Help ALK won't go above 7 DKH

[Jyetman]

I've done water changes and ALK goes up to 8 DKH then falls back down in a few days around 7 DKH. Tried dripping Kalk and it just raises the PH but ALK stays the same won't go up to a reasonable level? What am I doing wrong now?

Current Parameters

ALK 7 DKH
PH 8.16
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 440
MAG 1428
Brand of salt is Red Sea Coral Pro

Dripping Kalk now 1.5 Gal RO w/1 tsp (using a 2.5 Gal Water Bottle so mostly sealed)

[bertoni]

Many tanks consume 2-3 dKH per day, so a couple of days to drop from 8 to 7 is a fairly low consumption rate. I suspect everything is fine, but you'll need to dose daily or so from now on.

[Jyetman]

Afraid to dose baked baking soda anymore. The reason is after six months my corals color changed and looked sick and stressed. It raised the ALK ok and PH was fine but the colors of corals darkened and looked terrible. Now I have reef builder by Seachem but this doesn't raise the calcium or pH. Can I dose at the same time Kalk and a ALK buffer in two separate buckets?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There is zero chance the corals were impacted in a negative way by appropriate use of baked baking soda, except in that it only supplies alkalinity and not other things so if you relied on it to supply something else, it wouldn't.

The Seachem Reef Builder is essentially a mixture of mostly baking soda and some baked baking soda. It claims to have some unknown amount of calcium, magnesium and strontium in it, but the amount is likely VERY small and you'll need to maintain calcium some other way anyway.

I'd look for some other causes of the poor coral health, such as alk too high or low, a contaminant in the tank such as copper, excess nutrients phosphate and/or nitrate, etc.

[Jyetman]

Originally Posted by Randy Holmes-Farley

There is zero chance the corals were impacted in a negative way by appropriate use of baked baking soda, except in that it only supplies alkalinity and not other things so if you relied on it to supply something else, it wouldn't.

The Seachem Reef Builder is essentially a mixture of mostly baking soda and some baked baking soda. It claims to have some unknown amount of calcium, magnesium and strontium in it, but the amount is likely VERY small and you'll need to maintain calcium some other way anyway.

I'd look for some other causes of the poor coral health, such as alk too high or low, a contaminant in the tank such as copper, excess nutrients phosphate and/or nitrate, etc.

When I stopped dosing Baked Baking Soda the coral in question blue cloves slowly returned back to a vibrant bluish purple color. Before they slowly turned into this ugly dark purple nothing like a blue clove should look like. I've had spurts of growth and times everything is on the verge of dying except for corals I feed. My parameters always seem to be in check. I've got these big ugly brown zoos that grow like madness and now wondering if they are releasing harmful toxins. When I use carbon my zoos start looking bad especially after doing water changes except for the big ugly zoos figures. If I don't do water changes zoos slowly improve just weird. Its always the smaller zoos that give me problems the larger ones and pallys do fine.

[tmz]

I never have any such reaction from blue clove corals or any others for that matter when dosing baking soda. There is nothing in it other than bi carbonate alkainity and sodium. Excess, or low alkalinity can be an issue.
I'd check that salt mix for alk .