NEVER ASSUME)... that because my tank was relatively new and I was keeping up with the maintenance all was well... I ) foolishly) thought dosing didn't apply to me.. corals were growing .. coralline algae was growing on the rocks and glass.. all was well... then almost overnight.. I noticed my bubble coral looked "sick" my moon coral started to recede... I noticed tissue damage on my brain coral... a quick check of my parameters showed a dkh of 6.5... my calc was 360 and my mag was 1200... it took 4 days to slowly bring my dkh up to 8.5.... using kent marines reef builder... I started dosing kalk .. a month has gone by and things are stable and better than ever...it was a close call but by paying attention to my corals I was able to nip it in the bud with minimal damage... I noticed ( after the fact) my fish had even become aggressive.. and now are more sedate...

[Greyson]

Just wanted to update today...

Turned on the lights and looked at my tank and it looked gorgeous today.
The Bonsai that was losing color around the edges is already 50% healed, one of my acan frags that was receding and dying is healing and looking puffy,my birdsnest developed new growth tips.

This is just proof that i didn't add "too much, too fast" i believe i was in the maximum safe range, my DKH is sitting at a steady 8 now and i will most likely keep it around here.