Contradictions in best alk levels

[Clown79]

So I've been reading on alk lately and see a lot contradiction.

 

Some say for sps & lps higher levels are good 10-12 dkh

 

Then i've read that for sps its best between 7-9

 

What's your opinion and experience?

 

I'm currently using Rscp and my alk is 10 in my tanks, its mixing at 11.

 

Tanks are mixed reefs. Lps, sps(birdsnest, stylo, monti), and some zoas and rics

[dandelion]

I Kee mine at 10. It drops to around 9 everyday just before I dose. One advantage is if I have to go out of town for a weekend I can increase to say 11 and come back at a 9. If I targeted 7 I'll come back to a alk-depleted tank.

 

Not to mention the stability in pH that it offers my small tank.

 

 

So I've been reading on alk lately and see a lot contradiction.

 

Some say for sps & lps higher levels are good 10-12 dkh

 

Then i've read that for sps its best between 7-9

 

What's your opinion and experience?

 

I'm currently using Rscp and my alk is 10 in my tanks, its mixing at 11.

 

Tanks are mixed reefs. Lps, sps(birdsnest, stylo, monti), and some zoas and rics

[xmas_one]

IMHO, there is no "best" alk level. I'll take a stable 7 over a 8-10.

[RayWhisperer]

The level you keep is pretty much irrelevant, so long as you keep it as stable as possible. That's not to say an alk of 6 dkh is fine as long as it's stable. Nor is it a safe practice to slowly raise your alk once you've found out it's plummeted to 5 dkh. Getting it up quick and keeping it up at, or slightly above NSW are equally important.

 

Some say higher alk makes for faster growth. I always kept mine around 9 or 10. I thought it helped, but honestly, I have no proof.its just what I saw, and that's just anecdotal at best.

 

Keeping your alk close to 7 is really important when you run a low nutrient system. If you just run a normal tank, anywhere between 7 to 12 dkh will be fine. Just find the level that you can achieve easiest and stick with that.

[flatlandreefer]

There is a macna talk that sums up a study that the speaker did on Sps growth rates. He takes into account flow, par, and alkalinity levels. His finding are that the higher alk levels increase growth substantially. I think whatever reasonable level you can keep your tank at consistently is what you should shoot for, swings will hurt more than being closer to the bottom or top end of the range, I shoot for 9 dkh.

[evan127]

My target is also 9dKH. I don't see a daily drop because I dose 24/7 for alkalinity and calcium. In this talk, lower light levels, higher alkalinity with high flow (4 inches per second) resulted in faster photosynthesis for the subject coral.

[Sailfish]

My target is also 9dKH. I don't see a daily drop because I dose 24/7 for alkalinity and calcium. In this talk, lower light levels, higher alkalinity with high flow (4 inches per second) resulted in faster photosynthesis for the subject coral.

That was a really eye opening talk.

Great scientific methodology to draw conclusions that we hobby reefers tend to explain with anecdotal evidence.

Just suggested to my reef club, for us to get a PAR meter

Apogee has gotten a lot of praise both from scientists and hobbyists alike, but I saw an episode of BRS TV commending the Seneye PAR meter as well. It was able to read measure the blue spectrum and estimate PUR, which the Apogee can not.

[Clown79]

Ok. So I'm good. Mine is consistently at 10dkh.

 

I was getting concerned from reading so many ppl saying sps do better with lower numbers.

[Water Dog]

I think a lot of the concerns comes from low nutrients. If I don't dose KNO3, my nitrates are undetectable. The higher the Alk when devoid of nutrients, running an ULNS,, the more room for error you have for more difficult to keep SPS like acropora. That being said. I'm finishing up the last of my Reef Crystals salt and switching to Aquaforest Reef salt... to transition from 9.5dKH to around 8dKH.

[ninjamyst]

I think a lot of the concerns comes from low nutrients. If I don't dose KNO3, my nitrates are undetectable. The higher the Alk when devoid of nutrients, running an ULNS,, the more room for error you have for more difficult to keep SPS like acropora. That being said. I'm finishing up the last of my Reef Crystals salt and switching to Aquaforest Reef salt... to transition from 9.5dKH to around 8dKH.

I mix Reef Crystals with regular IO to keep alk level down. Seems to be working well. But once I go through my 600 gallons of salt, I plan to switch to Aquaforest too.

[Water Dog]

But I heard even IO is high in Alk as of late... running at 10 -11ish according Jason24sometbing something in one of the other forum's salt threads.

[ninjamyst]

But I heard even IO is high in Alk as of late... running at 10 -11ish according Jason24sometbing something in one of the other forum's salt threads.

that's messed up...i still have 2 boxes of them =(

[Water Dog]

Yeah, in Jason2459's big salt comparison thread over on R2R he sent a bunch of salt samples to Triton for lab testing. On average RC tested out from 12-14dKH and IO tested out from 10-11dKH.

[VW_TDI_02]

I use regular IO and it mixes to 10.5 for me. Mg is 1160 and Ca is 360.

[Clown79]

I never had high alk with io or rc. It was always 7.

 

Right now my alk is 10 but my ca keeps dropping. 395! When i started rscp it was 420.