Alk swing

[Jason4]

After adding a few SPS corals to my tank I noticed my Alk starting to drop, it took about a week to go from 10dkh to 7dkh. I didnt want it to drop below 7 so I bought a 2 part solution.
I add it it the morning and my Alk rises to 8, the next morning its back down to 7. Is that normal to drop 1 dkh in a 24 hour period

 

[Jason4]

Ive only been adding the Alk part of the 2 parter. My calcium is 600

 

[Hiker4twenty]

Yes, it is normal for it to drop when the corals are using it up. I have to dose my tank every morning with calc and alk. There is no set amount that each tank should be consuming daily. It all depends on what type and how much livestock you have in there.

 

[yvr]

I try to stay away from dkH buffers and it seems like some people tend to use it too aggressively and end up making changes in the water chemistry in their tanks too quickly (in my opinion). I prefer to make any change in the water chemistry slowly over time. Usually a tank that has a low dkH took some time to get down there, it usually didn’t happen overnight. On the other hand, it’s also not good to have it raised to the desired level over night. . I dose my tank with TM Bio-Calcium which will slowly, over time, raise the dkH to the right level at the same time as keeping my Ca where I want it; esentially killing two birds with one stone.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

I try to stay away from dkH buffers and it seems like some people tend to use it too aggressively and end up making changes in the water chemistry in their tanks too quickly (in my opinion). I prefer to make any change in the water chemistry slowly over time. Usually a tank that has a low dkH took some time to get down there, it usually didn’t happen overnight. On the other hand, it’s also not good to have it raised to the desired level over night. . I dose my tank with TM Bio-Calcium which will slowly, over time, raise the dkH to the right level at the same time as keeping my Ca where I want it; esentially killing two birds with one stone.

That may be just fine for your case, but not in every tank. Yes, people can dose when not really needed and yes, raising alk too fast is bad and you want to do that slowly. But dropping 3dkh in 1 week is going to happen if the corals are utilizing it up. My tank would be depleted really low of alk in 1 week if I didn't dose. I've got a lot of SPS in addition to numerous LPS and softies that use it up. So in my case I absolutely need to dose daily to keep my levels consistant and accurate.

 

[tankedchemist]

hiker.... softies don't use alk at all, fyi :D