PH high/ alk high off the scale

[jaydse]

hey whats up with this i got a 180 reef 12 fish big tang lot of waste from him so my ph should be down at night it's 8.5ish the only thing i do is drip kalawisser.alk is also high off the scale i read if alk. is good this would prevent alge NOT !

 

[reefworm]

jaydse,
How old is the tank? I would try dripping the kalk at night only to stabilize your pH. 8.5 is not disastrous, but it would be good to get it down to 8.3. You mentioned alk is off the scale. Literally? Do you have a number? With alk very high your calcium level should be quite low. You could try a series of small to moderate water changes to bring things down a bit, and use a Ca++ supplement to bring those numbers up if they're where I think they are. Kent's turbo calcium is good, as is Seachem - all depending on who you talk to, of course!

If algae is a problem, what are your nitrate and phosphate levels reading? My guess is phosphate in your source water. Test for it. And if you're not using RO/DI water for your fresh mix and top-off, start. Make sure you're aerating your fresh salt mix for 24 hours before using it.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a second opinion on your pH and alk levels as well. What test kit are you using? See if your LFS will test samples of your water for you with a different kit as a check against yours.

HTH

regards,
rw

 

[jaydse]

hello tank is 6 mts. old i never check for cal. because i can't find a test kit to read the same they all say a diff. # my alk is 17 DKH. maybe i'm keeping my tank to clean i do water change every to weeks & i use a diatom to get the alge out when i scrape it . i do use a R/o i'm might try to stop doing any thing for a month just add cal.every 3days what do you think ?