Growth better with lower levels...

[JammyBirch]

I've been slowly reducing my alkalinity level to see what happens, natural sea water is more like 7dKh not 9dKh so I tried it.

Found that I have great growth and better color at ~7-7.5dKh, calcium at 400ish and mag at 1280-1300.

I'm done with the high levels I think it's been a month at these levels and the sps and LPS growth is noticeably better.

My question is this, is my tank an anomaly, trying to mock sea water, or is this just better? Why do so many run higher levels, specifically alkalinity?

 

[whosurcaddie]

Are you sure the growth is better? Could it be that you think your growth rate is better because of your experiment? Do you have before and after pictures?

 

[droog]

Seems possible. What salt are you using?

I found the growth rate in my SPS took off when I managed to get the Alk level constant. Perhaps its the consistency of the level that is more important than the actual number?

Of course there is some observation bias - when making these "changes" we're also practising good husbandry. I guess growth tends to accelerate as the colony grows larger too.

-droog

 

[Browndawg80]

IMO a month isn't a long enough time frame to draw a conclusion from but interesting nevertheless.

 

[JammyBirch]

all good points... I have a few triggers that led me down this road.

Red Cap Monti - has never looked that great, faded... During this experiment over the last 6 months, the color has been getting better and better with the reduction of Alk, growth is noticeably better.

Red Dragon - Great piece, not doing too much though in the beginning. Once lower levels were reached the branches took off...growth is noticable daily.

Miyagi Tort - same as above, color wise ok, but not a big grower until i reached a lower level of Alk

Now i'm not against saying that the corals have gotten used to my tank, light schedule ect. The next phase of the experiment is to work the Alk back up to 9dKh and see what happens...

Turn it on and turn it off. I do have pictures as well especially of the monti cap and the red dragon.

 

[JammyBirch]

Seems possible. What salt are you using?

I found the growth rate in my SPS took off when I managed to get the Alk level constant. Perhaps its the consistency of the level that is more important than the actual number?

Of course there is some observation bias - when making these "changes" we're also practising good husbandry. I guess growth tends to accelerate as the colony grows larger too.

-droog

I've been using reef crystals and 5g WC everyother week. 35g total system volume. i don't disagree with you at all consistency is the name of the game...we only need to manage the water the corals know what they are doing. i look at Alk twice a week and use a 2 part to bump it, right now i dose 40mL per week to maintain the levels.

 

[jchassie6312]

Let's see the pictures!

 

[Mcgeezer]

I've been slowly reducing my alkalinity level to see what happens, natural sea water is more like 7dKh not 9dKh so I tried it.

Found that I have great growth and better color at ~7-7.5dKh, calcium at 400ish and mag at 1280-1300.

I'm done with the high levels I think it's been a month at these levels and the sps and LPS growth is noticeably better.

My question is this, is my tank an anomaly, trying to mock sea water, or is this just better? Why do so many run higher levels, specifically alkalinity?

I started moving mine down to the low to mid 8's, 420-440 calcium, 1320-1350 Mg ....along with kalkwasser in ATO and BRS GFO in a reactor. With regular fine food feedings along with normal fish feeding, my coral has begun to thrive because it's an extremely low nutrient environment with the proper nutrient load being reintroduced daily.

Having a hanna checker for Dkh makes the difference

 

[JammyBirch]

Before

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After

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[JammyBirch]

I put some pics on here, the Red cap and Red dragon are noticeable.

The angle is kinda bad on that cap that thing is huge right now. The point i'm trying to make is that these corals looked like the first picture for months, running 9dKh, some growth but not much. Once i started lowering the Alk level though i would notice growth daily and better color. The Dragon is about double the size and that all happened in about the last month. The Cap has easily put on another 1/2" all the way around in the last month or two.

Maybe not good growth for some of you guys but for what i'm used to it's really good growth.

The birds nest in the upper right corner has doubled in size too but it's new since this test and those things are mega growers. Miyagi tort also has encrusted and doubled in size in the last month or so.

I like this setup way better and i think the corals do too.

 

[Saltliquid]

I run mine at 7ish as well and PH at 7.9-8.0, all very healthy.
You get use to the oceans variants after being in it a lot and I try to mimic with my hobby what I love, the ocean it self!

 

[JammyBirch]

I run mine at 7ish as well and PH at 7.9-8.0, all very healthy.
You get use to the oceans variants after being in it a lot and I try to mimic with my hobby what I love, the ocean it self!

Nice...I'm going back up with it after summer just to complete the experiment, but will likely return to 7dKh...

Another pic of the cap... It's kinda become a monster.