Continued Alk Problems

FishyReef

Broke Reefer!
As you might know, I've been having problems keeping my alk up. Had it tested professionally 2 days ago and it was all the way down to 1.7meq/l. I've been dosing a few times a week with Seachem Reefbuilder, but I'm nervous about overdosing or raising the alk too quickly. The problem is that its so low that despite dosing and water changes I can't seem to raise it high enough just to get into the decent range without it being depleted again. I have no idea why its being depleted so quickly, because my calcium and magnesium are both high and don't seem to be being depleted at a similar rate. Today both of my acans are shrunken and I'm starting to get really concerned that I'm going to start losing stuff in a big way. Can someone help me out in terms of how much I can dose to raise the levels back into a safe range without shocking my tank?
 
Oh wow...yeah, your calcium is really high. They all work together, so since cal is so high, it's driving the alk down. It may be your salt mix that registers your cal level that high...or do you dose?
 
I haven't dosed anything other than Alk. No calcium.

So my high calcium is whats driving my alk down? How do I change this? My calc test is extremely hard to read - its virtually clear in color so very hard to tell when it changes from purple to blue. I haven't bothered to test my calc out of the bucket because I just can't read the test. Hoping to get a hanna checker for Christmas but maybe I need to break down and buy a new calc test now. Though not sure what good that's going to do me if its high out of the bucket


Oh, and my fish are now showing ich for the first time ever - I'm sure its stress related to water parameters. This totally sucks and I have no idea how to fix it :(
 
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Yeah, I'd definitely check the levels from a new batch. If the salt mix is good, then multiple water changes should help. Also check the alk level in the newly made batch, it may be low already...or you may have a bad alk test kit, and all the dosing you've been doing has actually raised the alk level high as heck.
 
I know for certain that the alk is low - I had it professionally tested over the weekend and the sample from my tank was 1.7meq/l

Last time I made water I tested it out of the bucket (before and after rolling the bucket) and it came out at 3.0 meq/l every time, so its definitely starting low. Every time I've tested my tank since I started dosing, my alk has been 2.0-2.5meq/l. I'm pretty sure my alk test is still good. I just don't know what my starting calc is, but my guess is that its high.

Would alk/calc imbalances cause as much stress to fish as they do to corals?
 
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