Using Baking soda to raise ALK

[Matt L.]

Calcium 440
Mag 1500 - reef crystals salt.
Salt: 1.026
Temp 78-79
All other parameters are fine.

Test kits: Salifert, red sea pro, and api. All three have calcium, salifert and red sea have Mag and Alk also.
Alk goes down 1dkh every 12 hours. I dose ever 12 hours. First dose at 6:30am, second dose around d 6-7pm.

Does your calcium and magnesium change with the alkalinity? What is your target alkalinity. It doesn't matter that it drops 2 dkH in a day as much as what it drops from? What is the dKh in the morning, and what is the dKH in the evening?

Matt

 

[delta]

I am curious what the Alk readings are.

 

[P-Nut]

Alkalinity drops from 9.9dkh. Every morning it is around 9.9, once in a while it will be at 9.6-7, but that could be me adding one extra drop or one less drop to the test kit when measuring.

So, when I get home tonight it should be at 8.9, and I will dose again. If I dont dose again until tomorrow morning it will be around 7.9.
I have been measuring for around 2 weeks now several times per day and this drop remains constant.


And the clams keep on growing. This past two weeks they grew almost 1/4" of new shell.

 

[delta]

I think at 9dkh you could stand to drop your Ca to around 420-5 range, as your tank is dropping so much and see if that closes that gap a bit. Also lower Mg to1350-1400 range.


I never liked keeping Alk real high recipe for disaster not that 9 is real high but better to lower your CA then push your ALK IMHO/E

Is you tank heavily stocked?

 

[P-Nut]

I think it 9dkh you could stand to drop your Ca to around 420-5 range, as your tank is dropping so much and see if that closes that gap a bit. Also lower Mg to1350-1400 range.


I never liked keeping Alk real high recipe for disaster not that 9 is real high but better to lower your CA then push your ALK IMHO/E

Is you tank heavily stocked?

Yes. Tank is heavily stocked. I have around 40 heads of candy cane, one pagoda coral that is around 5-6" in diameter, a pipe organ that is a little bigger than a baseball and growing fast and the two clams that are over 5" now.
Besides that I have finger leather, 3 kinds, kenya tree, dinner plate size toadstool, 4 kinds of mushroom, gsp, 2 types of xenia and a few polyps. Rocks are covered in coraline. Even my drain hose has coraline inside where the light hits.

I havent been adding magnesium, it is just high.
I do a 5 gallon water change every week, so fhat is a little over 10%.
I dont dose anything else besides the Cal and ALK.

My levs drop if I dont dose, but the two part keeps them constant. My issue are the PH spikes from adding the ALK. That is why I wanted to try baking soda, and since I saw that mixing baked and unbaked soda will keep PH around 8.2-3 I thought it woukd be perfect.

Also, thanks everykne for the help and links.

 

[delta]

If it were an SPS tank it would explain the draw. But Like I said drop your CA and Mg to balance things out. If your salt is that out of whack perhaps it is time to switch to a different salt.