alk mystery

[fishyfish22]

a few weeks ago my calcium reactor's aqua lifter broke, i hadn't noticed until my alk dropped to 6.7! I ordered a new one, installed it, and for the last two weeks it's been running.
Igot caught up with finals...
today I tested again for the first time. I got 18.2!! I was shocked, my corals were growing well. my calcium is 160, magnesium is 1460

I immediately checked my calcium reactor, it's been on the whole time but for due to a kink in the airline hosing the CO2 hadnt been getting in and the PH is currently 8.3, same as in my DT. Tested the effluent, got 18.2 again, so i know that the calcium reactor wasn't responsible for it beacuse it wasn't really supplying anything at that pH and alk wouldve had to be super high since my tank has about 260 gallons total water volume

Not only was the reactor not supplying, but I've actually added a few acros and Several species of macroalgae that utilize calcium into the system and they've all shown really good growth

No water changes have been done in this time, only added a few teaspoons of baking soda once a few weeks ago but hardly enough to have alk test this high

I'm so confused, where did this alk come from?? and why isn't my tank reflecting it through the corals?

In the time I've started supplementing BA Coral amino, Chaeto gro, reef Blizzard, and phytochrom

In retrospect, I added some sunny D's and scrambled egg zoas. They opened up for a few days, then immediately melted over the span of a day or two. I thought it was a pest and redipped them, but it was too late, all other zoas are doing great and a utter chaos colony I thought i'd lost literally just started appearing again. grown to 5 palys in a month

I'm using a red sea coral Pro test kit, Just my luck I literally sold my Hannah checkers yesterday, tomorrow morning I'm going to go to an LFS to get it tested through theirs and will update but in the meantime, anyone know what might be going on? I haven't had unaccurate results with this test kit yet

 

[ohashimz]

I cannot imagin an sps that can survive such high alk.
Lps will melt with such high alk...
Will tag along this thread out of curiosity,but my gut feeling this is measurment error otherwise the system would have crashed by now...

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[fishyfish22]

Will tag along this thread out of curiosity,but my gut feeling this is measurment error

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

That's actually what I'm betting and hoping on... but right before it tested almost exactly like the hannah kit so I dont know

 

[bertoni]

18 dKH should be safe, if the measurement is accurate, at least over the short term. People ran tanks at that level decades ago. I probably would get a second opinion, but some water change should help if animals are in trouble. You could try testing some freshly mixed saltwater. That should have a sane level.

 

[TheLittlePrince]

Well, I bet reading this thread is the best decision I made in a week. One of my fellows advised me to use one of these things https://wisepick.org/best-alkaline-water-pitchers/
to increase pH in my tank by adding alc water. I am only planning how to set up an aquarium, so decided to ask somewhere at first. I read that high pH not good for the fish , but google tells me the best range is from 7,6 to 8,4. Could you explain, please, what am I missing? I mean, I'm reading the guide right now and the sixth step for the first week is "For the next 4 weeks, perform a 50% water change each week to properly cure your live rock. During your water change, siphon out any loose organic matter. Test for ammonia and nitrite and make sure these levels are zero. Also, test the pH and adjust as needed to achieve the desired level of 8.1-8.4."

 

[bertoni]

[welcome]

The alkaline water pitchers aren't very useful for saltwater tanks. The salt product itself has buffers to get the pH into approximately the correct range. The amount of carbon dioxide in the ambient air does the rest. There's no good way to "adjust the pH" of the tank, unfortunately. You can use a high-pH alkalinity supplement, but it needs to be dosed only when the buffering capacity has dropped.

You can do the 50% water changes or just wait. The water changes might help speed the process by removing excess ammonia. Once the ammonia has been zero for a week, the tank should be ready for stocking, assuming you read some ammonia somewhere along the line.