Should I raise Alk?

[Original Fin]

Tank is 9 months, this is my first reef tank...I didn't start testing for Alk and Mag until recently. Over the last few weeks, I've noticed that Alk has been dropping DKH from low 7s to low 6's in between wc's (10gls/wk).
My change water (IO) mixes up @10.2.

Tank is lightly stocked w/softies, Cal is currently at 420, Mag 1265 and PH has been nice and consistant at 8.3 ever since I increased my WC's.
Should I be thinking of doing a one time Alk buffer, or going on some sort of maintenance dosing schedule? Any advice on which products/methods would be best for me? 2 part has been recommended to me over kalk...agree/disagree?
-Thanks in advance

 

[HighlandReefer]

Sounds like you are at the point, where you need to dose an alk supplement daily. Your salt mix will only add a little alk each water change (perhaps around 1-2 dKH) and it is not uncommon for tanks to use 1-2 dKH of alk per day. Calcium is used much slower and if your salt mix is high in calcium, you may not need to supplement it for a while. For every 1 dKH of alk used by coral only about 7 ppm calcium are used.

Since you don't have pH problems, I would use baking soda to increase your alk and maintain your alk level. You can use the Reef Chemical Calculator to determine how much baking soda you need to add to increase your tank level. After you elevate your alk level to where you want it, you need to keep track of how much alk your tank uses in 7 days. Then divide that amount you used in 7 days and divde it by 7 to determine how much alk your tank uses daily. Then use the calculator to determine how much alk you need to add daily.

Reef chemicals calculator
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Ask away if you have questions regarding my statement above.

 

[Original Fin]

Thank you very much. The calculator is very easy to follow. I had a tarhget in mind of 8.5. In order to hit that, from current level of 6.0 I would mix 17 grams of baking soda. It says the ballanced CA number is 421.

For Mag, I would need to mix about 100 grams of the Seachem, or 5.7 fl oz of Randy's DIY stuff.

Thanks again!

 

[4x2x2]

Hi guys sorry to hijack your thread but if you raise your alk doe's this lower your calcium ?

 

[Original Fin]

Fire away...I'm good.

 

[kgross]

4x2x2, raising alk does not effect your calcium, unless you raise it enough to cause an a biotic precipitation event. Raising your alk if low though could cause more calcification so your rate of depletion of calcium could go up.