Alkalinity help

charles-n-charge

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 28, 2010
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Livingston Tx
I've been using the proper amount of this C-Balance for a couple weeks now, and my Alkalinity is still showing as 0.
I'm not sure what to do to get my alkalinity to where it needs to be.

My soft corals have been doing ok, but not growing; and my hard corals are all dying off.

Can anyone help?

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Cu455

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 8, 2011
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Are you using part A too? If not that might be the issue. That is just a guess, I am not sure how those additives work.
 

Cu455

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 8, 2011
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What kind of lights? maybe you should lay off the dosing and see how they do.
 

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
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Over there
Never mind. Turns out I've been reading the test wrong.
My alkalinity is at 196ppm, my calcium is at 540, and I don't have a test for magnesium.

Still though, my SPS's are dying.


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I was gonna ask if you were reading them right. Having alk at 0 is unheard of in saltwater aquariums. Even though your calc is high, you should still dose both because alk and calc directly affect each other. I use B-ionic 2 part for my reef and you should really test your magnesium. If your mag is unstable, it will be near impossible to get the others stable.


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Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
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Honestly, API test kits suck when it comes to saltwater reef. The best kits by far are salifert. All you need is the ca, kh and mg test kits cuz those are the most important to test for. It's a little bit pricier but they'll give you much better results. I was using the API kit for a while and it kept showing that all my params were fine, but my corals obviously were not so I took a h2o sample to my lfs and it showed that my alk was extremely low. From then on, I never trusted API again


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CHOMPERS

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 28, 2006
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Sunnyvale Trailer Park
Keep a reef log. Use this template or one like it since it has the parameter goals at the top.
http://www.o-r-c-a.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14422

Everybody likes to talk trash about API kits but I've been using them successfully for years. And no, they don't have a test for magnesium. Salifert is the best one for that.
 
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