Advice to matching new water Alk to current tank Alk?

[jayteerq]

Hi friends. Now i know what you're gonna say... "Why dont you just find a salt that matches more of the parameters you're keeping in your tank?!" I really dont want to change salt....

SO

Does anyone have any buffer recommendations to getting my Alk up from 7 to 9 to match my tank settings? Preferably something easy & straight forward.
Using Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt which sets DKH at 7. I run my tank at about 9DKH. Would like to fix up my new water so that it matches and will be good to go. Thanks guys!

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Hi friends. Now i know what you're gonna say... "Why dont you just find a salt that matches more of the parameters you're keeping in your tank?!" I really dont want to change salt....

SO

Does anyone have any buffer recommendations to getting my Alk up from 7 to 9 to match my tank settings? Preferably something easy & straight forward.
Using Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt which sets DKH at 7. I run my tank at about 9DKH. Would like to fix up my new water so that it matches and will be good to go. Thanks guys!

I use Tropic Marins Carbo-Calcium. Right, wrong or indifferent, it get's my alk up to where I want it. I run around 9.5 dkh(hanna), which usually means 8.5 on an ICP test. The salt I like (tropic marin) comes in about 7.0dkh.

I dose both that Carbo-Calcium and ESV-B Magnesium with the new batch of water.

 

[Tommy B]

You could use reef fusion 2 from Seachem. Its the alkalinity supplement of a two part system, to put it simply.

 

[Miami Reef]

Baking soda from the grocery store. Inexpensive, readily available, and very pure! It will only add alk and not change calcium or magnesium, which is perfect for this use.



Here’s the simple calculator to get you alk dosed correctly:

Select BRS dry baking soda

Alkalinity Supplement Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.bulkreefsupply.com

You can use any reef salt and easily change the alk up or down. No need to switch brands just to change the alk.

 

[IceNein]

How much of a water change are you doing? I think it matters less than you imagine.

For example, if your water is at 9, and your new water is at 7, then adding 10% of the tank means that (0.1 * 7) + (0.9 *9) = 0.7 +8.1 = Final dKH of 8.8 (with your target being 9)

If you do a 20% water change that's .2*7 +.8*9 = 1.4 + 7.2 = final dKH of 8.6

So how important is it to raise the dKH of the new salt? Why not just factor that water change dKH loss into your additive dosing?

 

[jayteerq]

Baking soda!

Here’s the simple calculator to get you alk dosed correctly:

Select BRS dry baking soda

Alkalinity Supplement Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.bulkreefsupply.com

You can use any reef salt and easily change the alk up or down. No need to switch brands.

No way. Baking soda?! Can i just use regular house hold baking soda? I think this will be my go to due to how easy it is to obtain... Go right to my kitchen cabinet lol

 

[jayteerq]

65g Tank. Im doing 20 gal of water change maybe once a month. I noticed my DKH dropped 1 whole number when I did my water change, thats where my concern came from.

 

[jayteerq]

 

[IceNein]

Sure. I can see where your concern comes from then. I like to do smaller weekly water changes.

 

[jayteerq]

Baking soda from the grocery store. Inexpensive, readily available, and very pure! It will only add alk and not change calcium or magnesium, which is perfect for this use.



Here’s the simple calculator to get you alk dosed correctly:

Select BRS dry baking soda

Alkalinity Supplement Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.bulkreefsupply.com

You can use any reef salt and easily change the alk up or down. No need to switch brands just to change the alk.

Which one is baking soda? Sorry for the silly question lol

 

[Miami Reef]

Which one is baking soda? Sorry for the silly question lol

Dry sodium bicarbonate. It’s the best solution for this purpose. It’s extremely pure and very cheap. It has the best pH for a water change tank. You cannot get better than that.

 

[jayteerq]

Dry sodium bicarbonate. It’s the best solution for this purpose. It’s extremely pure and very cheap. It has the best pH for a water change tank. You cannot get better than that.

I love the sound of all of those points! Cheap, pure & PH! I struggle with low PH actually. Ive tried everything..

 

[Miami Reef]

I love the sound of all of those points! Cheap, pure & PH! I struggle with low PH actually. Ive tried everything..

For water change buckets, low pH will actually help better because it will prevent precipitation.

Baking soda has a very slight (tiny) pH decreasing effect. This is the best for a water change bucket.

 

[Hubert J. Farnsworth]

in case you haven't actually tested, i recommend testing your new water alkalinity once its been made up. i actually do it every time, but i'm crazy (and a hanna alk test takes like 90 seconds start to finish) and probably once per each new container of salt is fine. i've tried several different salt brands and they rarely match what is stated on the label or by brs.

off the top of my head, i recall finding alk off by more than 3.6 ppm in some batches, so that's different.

beyond that, using soda ash (sodium carbonate) to raise your alk will also raise your ph a bit more than baking soda will, albeit if only temporarily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

No way. Baking soda?! Can i just use regular house hold baking soda? I think this will be my go to due to how easy it is to obtain... Go right to my kitchen cabinet lol

Yes. For this purpose, nothing is better.