Alkalinity too high

[dareefguy]

I am not sure why but my alkalinity has always been around 13 kh. I am now at 16 and I do not know how to get it down.

Everybody always talks about buffers to raise it I never hear of it being too high.

I think ocean water is about 8 or 9. Is this correct?

How can I lower alkalinity.

[Delphinus]

How are you maintaining alkalinity? I would back off whatever method you're using. If you're not doing something (ie., reactor, kalk, 2 part, or whatever), that alkalinity has to be coming from somewhere ... salt mix maybe? Eliminating all of those variables, what's left is a potentially false reading from your test kit.

16 is definitely too high .. you're correct, NSW is somewhere around 8dKH.

[fishytime]

White vinigar. Not quite sure on the exact dosage. A search here or on RC might tell you. Just be really carefull because this will also lower your ph.

[dareefguy]

I add kalk to maintain my calcium but It say's in order to maintane your alk you should use a alk buffer. I have not added any alk buffer but could my kent kalk be raising my alk aswell?

[dareefguy]

so should I try to get it down to at least 13 ( the max I think). If so how?

[Delphinus]

Yep, kalk does add alk as well. I would discontinue the kalk until the alk has dropped. Probably wouldn't hurt to do a water change .. whatever you do, go slow as massive alk swings are harsh on the tank inhabitants..

[dareefguy]

I just got a calcium reactor going. Only running with crushed coral at the moment. Should I discontinue the use of this aswell? I was told to use kalk at the same time as the reactor to keep my ph up.

Or would the reactor raise alk aswell? something to do with the co2 maybe?

[mark]

If you read about Ca reactors you'll probably come across them being called alk reactors as well. They definitely will raise the alk levels.

Understand the reasoning for adding kalk for pH using a reactor, but were you having problems with pH? I run a reactor, not using kalk and pH stays around 8.2-8.3.

[untamed]

I just got a calcium reactor going. Only running with crushed coral at the moment. Should I discontinue the use of this aswell? I was told to use kalk at the same time as the reactor to keep my ph up.

Or would the reactor raise alk aswell? something to do with the co2 maybe?

People do use both for certain reasons, but that is the last thing you should be thinking about...The bottom line is that BOTH methods supply BOTH Ca and Alk and both have to be carefully controlled. The idea is to replace ONLY the Ca and Alk that are being used up by the tank and no more than that.

Between your two methods, you are oversupplying your tank with Ca and Alk. You need to stop both and get let those levels fall back to normal before carefully restarting in a controlled way. Don't venture to use both methods until you have a much better understanding of how it all works.

...and don't worry about what pH your tank is...