Alkalinity Always Below Recommended Levels

[yodav]

Looking to get you guys' thoughts/advice on changing my salt mix from Accurasea to one of the high Alk Salts like Red Sea Coral Pro OR Fritz High Alk salt.

 

- Testing with Hanna Alk tester my Alk reads anywhere 123-126ppm the day after a water change and gets down to about 114 - 119ppm a few days after.

 

Tank is the fluval EVO 13.5 > No sand

- I have 3 birdsnest frags, 5 stylo frags, 2 montipora frags (no significant signs of growth, just stable for months)

- 4 hammer 1 - 2 inches (2 more hammers arriving tomorrow)

- 1 red bowerbanki (growing more mouths)

- Also the following frags growing spreading on rock > cyphastrea and leptastrea

 

- I do a water change every 3 days or so.

- Lightly dosing nitrates (1ml) and feeding Seachem Zooplankton as there are no fish in the tank yet. (I recently learned that my corals were turning pale because they were starving)

 

- No mechanical filtration, just biological.

 

- Lights on at 10:45 am and off at 10pm

 

What would be the negatives of changing to one of those higher parameter salts? It seems like my corals are soaking everything up pretty quickly.

 

 

[mcarroll]

Sounds like you need to consider either more frequent water changes...or to begin dosing for alk, Ca, etc.  Switching salts isn't really the answer....not more than a temporary answer, anyway.

 

Have you considered how you're going to be dosing?   One-part?  Two-part?  Three-part?  Other?

[yodav]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

Sounds like you need to consider either more frequent water changes...or to begin dosing for alk, Ca, etc.  Switching salts isn't really the answer....not more than a temporary answer, anyway.

 

Have you considered how you're going to be dosing?   One-part?  Two-part?  Three-part?  Other?

I ordered some of the Brightwell Alkalin8.3. What are your thoughts on that product?

I was going to start with that before considering Kalkwasser or One/Two Part. 

And thanks. I'll just stick with the same Accurasea salt then.

[mcarroll]

It's good, but I'd consider an all-in-one product if you're looking for simplicity.   The Alkalin8.3 is one part of a three-part system...which isn't the worst possible option, just not the best. 😉 

 

Brightwell has their Elemental and Reef Elemental (dry) and Liquid Reef (liquid...duh) that would serve you.  (I have used both.)

 

Tropic Marin has a similar set of products in their Bio-Calcium, etc.  (I would avoid All For Reef until your tank is more established.  The other similar products are more conventional in how they work....which is better for you.)

 

I'm sure there are others too.  Salifert has one, etc.

 

More frequent water changes can be an answer too, but you need to be watching NO3 and PO4 to make sure you don't run them down close to zero.  Once nutrients get to a nice spot – not too low – you basically have to cease water changes or they can actually start throwing the tank off balance.  This is where dosing (somehow) becomes necessary.

 

Consider a Jerbao (or similar) dosing pump as well....much more reliable than trying to hand-dose every day.  (Tho hand-dosing is possible.....I did it for years....it's just not easy to be there every day.  A doser never forgets.....you just have to remember to keep it full!  (Speaking of which, my reservoirs are empty again!!!! Argh!) 🙂 

[yodav]

17 hours ago, mcarroll said:

It's good, but I'd consider an all-in-one product if you're looking for simplicity.   The Alkalin8.3 is one part of a three-part system...which isn't the worst possible option, just not the best. 😉 

 

Brightwell has their Elemental and Reef Elemental (dry) and Liquid Reef (liquid...duh) that would serve you.  (I have used both.)

 

Tropic Marin has a similar set of products in their Bio-Calcium, etc.  (I would avoid All For Reef until your tank is more established.  The other similar products are more conventional in how they work....which is better for you.)

 

I'm sure there are others too.  Salifert has one, etc.

 

More frequent water changes can be an answer too, but you need to be watching NO3 and PO4 to make sure you don't run them down close to zero.  Once nutrients get to a nice spot – not too low – you basically have to cease water changes or they can actually start throwing the tank off balance.  This is where dosing (somehow) becomes necessary.

 

Consider a Jerbao (or similar) dosing pump as well....much more reliable than trying to hand-dose every day.  (Tho hand-dosing is possible.....I did it for years....it's just not easy to be there every day.  A doser never forgets.....you just have to remember to keep it full!  (Speaking of which, my reservoirs are empty again!!!! Argh!) 🙂 

Thanks. This is great advice. Funny that you mention that a doser never forgets. I am out of town for 3 days next week 😑. I will look into the other products you mentioned and hand dose for now since I work from home but once I figure out how much I need to dose daily, I'll invest in a couple versas.

[yodav]

22 hours ago, yodav said:

Thanks. This is great advice. Funny that you mention that a doser never forgets. I am out of town for 3 days next week 😑. I will look into the other products you mentioned and hand dose for now since I work from home but once I figure out how much I need to dose daily, I'll invest in a couple versas.

@mcarroll When you used all 3 of these products, how did you dose them? It looks like Liquid Reef has everything that Elemental has. 

 

I would prefer to use just one liquid product that has everything instead of having to dose 3 different things daily. (And would rather not have to mix powders)

[phinatic]

On 5/31/2022 at 12:17 PM, mcarroll said:

I would avoid All For Reef until your tank is more established.  The other similar products are more conventional in how they work....which is better for you.

I'm curious about your recommendation here. Why would the age of the tank matter here? Do you expect the bio processing to be different?

[mcarroll]

13 hours ago, phinatic said:

I'm curious about your recommendation here. Why would the age of the tank matter here? Do you expect the bio processing to be different?

Yes.  In a brand new tank everything (not just bacteria) is trying to grow in, competing for space and nutrients in the process.  This is one of the major goals of a reef tank and partly what distinguishes it from a fish only tank.  

 

So, there's no good reason for throwing things off with an addition like this (which favors only the bacteria that break this down).  You wind up with less reefy critters (which are nearly irreplacable) and more bacteria (which are ubiquitous and can be bought in a bottle).  

 

Not our goal.  There are other better ways to dose in this scenario....even from the same company.  👍

 

In a mature tank, these matters are already settled, so the impact is almost nil by comparison.

[MLS_Reef]

I like lower alkalinity salt and  2 part and dosing pumps , i start all my tanks on reef crystals then when they level out water change with tropic marin.

I had alot of trouble with red sea coral pro and being impatient not letting the salt mix overnight. i will probably never leave this method. if you need more minerals and vitamins you can add them but it is really inexpensive to get yourself calcium chloride and baking soda and epsom salts and mix a gallon in ro/di. 

 

i still have a bubble magus 3 head dosing pump from the early 2008 it runs fine with head changes every couple years i check its acurracy with a graduated cylinder.

 

 

https://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php 

 

On 5/31/2022 at 4:17 PM, mcarroll said:

Consider a Jerbao (or similar) dosing pump as well....much more reliable than trying to hand-dose every day.  (Tho hand-dosing is possible.....I did it for years....it's just not easy to be there every day.  A doser never forgets.....you just have to remember to keep it full!  (Speaking of which, my reservoirs are empty again!!!! Argh!) 🙂