Allthingscoral Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 I have a ton of frags mixed reef dt I keep dosing alk it doesn't go up I tried dosing more still not going up I'm hand dosing at the moment every night around 19 ml per day I don't want to do something to cras m system but I'm trying to reach at least 9 dkh here are so.e of my frags alldoing good but just can't seem to raise my alk i have heard baking soda will work or kalkawasser just never used this product i use the red sea foundation to dose for alk cal and mag it alk just stays any hlp would be appreciated thx all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 The easy solution is to not try to raise your alk to 9. It is unnecessary to go that high, and can even be harmful, if your nutrients get low at any point. Importantly, it is just difficult to raise your alk that high (in many systems) when dosing 2 part because of precipitation. (It is easier to run higher alk with a Ca reactor.) Keep your alk between 7.6 and 8, where I keep mine, and you will be much happier! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allthingscoral Posted March 27 Author Share Posted March 27 Ok thx Andrew I was going off of a brs YouTube video that said it would hlp grow 70%more coral growth at 9 dkh I'm at 6.7 but drops 0.2 and 0.8 daily anyone have cal reactor for sale ☺ i would like to try that if not I can go buy from brs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 2 minutes ago, Allthingscoral said: Ok thx Andrew I was going off of a brs YouTube video that said it would hlp grow 70%more coral growth at 9 dkh I'm at 6.7 but drops 0.2 and 0.8 daily anyone have cal reactor for sale ☺ i would like to try that if not I can go buy from brs I would take what BRS says in their videos with a grain of salt. 😆 There is NO way that my corals would grow 70% faster if I raised my dKH from 8.0 to 9.0. I've seen lots of people try to raise their alk in order to grow coral faster, only to end up with RTN and burnt tips because they let their nutrients get low while increasing alk. High alk and low nitrate/phosphate is a recipe to kill your sps. If I were you, I would set up a doser and have it dose 10-12 times per day. That will keep your alk nice and steady. I dose equal amounts of ATI Essentials Pro 1 and 2 this way. I also dose Kalkwasser at night in order to help keep my pH up, and this also helps to maintain my alk. Alternatively, you could get a Ca reactor, but then you might find yourself struggling with keeping pH up. There are tradeoffs with every approach. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parzifal Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 I have an older one. Was working great, needs some cleaning love though. $25 for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 I keep my alk right around 9 because I hand dose and when I’m away for a week there’s still pretty if bicarbonate. Like Lexinverts said if you keep adding more it will precipitate. There’s an inverse relationship. If you increase your alk your calcium will drop and if you increase your calcium your alk will drop but coral is more sensitive to alk shifts. One way to get a higher alk is to increase your magnesium. I tend to keep mine on the higher side. Magnesium acts to fill the water column so calcium and alk can’t bind. Lou Ekus did a great talk about this process: I use the Tropic Marin All for Reef and it’s worker well for me so far. The downside is it is all in one so it’s difficult to tweak individual nutrients. I also add about an extra half teaspoon of the magnesium powder and that has kept things stable. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/macna-2019-lou-ekus 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parzifal Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 That was a great talk by Lou. I’d completely forgotten about it. He really makes it understandable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 57 minutes ago, Parzifal said: That was a great talk by Lou. I’d completely forgotten about it. He really makes it understandable! Yeah it was one of the better talks as reef chemistry Can really be confusing but he provides you with enough information to understand how to adjust your parameters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allthingscoral Posted March 28 Author Share Posted March 28 Thx for the link Kim I like the information very nicely said by Lou thank you all for the hlp very helpful information 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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