alk question

[demifelix]

I'm very puzzled with the way things are going with my tank and I need some help. I understand that we are not suppose to chase numbers, but I think at the end of the day the numbers must be somewhat within acceptable range, right? About 2 months ago, my alk was reading around 10ish and I lost 4 acros. My frogspawn also died as well as some nice zoas. However, my Candy apply reds were thriving. there was also a algae breakout (blackish slimy algae that cover most of my zoas). Since alk was around 10 for around a month, I stopped testing. Fast forward until this week, all the black algae was gone. I see tremendous growth and great color with my strawberry shortcake, pearl berry, enchinata, and tort. However, my candy apple red closed up and half dead, and 1 acro looks kind of bleached out. I took a look at my calcium reactor and saw that the drip rate is very slow and the pH in the chamber is 6.38. I decided to test my alk to see what it's like, and my alk came back at 5.5 using 2 Salifert and Elos test kits.

So, I have a couple questions in my mind and I need some help. Do some acros (or corals in general) do better at lower alk compared to others? What caused the algae bloom and die off when alk was around 10? Is alk 10 too high? how about alk 5? is that too low? and if alk 5 is too low, how come I see great colors and growth in highly finicky corals like strawberry shortcake? Again, I understand stability is everything and I'm not supposed to chase numbers, but I'm trying to understand why things happened. I have seen many people having great success keeping many different corals together. What I have seen seems somewhat counter-intuitive to me.

 

[1mbrews8]

In for an answer as well.. My alk since I started this hobby has been from in the 5's to in the 13's! Some stuff looked great, some not so much...

Now it is at pretty stable 8-8.5 and only thing not 100% are CB sunburst monti, emma's jedi mind trick, tyree pink polyp cap, and tyree true undata

 

[camellia]

Alk should be kept between 7-11 DKH, below 7 is to low. Did you test Calc?
Don't have an answer about your corals as it makes no sense. Zoa's can be finicky imo. For reasons unknown, they can just melt away!
For your alk to swing that much in such a short time is odd. Your lucky you still have any healthy SPS in the tank. Often this type of swing would trigger STN. If your alk i(DKH) is 5, what was Calk? Mag?
Did you use the test on the Salifert to check its accuracy? I used the Elos, it's easy but the color change can be deceiving. Are your test kits old by chance?
Test your Calk any time Alk is in question, they are interactive.

 

[camellia]

1mbrews8;1032989 wrote: In for an answer as well.. My alk since I started this hobby has been from in the 5's to in the 13's! Some stuff looked great, some not so much...

Now it is at pretty stable 8-8.5 and only thing not 100% are CB sunburst monti, emma's jedi mind trick, tyree pink polyp cap, and tyree true undata

Well Crap, if you don't know we are sunk!


Mike you know some test kits measure in Dkh and other Meg/L, right!

 

[demifelix]

Cal 440, Mg 1500. Both my Salifert and Elos kit are brand new (expiration date in late 2016). I know 5 is very low, but then pH of the tank is aound 8.1. In the past, I see pH dropped below 8 with algae breakout and phosphate rising, which makes sense. This time, it's the complete opposite. All the algae that bloomed at alk 10 are gone at alk 5. I'll see if I can get my water tested from another LFS. I'm surprised my strawberry shortcake is doing so great at low pH. I first got it in at alk 8, looks darker pink and darker green. When alk rose to 10, it browned out and stopped growing. Now at alk 5, it has colored backup entirely and shooting up new tips everywhere. so weird but I'm so nervous, like waiting for a disaster to happen

 

[1mbrews8]

Camellia;1032991 wrote: Well Crap, if you don't know we are sunk!


Mike you know some test kits measure in Dkh and other Meg/L, right!

Yup lol! My tanks are weird sometimes ;0)

 

[demifelix]

Atlanta Aquarium;1033028 wrote: Most acros general look better at lower alk but necessarily do better. Keeping alk at 5 over a long period of time will caused few sps to die. 10 alk isn't awfully high. I like to keep mine around 8 but it shoot up to 10 from time to time. Higher alk will caused sps to darken more. Your magnesium is high. I don't think to need to maintain your mag that high.

thanks for the tip Rit. I do not intend to keep Mag that high. I run calcium reactor so it is whatever I get coming out of the reactor. I also talked to Matt at Pure Reef today and he also gave me his very insightful perspective. I'll try to raise alk to around 8 and will try to keep it at that level going forward to see how things are.

 

[tbub1221]

Be cautious working your alkalinity back up , I personally git out of habit of water test just trusting the system and how it looked until I discovered my alk was 5.5 dkh and I went what i thought was plenty slow over the course of 2.5 weeks going from 5.5 to 8 , but still had some rtn on a few acros and millepora but mainly my delicate acropora , I was struggling with 2 part to keep steady without a doser so I switched up to kalk in ato only after my alkalinity was back up to where it needed to be. I have found it to be a most helpful product more set and forgot than manually dosing.