What is a good Alkalinity level for SPS?

SaraB

SaraB

Coral Killer
I have read that the ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œproper rangeââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ for Alkalinity is in the 7 to 11 range, but I see most SPS keepers with levels in more like 8-11 range.

My question is how do you all get those levels without pushing PH up too high? I struggle to keep Alk at 7.2 with using a MRC Nielson Kalk Reactor with a Magnetic Stirrer going on 4 times a day and a dosing pump. I use Ms Wages pickling lime and my dosing pump drips my top-off water which is about 3-4 gallons a day. If I fill the reactor with too much pickling lime, it will drive my PH higher. With a 7.2 Alk level I have PH of 8.35 ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ more Kalk only drives my PH up even higher.

My other important parameters that tie into this ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œtriangle of funââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ are Calcium @ 440 and Magnesium @ 1310. I also have a hard time keeping the Magnesium up and have dosed Kent Tech M to keep it in the low 1300ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s level.

I have also tried the baked baking soda and that is only a temporary fix that also shoots the PH higher.

Any suggestions/feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Sara
 
make up the diff with baking soda... will get your dkh up and will (kinda) hold down the high pH from the kalk.

1teas baking soda/50g ^1dkh
 
didnt read close enough the 1st time... having a hard time keeping Mag up... Once mag is up.. it should stay up for months at a time unless there is abiotic precipitation. whenever your pH gets too high with already high levels of Mag, Ca, and/or dkh... then you can get precipitation. Sometimes it is just a coating on heaters, impellers, & other warm equipment. Sometimes its some light flakes in the water column. Or.. i have seen white-chalky coating of tank glass. Any of this precipitation will pull Mg outta solution.
 
Thanks Kip . Question, I should dose with just plain old baking soda, not the "baked" baking soda, correct?

Also, my Magnesium had been in the 1180 range back in February and I have worked to raise it to the low 1300's. Calcium had also hit lows in February of 315 and now are back up in the 400's with dosing Kent Turbo Calcium. I was using Reef Crystals salt and did not test a new bucket to realize that the salt had low Mag and CA levels. I had also figured that these other low levels (Mag & CA) may have led to the low Alk levels, but now with the others back in acceptable ranges, the Alk still lingers a bit low. Not sure what is going on here ... I think I have worn out these pages regarding this in Volume 3 and still no luck!

Sara
 
yep... plain baking soda outta the box (baked will raise pH)

when i ran kalk alone on a stony frag tank years ago... i had no trouble with Ca, but dkh would often be slack... it was a 55g... so i got used to tossing a teas or two of baking soda in the sump once a day.
 
Sorry, another question ... how much baking soda should I safely add for a volume of 200 gallons of water? Also, how often should I add this or should I keep testing Alk to find the perfect balance?
 
you are gonna need to figure how much dkh you are "using" in a day

take a reading
dose
take another reading to see how much it raise
24hrs... take another reading.... diff in the last two readings is your daily use

you could hit 5-6teas/day if you needed to with minimal pull down (which isnt an issue because your pH is high from kalk anyway)

you will see an immediate/accute drop in pH that will normalize 20-30 mins later... so dose in your sump in a high flow area (if you dose near a pH monitor/controller... you may see it fall sharply... thats just because all of that baking soda hit the water in the immediate area of the probe)
 
Thanks Kip for all of your help! Will this eventually balance out where I will not have to dose with the Baking Soda? Seems kind of pointless to run an Kalk Reactor if you still have to dose outside of that. Will raising my Mag up to 1360 help with the balance as well? I have read that when Alk, CA and Mag are in balance, there will not be the precipitation taking place that sends them out of balance.

Thanks!

Sara
 
IMO alk is best at 8 dKH for an SPS tank. If you are having difficulties keeping it at the mid 7's you probably are not able to get enough ca/alk dosing kalk alone. Try 2 part additives or look into a ca reactor.
 
I do have a Calcium Reactor that I ran for a total of 2 days before the PH took a swift drop into the mid 8.0's and I found that my Mag level was very low. I wanted to get the Mag back up to normal levels before I turned it back on-line. The whole issue with low Alk has also turned me away from starting it up again. My Calcium is okay @ at 440 so I did not see a need to run the reactor. Just curious if I am missing something with the suggestion of running the CA Reactor? How will that help anything but with the Calcium level which is currently just fine. I know as the level starts to deplete with the SPS in the tank I will need to run it to keep up and not have to dose the tank separately. Right now I dose my new water change water to bring the level to 440 before adding it to the main tank and it has been holding just fine. Let me know if that is not accurate.

Thanks!

Sara

Sara
 
A Ca reator puts both alk and ca in your tank.

When your corals deplete calcium they will also deplete the alkanity. But you will notice your alk moving lower before you notice your ca drop.

Most people find that running a ca reator makes it very hard to keep alk lower than 10.
 
I've been using Kent Coral Vite regularly for a month and am pretty happy with it: it's trace elements---but it also has a strong mg component. I wonder if it might not be helpful here.
 
when you were running your c-reactor, were you running the k-reactor too? they seem to balance each other out in terms of their pH extremes

i find kalk does a little better job with Ca and a c-reactor does a little better job with dkh. that and the pH balance is why i (and others) run them in tandem. My numbers are usually 400ppmCa, 9dkh, 1200s Mg, and pH 8.0-8.2

as far as balancing.. all Mg does is allow more Ca to stay in solution... anywhere b/w 1200-1300ppm Mg has always been fine by me.
 
Kip - yes I was running the Kalk and CA reactors at the same time. I may just have to tinker with the CA Reactor more it get it dialed in correctly. It makes sense that the two together should balance out the PH, Alk and CA.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7349733#post7349733 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JB NY
IMO alk is best at 8 dKH for an SPS tank. If you are having difficulties keeping it at the mid 7's you probably are not able to get enough ca/alk dosing kalk alone. Try 2 part additives or look into a ca reactor.
Click to expand...


what is this in meq/l ?
 
yeah , i just realised i can look on test kit sheet , sorry for being dumb......................mines perfect =)
 
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