How to lower Alk?

[porpoiseaquatics]

Somehow my Alk has gotten out of whack and I'm not even dosing. Not sure how it happened but it's at 8 ppm or 22.4 kh. CA is at 400. pH is at 8.0. salinity = 1.026. Ammonia, nitrate, nitrites all are 0. No phos test. Mg = 1125 ppm. I know my Mg could be a little higher but everything else looks in place.


What's the easiest and safest way to reduce Alk? massive water change?

 

[KrisDeitz]

I would say smaller daily ones

 

[1mbrews8]

22 dkh????

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

1mbrews8;900328 wrote: 22 dkh????

I don't know if it's dkh or not. My kit puts it in ppm then gives a multiplier of 2.8 to put it in kh.

 

[brandonmason]

Im no expert but it seems to me if alk whas that high it would be quite a bit of stuff browning out or worse dying... I read this in another forum though

"ok i had a problem with alk...i had a 17dkh with everything still living what i did was dose calcium every other day and i did a 20%water change everyday for one week straight and after i added the new water i would dose the tank with cycle for the amount of water i added into the tank after that i was running around a 10dkh and a 450ppm calc level...my mushrooms,clownfish,orange prawn goby all survived the bombarding of water changes...this is my suggestion only cuz it worked for me but as we all know what works for one doesn't work for another"

I also read that the higher the cal the lower the alk....

but I ve also attached a means to calculate here

 

[1mbrews8]

yeh, 22 would have everything dead in my opinion..
on my hanna alk kit, it gives me a 3 digit reading and I multiply by .056 for dkh and .02 for meq/l

 

[jef4y]

If you're not adding anything to change the alkalinity, this should not be happening. I'd try another test kit before doing anything else. IME, when I've spiked the Alk from my (now your) CA reactor, it would come back down after 1-2 days without adding it.

 

[jimmystephens]

Use a different test kit. I would almost bet there is somethong wrong with urs

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

Well what led me to test was that my Hollywood Stunners started to bleach out. Then over the weekend, both of my Pink Birdsnests turned white and I also noticed that the heads on my Green/Purple Hammerhead was losing the green and basically turning more white. Everything else was doing fine. I'm going to retest and see what I get. Unfortunately, I don't have another Alk kit to test with. I did but used it all and haven't replaced it yet. It was tested using a Seachem test kit.

Followup: Just retested with same kit, different reagent bottle. Got a test of 5 meq/L or 14 kh. Still a touch high but not as bad. I did do a small water change (10g) earlier in the day but it was my water change day anyway. Looks like it's time for a new test kit. Any recommendations?

 

[containerman1]

leveldrummer;900351 wrote: let the alk drift slowly down, get your mg up and get your calcium up a little more and it will likely drive the alk down a little as well.

+1
I have Added a little mg and then a little later calcium and the alk will go down a little at a time
Good luck

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

containerman1;900639 wrote: +1
I have Added a little mg and then a little later calcium and the alk will go down a little at a time
Good luck

I did a small water change and then followed up with a dose of MG so I'm kinda following exactly what you said.

BTW....read elsewhere and very sorry for your loss. Let me know if there's anything I can do.

 

[ralph atl]

Elos, Salifert, and I hear, red sea, albeit I never used them....

 

[picoreefguy]

porpoiseaquatics;900348 wrote: Looks like it's time for a new test kit. Any recommendations?

before you go dropping money on a new test seachem includes a refrance solution in the test kit and it has a known value so test and see if it matches the known value and if not you know you have a bad kit. if it matches than you have a problem with your tank

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

Thanks for all the advice. I forgot that I had a new Red Sea ABC test kit put away so I retested with it and I got 4.5 ppm or 12.6 dkh so it's not really that far off where it should be. I still need to raise my CA and Mg a little so I think by doing so, all the numbers will come in to alignment.