Alkalinity low

[Jmck]

Ok, I was wondering, whats the best way to raise my alkalinity?

I got a test today and I have to add drops till it goes blue, on the first drop it went a light blue! so my alkalinity is way to low, 8-12 is recommend amount of drops before it changes

do i need to buy a buffer or is there something that I can use at home to raise it?

 

[ccCapt]

I'm not sure if it's available Down Under, but Arm & Hammer baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) works fine. Not knowing what you can get locally, you want a food grade sodium bicarbonate...baking soda, not baking powder.

 

[Jmck]

But doesnt baking soda end up bringing PH up as well? my PH is at the correct level, I guess i might just buy a buffer if baking soda also raises PH.

 

[yote]

Baking soda WILL NOT raise your PH unless you bake it in the oven first.

 

[ccCapt]

I guess i might just buy a buffer if baking soda also raises PH.

Just look at the label on any store bought buffer and see what it's made from....sodium bicarbonate. ;)

Sodium bicarbonate will slightly lower the pH from the carbon dioxide.
Sodium carbonate (soda ash, baked baking soda) will slightly raise the pH because of the lack of carbon dioxide.

You would have to dose a massive amount of either to make any real measurable impact on your pH.

 

[sen5241b]

I use baking soda every day. My Ph is fine. BTW, coralline needs Alk at good levels to grow.

 

[Chris_150G]

What brand test is it?

 

[Solarfall]

Yeah I bake it and make a gallon mixture with RO water at a time. My PH tends to be a bit low so I need to bake it and works great to solve both of my problems.
I use about an eighth cup of the liquid every day.

 

[Jmck]

Ok, so ill put some in tonight, with my levels this low, how much should i be putting in to manage my alkalinity? it was an out of box one, my lfs doesnt sell it with everything, so he told me by the amount of drops to go by to tell if its low. So i dont know the exact ppm, all i know is its the lowest possible reading on the chart. which kind of annoys me!

chris, the test isnt with me right now, so im not sure the brand.

 

[Chris_150G]

Your test result seems unusual to me. It reacted after only one drop? On my test that would indicate an Alk of 1. Mine has never tested that low. Could your test have gone wrong? Mine (API) starts out blue and ends yellow. Could the blue you got just be the beginning color?

 

[Jmck]

I think you are 100% right chris, my test went from blue to yellow in 5-6 drops. What would be your recommended dosing to get it to a 10 drop change, saying i have an API test kit for it.

 

[Solarfall]

Just try to bring it up by no more than 1 DKH per day.
And 10 DKH is the higher end of what's acceptable. I actually like to keep mine at about 8.

 

[Chris_150G]

I have only used the buffers from my LFS but I am going to switch to arm & hammer as our peeps here recommend. While bringing it up, test after adding the buffer and again 24 hrs later before you add more buffer.

 

[Jmck]

Ok, so i put in 2 tea spoons of bicarb soda, and hopefully that brings it up a bit, then ill put more tomorrow, also dosed some calcium to bring it up a bit now that i have a new sps in the tank. Try and keep this one, the old one didnt do well because i wasnt watching alkalinity and so forth.

thanks everyone :) and thankyou chris for identifying my misuse of the test kit ;)

 

[d2mini]

I buy the stuff from BRS (soda ash to help raise my ph), mix it in one of their narrow gallon containers, and then dose it daily with one of their dosing pumps controlled by my RKL. Once set up, this is probably one of the best ways to do it because with proper testing, it's accurate, consistent, and easy to make small adjustments.

 

[Jmck]

My PH is fine though dennis, its just my alk that was a bit low.

or does that regulate alkalinity as well?

 

[Solarfall]

Alkalinity regulates PH.

You can get big PH swings if your alk is really low.

 

[Jmck]

Ok, thanks, well ill play around with it now i know what im doing, hopefully i find a good spot for my calcium and alk to settle so i can promote some good coraline and sps growth :D just put a new peice in, in fact, i need to take some pictures!

 

[Jmck]

unfortunatley, i just did a test on alkalinity after a number of hours, the bicarb has done nothing, will dose again tomorrow.

 

[ccCapt]

If you are going to use straight baking soda, don't just dump the dry powder in the water. Measure out 1 1/8 cups of sodium bicarbonate and mix that in 1 gal of RO water. This will give you a solution that has an alk level of 2660 dKH.
An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

To dose this solution, use the Reef Chemistry calculator and choose Randy's Recipe #2 for alk. It will tell you how much you need to dose to bring your alk up to the desired level.
For 60g water volume, if your alk is 6 dKH now and you want to raise it to 8 dKH, it will take 171.4 mL or 5.7 oz of the solution you made.