ALk is really high

[Skimmerking]

Well My tank alk is at 14.2 DKH, and Doug and I have been having trouble understanding why its doing that. when I was gone away doug was looking after my tank and he tells me that the tank was at 8DKh when he was doing his water changes. I thought it would be from the IO salt having a super high level of 22DKH from the past. But Doug has been checking the water in the bucket and the tank and its not that. So I have been using pickling lime to top off on a float switch for evaporation. Its getting to the point that the kalk and the RO/DI water is getting really weak from the Pickling lime its hardy any in there.

Doug has been doing regualr water changes 5-15 gal every other week. I'm stunned on what it could be. The CAL is at 450PPM I'm waiting for my Phosban reactor to show up may be that it will lower the ALk in the tank and that will help it out. Other then that Im lost for what I should do.

[kwirky]

Maybe borrow somone else's kH test kit to verify the levels?

[DanG]

someone was saying there was a huge thread on RC about salifert having a bad batch of alk kits.

As sean mentioned, have you tried a different kit to verify the results?

[Delphinus]

I don't have the answer but jumping in here because I have the same problem with an alkalinity that's way too high. And one thing we have in common is that we're using pickling lime. However one thing that might be different is that I have both a kalk reactor and a calcium reactor online. I don't have the high alk without the kalk reactor, so I'm sort of leaning towards wondering if that's the cause. I have not tried running with just the kalk reactor to see if it's enough on it's own to have alk too high.

I should mention that I was using Salifert to test and I was wondering about the test kit, however when I used it all up I went and bought an Elos - Elos measures in dKH not meq/l, but the results were consistent (4meq/l or 12dKH in my case). So I guess in my case the test kit was fine.

[Skimmerking]

Sean, Dan, Tony ok first question Doug was using his test kits with mine solution I have another test kits coming and will see if that is it.

yes Tony I have wondered about the pickling Lime Vs Kalkwasser. and Im thinking that pickling Lime is stronger then Kalk wasser.

funny about the Salfirt test kits that iswhy I changed to them they were alot easier and better kits. Now that I'm starting to wonder...Tony I will chat with you on Msn today about the test kits

[Swags]

If you need to check the reliability of your alk test kit, here is a good check:
1.1350 grams of baking soda in 1 gallon of distilled water=10dkh

Cheers!
Phil

[Skimmerking]

Well I have stopped the Pickling lime, and converted to RO/DI top off and will be using my Sea chem Reef builder and advantage to bring the alk/cal up until i can get a better style of kalk probably from Ben

[fishguyxd]

Hi last month i had a spike way over the top was using a hagan kit and that was showing results that were correct ,lfs did test for me and did get same results so high we never did get an accurate number, since then bought I salifert kit and I am still hi in alk but my cal is up to normal and mag is 1300

It took me a month to just get to this point I did add
cal additive and a new salt to help the solve problem but also did lots of water changes I guessing in the last month probably the total capacity of my tank.
(in the mean time though I did lose corals and inverts after 3 days++) just so you know I do not have all the other equipment (cal reactor etc)
that's my 2 cents

[Skimmerking]

ya the CAl is 450 and the mag is good I really dont know why its doing it may be its the lime i have hardly any pickling lime in there and the top off is a 20 gal tub but im going to see how much that im going thur and dose with sea chem..

[Slick Fork]

Check the TDS of your RO unit, could be the problem is the source water.

[Skimmerking]

i have a TDs on my unit its coming out at 0ppm

[Skimmerking]

Well I tested my Alk in the 20 gal tub that I have been using for the top off and it was sitting at READY FOR THIS 39.6DKH. Im not a smartie pants ,but that does seem really high doesn't it now I'm really confused. When Doug was testing the water when I was gone it, wouldnt come up past 8 DKH and now once I got home its sky rocketed. All I did was add 4 TSP to the 20 gal tub. Now tell me that it didnt make it sky rocket that much would it.

What is the proper dose for Pickling lime to 1 gal of RO/DI i have checked my tDs and the water is good and 2 days ago the tank was at 14.6 ALK and the CAL was at 450PPm. should I wait to see what happens or try another route with the pickling Lime.

I thought that 1 TSP of PL for 1 gal of RO/DI water was the direction given on the net.

[Delphinus]

What confuses me is that I thought pickling lime was not as pure a kalk product as, say, pure kalk. So I would have guess the Alk coming off pickling lime to be not as high. ... Who'dda thunk.

[Skimmerking]

Well I tested my RO/DI water and the ALk was 2.6DKH, a took a gal of RO water and added a TSP of Pickling lime and it was over 32Dkh now im lost for words...

[Delphinus]

I guess the real test now is do the same thing but with kalk instead of pickling lime and see what the resulting alk is...

[mark]

Different buffer product (Seachem Reef Buffer) but to give an idea how little needed to change alk: 1tsp for 40g will raise pH by 0.1 and alk by 0.5meg/l.

Also check here http://reef.diesyst.com/ it doesn't have pickling lime but limewater solution (saturated).