ALK 12+ in Tank Transfer

[Pigpen17]

So I have a Black Banded Circus Goby in TT right now and he's jumping. I began to wonder if something was wrong. So I dropped an ammonia alert badge in there and tested ALK. (I don't test PH, just ALK, so that's all I have) It came out around 12 or 13! That's very unusual for my water. I usually have an ALK of about 8 out of the bucket.

Facts:

1. I use treated tap water for TT. It's just easier.
2. I have 6 gallon plastic buckets I use as tanks. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unger-6-Gal-Heavy-Duty-Rectangular-Window-Cleaning-Bucket-DB02/203177352
3. Last time I TTed a fish there was a grainy film on all my gear. It didn't really come off. Thought it was un mixed salt?
4. Just switched salt mix from Reef Crystals to Seachem
5. Ammonia badge yellow
6. ALK 12-13
7. Temp: 79-80

What the heck could be pushing up my ALK (and PH) like that! Doing 2 gallon water change now.

 

[CStrickland]

Did you test the alk of your tap water?
Edit: idk if our kits work on fw, but I think it's worth trying

 

[Pigpen17]

Yes, it's freshwater and saltwater. I'll test it. I'm using API test right now because all the numbers on my Salifert test syringe rubbed off.

Crap. I just realized I have contaminated my ALK kit. Guess it’s my TT kit now.

Tested: It's 6 or so.

 

[Pigpen17]

Oh. More facts:

This is day 2 of TT.
First day feeding. It came out to eat, then started jumping out of the water.

 

[Pigpen17]

Crazy. Tested it again after a slow added waterchange. No difference. Was going to just take the little guy out and throw him in my QT for now, but ti tested the same. 12+. Crazy. It must be the salt I'm using. I will have to tear everything down and start over. Going to get distilled water from the store and a fresh batch of Reef Crystals.

Bummer. This is my fourth time Tank Transfering and the first time this has happened.

 

[CStrickland]

It makes sense if salts meant to bring pure water high enough that you could use it for a small % change and it would compensate for alk use by coral, then adding it to water that's already at 6 would be overkill. Maybe you could just run it through a Brita or something first? Distilled would work to I guess, but then you might as well just use your rodi. Some peoe use tank water too, and add new sw to the dt like a regular water change...

 

[vhuang168]

What is your salinity?

 

[Pigpen17]

What is your salinity?

1.024.

It makes sense if salts meant to bring pure water high enough that you could use it for a small % change and it would compensate for alk use by coral, then adding it to water that's already at 6 would be overkill. Maybe you could just run it through a Brita or something first? Distilled would work to I guess, but then you might as well just use your rodi. Some peoe use tank water too, and add new sw to the dt like a regular water change...

I don't use and RODI unit. I buy my water from a local filtered water place. I'm prettty happy with it. I should prpbablly just get more of that for TT.

Yeah, I could just use tank water. It's sitting pretty at ALK 9. But that would be 5 gallons of tank water every three days. Might get crazy in the 56 DT. Plus I would hate to have this happen in my DT due to too much water removal/replacement.

It's weird that it is in both my TT set up and my QT. I think I'm going to ditch this salt mix. It's all it could be. Nothing else happens to my water from bucket to tank. Bad salt.

 

[toothybugs]

Using Reef Crystals, I am not surprised by your numbers. 12-13 was common. I started mixing it 50-50 with regular Instant Ocean and my numbers are much more "normal" instead of spiked. My last batch of a blend, according to records, was Ca 430 Mg 1480 Alk 9.8 - with straight RC the values were generally a lot higher.

 

[Pigpen17]

Yeah. I'm not sure. I've been using RC with no problems. In fact, with my filtered water and RC, I have a hard time keeping ALK up.

Here's a question. There has been this weird, sandy film on my gear. I scrub it off as best I can, but it won't go away. Does Seachem have a buffer in it? Could it be it's Buffer and it's not dissolving properly? Building up on my gear?