Can I use white vinegar to lower my alk?

[ANGRY JOHN]

one thing to do is test before you add any buffers or other supplements, and justify the addition before doing one. With your current numbers and no real bio loads, you should be good with just water changes for a while.

 

[TwoShoesOrOne]

Is this for 100% muriatic acid?

Thanks

 

[bertoni]

The formula is for muriatic acid as delivered by a hardware store, undiluted. It's very dangerous to handle, and will drop the pH quite a bit, so you'll need to aerate the water before using it, if you dose this.

 

[seacare]

This helped me greatly. I think my kh increase was from my calcium reactor flow through being too high. This brought my kh back to within acceptable levels.

 

[Sohal Tang Tim]

I am having the identical problem...for some reason my 10 week old reef PH would not go above 7.6 I used a wee bit of PH buffer and now my alk is at 12.2 !!! and rising as the lights just came on... I am very tempted to use just a wee bit of muritatic acid on my 160 gallon reef perhaps 10 ml today and then 10 ml tommorow....testing and watching in between....I do not want the ph to drop again I just got it up to 7.8 frig! What would you do Randy on this? There is only a single fish in the tank and he dug into the sand as soon as I put him in have not seen him since (Wrasse) ... but that is normal for a wrasse the seller told me when he put him in his tank he hid for 3 days.There are no corals in the tank...just a bit of cheato and micro in the fuge in sump. I am damn sorry I used the ph buffer but it would not go above 7.6 ...I am going to drill hole in the house and run skimmer line outside...see if that helps...my tank is extremely well aerated with a ton of surface igitation and skimmer running and good flow etc...NOTE: my calcium is reading 510 and I have not added any calcium since tank set up 10 weeks ago!! How the hell did calcium get so high? Brand new Red Sea Test kit!