Alkaline high

[Awake2005]

I have High alkalinity in my recently set up reef tank, Its been running a couple months and I recently tested ph, nitrite, nitrate phos and only alkaline is high at 14 ... is there anything on the market that would help lower it without affecting ph which is right at 8.3 currently everything else is within normal parameters.
thanks for the help

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

Water change

 

[Dom]

I have High alkalinity in my recently set up reef tank, Its been running a couple months and I recently tested ph, nitrite, nitrate phos and only alkaline is high at 14 ... is there anything on the market that would help lower it without affecting ph which is right at 8.3 currently everything else is within normal parameters.
thanks for the help

You can let it come down naturally. I don't think 14 warrants any corrective measure.

 

[dakoop]

Verify your result with a different test. Water change could help depending on how high the salt mix alk is

 

[Awake2005]

I cant until friday, so it it dangerous to have it that high?

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

Verify your result with a different test. Water change could help depending on how high the salt mix alk is

Ahh good point! if you didn’t accidentally dose alk that high and your salt mix is naturally running 14 let it ride

 

[Awake2005]

Verify your result with a different test. Water change could help depending on how high the salt mix alk is

used a Hanna tester and a salifert same result, used fritz pro reef salt mix when I set it up. I am going to retest tomorrow and see if it is going up or down and possibly do a water change if it is rising... will update next test, thanks for the help!

 

[Miami Reef]

Alk at 14dKH is not the end of the world. It can actually lead to faster growth in many corals.

The risk with high alkalinity is that calcium carbonate precipitation is more likely. That will make your tank look like it’s snowing and wastes your alkalinity/calcium additives.

If your nutrients are very low, high alkalinity can risk burning the tips, presumably from the tissue not catching up with the skeleton growth.

However, high alkalinity, in of itself, likely won’t kill corals IMO. Just find the source and allow it to drop on its own.

 

[Awake2005]

I forgot to mention salinity is 1.027 but thats not that bad from what I understand with everything... thinking on waiting till the weekend but will retest every day to be sure it does not go crazy on me until then, and do a 20% water change and get the salinity down where it belongs.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Some salt mixes run that high, and if you use tap water, that can boost it even more.

There are ways to reduce alk, but I would not recommend them here. It’s not a big concern.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I forgot to mention salinity is 1.027 but thats not that bad from what I understand with everything... thinking on waiting till the weekend but will retest every day to be sure it does not go crazy on me until then, and do a 20% water change and get the salinity down where it belongs.

Why do a water change? It may not help anything.

 

[CHSUB]

You could add a little muriatic acid, but your alk will come down naturally over time.