Kessil

Keeping alk up

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Natefank

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Whats the best way to keep alk up? This is my first tank with lots of SPS's and I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep it up. It will drop about .5 a day. I'll add some baking soda when I top off but is there an easier way?
 
I suggest checking out some BRS videos on alkalinity since they should provide a good overview of the different options. I’d say the main options would be dosing, kalk, or calcium reactor.

I keep my alk up using 2 part and a doser. So I dose equal amounts of the two parts in order to keep my primary parameters stable.
 
Its a balance. If you are having to bring Alk up, you will have to bring Ca up and Mg as well. You also have to keep track of trace elements and nutrient levels.

What size is the tank? 0.5dkh can be a small dose amount or a large one dictating a different apporach.
 
@Vhuang168 everytime I checked the Ca it was good, didn't check Mg. What other trace elements do you mean?
It's a 30g.
I had noticed some color fading in one of my acros so I checked the alk and it was down to 4.3, so I've been monitoring it daily and drops about .5 a day
 
I have a lot of unopened BRS soda ash, Ca and Mg that you can have - was going to switch to it but decided to stick with All For Reef.
 
I've been having the same issue! I don't have any automated dosing mechanism - do everything manually.
My tank drops about 2dKH per day, and its only a 13.5gal tank.
I use ESV B-ionic 2 part, and have to dose 5ml, once in the morning, and once at night.

I manually check Alk every morning, and it drops from 9.5dKH (desired level) at 10am to about 7.7dKH the next day at 10am.

My Ca consumption is not nearly as high - about 30ppm per week.
 
thesassyindian said:
I've been having the same issue! I don't have any automated dosing mechanism - do everything manually.
My tank drops about 2dKH per day, and its only a 13.5gal tank.
I use ESV B-ionic 2 part, and have to dose 5ml, once in the morning, and once at night.

I manually check Alk every morning, and it drops from 9.5dKH (desired level) at 10am to about 7.7dKH the next day at 10am.

My Ca consumption is not nearly as high - about 30ppm per week.
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What coral do you have?

In a tank that small, unless it is jammed with SPS, you should be able to satisfy the needs with water changes given a 5g change would be nearly half the volume of the tank.

You may be getting precipitation -- over my head on technical aspects but I know I had my tank sucking up alk like crazy at one point. Was not from coral growth - I think it was from my sand bed turning itself into cement.

Others can probably more intelligently speak on the topic though.
 
Coral reefer said:
I’ve got several running. Seem good so far to me. Only dislike is you can only do 12 events per day I think? Maybe there’s a way around that but I’d like 24
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so just on some very quick reading of the descriptions of the x1 vs pro...

X1 does 12 events per day
X1 Pro does 24 events per day

many other reason than Max events per day to get the pro at $30.00 more?

Randy
 
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