Derek's 225g - Magnifica / SPS Reef

[ReyDeFarts]

Woke up this morning and tested my Alk w/ Hanna and it was 4.9dkh!

Well damn! I honestly like the ease of the Hanna, but it has been off for me at times. Not sure what the inconsistency is in my procedure is to give me drastically different readings. From 0.5 - 1.0 difference. And the fact they charge so much for a reagent that cost pennies to make, kind of pisses me off. A lot of their reagents cost is absurd actually.

I honestly prefer the slightly more involved Salifert test. Far less expensive per test. I find it to be more accurate and reliable, which also checks out with the many opinions I've gathered from other reefers.

I will also admit to using another generic, literally called "Generic" Alkalinity tester and it has been great for quick tests and very close to my salifert results.

 

[MichaelB]

Woke up this morning and tested my Alk w/ Hanna and it was 4.9dkh! I've been in the 5.5 range before but never this low, and I think it's been low for at least a couple of weeks.

I started dosing Vodka about a month ago to combat very high nitrates (75+, beyond the range of my Hanna). This was only partly to lower nitrates and mostly to see if I noticed any difference w/ the bacteria that supposedly feeds corals as a result, and the high nitrates were just the space I needed to do it.

I immediately noticed an increase in Alk...which apparently is a function of nitrate being consumed, so I chalked it up to the carbon dosing and started lowering my alk dosing accordingly. These weird alk readings continued and I dramatically cut back on dosing. To make a long story short, my Alkatronic has been having issues and giving bad readings, so I've significantly under-dosed Alk the last few weeks and here we are at 4.9.

Haven't noticed a single thing with the tank...other than the steady loss of PH, which is now also explained. Alkatronic is now giving a Code3 error (something to do with the reagent/reagent pump) so I need to investigate that. First real issues I've had with it in 2-3 years.

Ouch, have you noticed any changes in sps? Mine dropped like that many months back ago and I lost some sps.

I would hope your sps would be ok in your case of alk slowly droping down and wasn't any type of rapid drop like mine was following a water change.

What’s your planned method to bring it up?

 

[derek_SR]

Well damn! I honestly like the ease of the Hanna, but it has been off for me at times. Not sure what the inconsistency is in my procedure is to give me drastically different readings. From 0.5 - 1.0 difference. And the fact they charge so much for a reagent that cost pennies to make, kind of pisses me off. A lot of their reagents cost is absurd actually.

I honestly prefer the slightly more involved Salifert test. Far less expensive per test. I find it to be more accurate and reliable, which also checks out with the many opinions I've gathered from other reefers.

I will also admit to using another generic, literally called "Generic" Alkalinity tester and it has been great for quick tests and very close to my salifert results.

I only use the Hanna every few weeks to double check the alkatronic, so the price of the reagent isn’t all that big of a deal.

Ouch, have you noticed any changes in sps? Mine dropped like that many months back ago and I lost some sps.

I would hope your sps would be ok in your case of alk slowly droping down and wasn't any type of rapid drop like mine was following a water change.

What’s your planned method to bring it up?

Haven’t noticed a single negative thing with a single coral. Wouldn’t have known anything was even wrong if my alkatronic hadn’t thrown an error and triggered me to test with the Hanna.

My plan is to dump a bunch of alkalinity back in the tank over the next 48hrs or so until it’s around 7.5 again.