Alkalinity

[Green Chromis]

How do you reduce Alkalinity in a 600 gal.tank with a reading of 14.5 DKH, and Calc, and Mag. are fine.

[nereefpat]

That's awfully high. It might be worth double checking that with the lfs. You aren't adding any "buffer," are you?

The safest way to lower alk would be to let it come down on its own, or do a water change with a lower alk salt.

Adding very small amounts of a strong acid will lower it, but I wouldn't recommend doing that to a display.

[Green Chromis]

Originally Posted by nereefpat

That's awfully high. It might be worth double checking that with the lfs. You aren't adding any "buffer," are you?

The safest way to lower alk would be to let it come down on its own, or do a water change with a lower alk salt.

Adding very small amounts of a strong acid will lower it, but I wouldn't recommend doing that to a display.

That's the readings my LFS got, no buffer, just a Calc Reactor. I guess I will do some large water changes, and all the water is NSW collected in 1000' or more of water depth in the Gulf Stream off the Florida Keys. Just ordered a new Hanna ALK kit, should be here by Saturday.

[OurCoralReef]

Redsea salt has 12.7 that’s really high
I would test again at a different store just to make sure are you dosing anything

[Vinny Kreyling]

Read this
www.reefdiesyst.com
If you keep adding more than you use the numbers will climb.
I have met this fellow & he thinks we named it wrong because we balance Alkalinity with this then dose CA up to where we want it.

[slief]

If you are running a calcium reactor, you need to increase the pH in your reactor and or slow the effluent rate down without dropping the pH in the reactor further. Depending on your alk uptake, I might shut the reactor off for a day and retest and see how much it drops in a day. It might need to be left off for several days to get it to where you want your alk. That said, you would be wise to get yourself a Salifert Alk test kit so you don’t need to depend on your LFS for alk testing. It will give you something to compare your Hanna to when youn get it and I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Hanna Alk tester.

Also, when tuning a calcium reactor, I test daily until I get it dialed in which I can usually have fine tuned within a week but I also use peristaltic feed pumps like the Masterflex pump on my system and have installed a couple Kahmoer pumps on customers systems.

Now if you meant Kalk reactor and not Calc (calcium) then you should decrease the amount of kalk going into your system but initially, you might need to stop dosing kalk until you get the alk where you want it then add a little bit at a time until you figure out the correct daily dosage.

[lapin]

Originally Posted by Green Chromis

That's the readings my LFS got, no buffer, just a Calc Reactor. I guess I will do some large water changes, and all the water is NSW collected in 1000' or more of water depth in the Gulf Stream off the Florida Keys. Just ordered a new Hanna ALK kit, should be here by Saturday.

So you put only natural sea water in your tank and your tank has Alk 14.5 dkh?
If this is the case and the only thing you are running/adding is a cal reactor then your reactor needs adjustment or you have found the most alkaline sea water in the world.

[Green Chromis]

Originally Posted by slief

If you are running a calcium reactor, you need to increase the pH in your reactor and or slow the effluent rate down without dropping the pH in the reactor further. Depending on your alk uptake, I might shut the reactor off for a day and retest and see how much it drops in a day. It might need to be left off for several days to get it to where you want your alk. That said, you would be wise to get yourself a Salifert Alk test kit so you don’t need to depend on your LFS for alk testing. It will give you something to compare your Hanna to when youn get it and I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Hanna Alk tester.

Also, when tuning a calcium reactor, I test daily until I get it dialed in which I can usually have fine tuned within a week but I also use peristaltic feed pumps like the Masterflex pump on my system and have installed a couple Kahmoer pumps on customers systems.

Now if you meant Kalk reactor and not Calc (calcium) then you should decrease the amount of kalk going into your system but initially, you might need to stop dosing kalk until you get the alk where you want it then add a little bit at a time until you figure out the correct daily dosage.

When I first tested the Aik with my Salifert Alk test kit I got a reading of 990, and after further inspection I saw the Salifert teast kit expired in late 2017, so that is the reason I took a water sample to the LFS. I did turn down the drip to the sump and will keep testing it on a daily basis until it is in the correct range, or if need be I will turn it off the Calcium Reactor for a few days. Thanks

[Green Chromis]

Originally Posted by Vinny Kreyling

Read this
www.reefdiesyst.com
If you keep adding more than you use the numbers will climb.
I have met this fellow & he thinks we named it wrong because we balance Alkalinity with this then dose CA up to where we want it.

Hi, the link did not work for me, I will try it again on my PC. Thanks

[Green Chromis]

Originally Posted by lapin

So you put only natural sea water in your tank and your tank has Alk 14.5 dkh?
If this is the case and the only thing you are running/adding is a cal reactor then your reactor needs adjustment or you have found the most alkaline sea water in the world.

Yes, thanks for the info, and I just did an adjustment on the Calcium Reactor.