I doubt that the anemones are having problems with the alkalinity. Stony corals might be more of an issue. I'd be worried about the salinity, and the changes in it. I would move the salinity up to 1.026, the canonical ocean average, over a period of a few days or so, by topping off with saltwater or part saltwater. A sudden change from 1.019 to 1.023 might cause some reaction. Did the anemones bleach when the water was changed, or did that start earlier?
You might have gotten a bad batch of salt, or it might have settled badly during shipment. I might try mixing the dry salt up and measuring a fresh batch for alkalinity. If it's that high again, I'd try to get my money back on that bag of salt. Lowering the alkalinity can be done safely by water changes with a lower-alkalinity water source.
You can use muriatic acid to drop the alkalinity of some water for changes. Just aerate well before doing the change so that the pH can recover. The basic dosing rule:
Quote:
|
Adding 1/11,000 of the water volume as muriatic acid will drop alkalinity by 1 meq/l (2.8 dKH).
|