what is the best way to LOWER alkalinity

[LOTUS50GOD]

what is the best way to LOWER alkalinity?
Mine is around 16 right now.
SPS are loving it...

Clam died earlier today.

 

[zombiereef]

what do you dose with?

 

[poppin_fresh]

You can do a W/C as long as its not the reason the alk is high. The only other thing you can do is wait and let it fall on its own...which it will. I doubt that the alk caused your clam to die.

 

[LOTUS50GOD]

I am using tropic marin pro salt,
I have a kalk reactor hooked to my PH probe (so it will maintain Ph at 8.3).
That is it. I dont dose anything for alkalinity.

I have tried using Tropic Marin Alka Balance but it has not lowered my Alkalinity.

I tested my water with 2 salifert kits and a redsea test kit.
They all conclude that my alk is around 15-16

15 was the red sea kit
16 with both saliferts.

 

[LOTUS50GOD]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13118263#post13118263 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by poppin_fresh
You can do a W/C as long as its not the reason the alk is high. The only other thing you can do is wait and let it fall on its own...which it will. I doubt that the alk caused your clam to die.

My alk is staying up and I dont know why.
Its been this way for over a week.

My 340s parameters are in my signature.
The clam was small, but still should have done well in the tank IMO...

I am setting up an automatic water changer in the morning, so I will change about 25 gallons/ day. I will run this a couple of times a week to replenish trace elements.

 

[alpha0r]

Have you tested the salt independently? Also, Kalkwasser does raise alkalinity. It would be ok to stop dosing Kalk until your alk falls. The corals will be fine if the PH goes lower while this clears up.

 

[LOTUS50GOD]

I only dose about 1/2 liter of kalk a day; and this is in my 340.

I am going to turn off my kalk and see what happens.
Any more ideas on how to lower kalk?

 

[poppin_fresh]

There really isn't anything you can do to lower it safely. It will have to come down on its own. Check out the chemistry forum and read Randy Holmes-Farley's articles on Alk. He may have some pointers I am not thinking of at the moment.

 

[downhillbiker]

i also agree that it probably wasnt the high alk that caused the clam to die, unless you raised it suddenly with some kind of buffer. the shock could have done it. a dKH of 16 is high, but usually doesn't kill things. in all reality you should be able to allow it to lower naturally and just keep an eye on the calcium, and dose it accordingly, a.k.a. lay of the kalk, and just dose calcium and check based on your load. if you have lots of corals check daily, if a few small corals check weekly. when dKH drops down to 9 or 10, go ahead and start kalk again.

 

[LOTUS50GOD]

I turned off my kalk, so I hope it will come down.
I willl test tomorrow.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

muriatic acid dissolved in water will lower alkalinity. But make sure its added in very small amounts as the local ph swing will kill things. Be careful with HCL because it will reduce the ph very low.

 

[downhillbiker]

i wouldnt start adding things to lower it. i dont think it is THAT BAD, so just let it naturally come down. some times i feel like we try to fix things so much, and we should just slow it down and not try and add chemicals to change chemicals, ect. ect.

 

[LOTUS50GOD]

I have turned off kalk last night and retested this morning. Alk is still the same and my PH is dropping from a steady 8.3 to 8.1 at night...

Im going to monitor my PH and test alk daily

 

[downhillbiker]

sounds like a good idea. watch the pH, it can drop safely to 7.8 and then you will need to raise pH again. just keep an eye on it. remember to watch calcium too, it will drop in proportion to the alk. if it gets low then just dose with a calcium only supplement.

 

[LOTUS50GOD]

I can dose 2 part (just the calcium).
I have a litermeter III that can assist in keeping the Ca levels where they need to be.

 

[stagefright13]

Well when I test my reef crystals mix it is 12.2ish dkh right out of the bucket. So yours really isn't WAY too much higher than that. But I've never seen higher than 14 in my tank. Strange yours is so high. Your not dosing enough kalk for that to be the problem. I put a half gallon or more in my 29 gallon daily... And STILL use a bit of buffer every couple weeks.

 

[downhillbiker]

yeah, that is weird...you arent dosing much kalk at all. i dose about 2 gallons fully saturated each day in my 75 gallon. none the less it will help with your alk problem to lay off of it for a while. since you dont dose much you might end up taking a few weeks to lower it, the natural way.