Alkalinity 11.42 meq/l Please HELP!
- Thread starter likhten
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Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
no reason to panic!
how do you supplement alk/calcium?
what test kit do you use to measure it? (Do a double check)
you can stop dosing alk supplements and allow corals to deplete alk OR do some partial water changes to SLOWLY lower alkalinity.
how do you supplement alk/calcium?
what test kit do you use to measure it? (Do a double check)
you can stop dosing alk supplements and allow corals to deplete alk OR do some partial water changes to SLOWLY lower alkalinity.
Henry Bowman
Reefing since '87
Before doing anything, make darn sure you can trust your test kit....Get another kit or have it tested at a LFS? then test again. I'd want to get 2 tests that are close before undertaking a plan of action.
Then...
With your alk that high, you should take all changes slowly. Some corals are very sensitive to changes in alk. Like Gary said, stop adding buffers of all types or "pH increasing" chemicals. Dont put Kalk in the tank either. All of these items increase alk. I would do some water changes, say 5% every 3 days. Again, you want to go slow. If you are striving to keep your Ca up, you would use the Ca part of a 2 part solution to keep it at target. Be careful about pushing the Ca up at all right now. Saltwater will only hold "so much" calcium and alkalinity in solution. With the alk that high, if you started pushing the calcium up, it could precipitate out of solution putting a white film on everything in your tank or causing what looks like a snow storm in there.
What are your other parameters? pH, Ca, and Mg?
What corals and or inverts do you have in your tank?
Then...
With your alk that high, you should take all changes slowly. Some corals are very sensitive to changes in alk. Like Gary said, stop adding buffers of all types or "pH increasing" chemicals. Dont put Kalk in the tank either. All of these items increase alk. I would do some water changes, say 5% every 3 days. Again, you want to go slow. If you are striving to keep your Ca up, you would use the Ca part of a 2 part solution to keep it at target. Be careful about pushing the Ca up at all right now. Saltwater will only hold "so much" calcium and alkalinity in solution. With the alk that high, if you started pushing the calcium up, it could precipitate out of solution putting a white film on everything in your tank or causing what looks like a snow storm in there.
What are your other parameters? pH, Ca, and Mg?
What corals and or inverts do you have in your tank?
Are you sure that reading is actually meg/l and not dkh?
If that is actually a meg/l reading I would do a large water change .. that should help. I don't agree with the small water change advise .. a 5% water change only removes 5% of whatever your trying to remove.
Hope this helps.
If that is actually a meg/l reading I would do a large water change .. that should help. I don't agree with the small water change advise .. a 5% water change only removes 5% of whatever your trying to remove.
Hope this helps.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
the reason that I recommended a small water change here is because a rapid fluctuation in alkalinity can be more destructive than the high alkalinity itself.
I used to run my reef aquarium at a dKH of 22.3
I had many SPS including a large table Acro I grew from a small colony. This fella doesn't seem to have anything nearly as sensitive as SPS in his aquarium.
A related thread with more suggestions:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56665
I used to run my reef aquarium at a dKH of 22.3
I had many SPS including a large table Acro I grew from a small colony. This fella doesn't seem to have anything nearly as sensitive as SPS in his aquarium.
A related thread with more suggestions:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56665
I doubt his alk level is really 11.42 meg/l ... thats almost 3 times greater than the max recommended and I suspect that alk/calc would start to precipitate out of the water column before you got that high.
If his alk level is 5 times the recommended max I would recommend a major water change.
If his alk level is 5 times the recommended max I would recommend a major water change.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
what's the alk of the newly made up saltwater?
