Alkalinity
Alkalinity (alk) is a bit of a complicated subject. Thankfully you don’t need to learn everything about it. A basic understanding of how it affects other water properties should be enough, at least for now.
What is it?
Here is a technical description of what it is.
Total alk is a measure of how much acid it takes to lower the pH of a water sample
to the bicarbonate endpoint, or to the point where you have added enough acid to
potentially convert all of the bicarbonate to carbonic acid.
Here’s another way to look at it.
Alk is a measure of the ability of a solution (your test water) to resist a decrease in pH when
acids are added.
These acids are normally produced by the biological action of your reef tank contents.
Alk in a closed system has a natural tendency to go down.
Additives are sometimes used to keep it at a proper level.
Why worry about Alkalinity?
Maintaining correct Alk levels allow hard corals as well as coralline
algae to properly secrete new skeletal material,
which is how they grow. When alk levels drop,
the carbonate ions needed to perform this necessary function are not available
and the process slows or can even stop.
As you can now see, alk is an important measurement for the health of your reef tank.
If there were an inexpensive way to measure carbonate or bicarbonate,
then you would have no need to test for alk.
However, measuring levels is easy, using a simple color change test kit.
You can measure levels using three different scales.
Optimum levels should be 2.5-4 meq/L or 7-11 dKH or 125-200 ppm CaCO3 equivalents.
I don’t usually recommend a particular brand but in this case
I will say that the test kit made by LaMotte is probably the best one you can get.
Back to Reef Water Parameters
Exit Alkalinity and Return to Home Page
Quick Tips
Always remember
Alk and calcium levels affect each other.
If you need to raise alk, you probably have to raise calcium as well.
Maintenance
There are many different alk additives available, if you need to raise it.
For rapid alkalinity corrections, you can simply use baking soda.
If it's too high, rarely the case, just leave the tank alone. It will use it up and lower the level naturaly.
Lighting
Lighting has no direct affect on alk levels.
Research is the key to success
It may seem boring but if your desire is to build a great looking reef tank, you must spend some quality time researching.
Take it slow and you will succeed. Move too fast and you will run into trouble.
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