need advice with water params.

[1sttimer]

If cal is at 420 alk is at 7 but don't know what the mag is,should i attempt raising the alk? Went to my lfs to test the mag and thery don't have a test kit for it,lol.

 

[bertoni]

Alkalinity at 7 dKH is fine, but raising it to somewhere in the 8-11 dKH range is very likely to be safe. Magnesium levels low enough to cause immediate problems are very, very rare.

 

[1sttimer]

Tank in question is a 33 gallon with 1 birdnest frag and one small gsp. I'll do a water change
and see where the alk stands. If i want to raise the alk to 9 using baking soda,how would i go about it?

 

[bertoni]

I'd probably do that in two doses, over two days, just to be safe. Dissolve the baking soda in a bit of RO/DI, and add it to the tank. This calculator might help:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

It requires guess as to the water volume, which is why I recommend caution. My first guess for the water volume in a system like that might be 20 gallons, depending on the amount of rock and sand.

 

[bertoni]

Also, keep in mind that many tanks can consume 2-3 dKH per day, just due to coralline growth, which can be puzzling to people who aren't aware of how much alkalinity a tank can go through.

 

[1sttimer]

so i dissolved 1/4 tsp of baking soda in distilled water. How long before i can test?

 

[bertoni]

For a 33 gallon system with no sump, 30 seconds should be plenty of time.

 

[1sttimer]

I just added 1/4 tsp of baking soda again and the alk is at 7.7
But I just realized that I mixed it in tank water and not distilled.

 

[mcgyvr]

I just added 1/4 tsp of baking soda again and the alk is at 7.7
But I just realized that I mixed it in tank water and not distilled.

Doesn't really matter..

 

[bertoni]

¼ tsp is a small enough amount that it shouldn't be a problem, but larger doses might cause some precipitation if mixed into a small volume of tank water.