Benefits of running high alk

[Matt Kiely]

Hey im running an lps dominated frag tank and i have some rather large colonies of hammers and frogspawn along with loads of frags of other lps anyway i was wondering what the benefits r of running the system with a dkh of say around 10-12dk instead of 8-9? Just curious what the benefits r of doing it that way obviously i want to try to maximize growth so i can frag often and fill my frag tank as my plan is to startup a growout tank in the next month or so thanks for any and all help given

 

[reefstarter]

it has been done , but it is very tricky . with alk that high so too does everything else need to be . and the ratio varies a bit off from our normal ranges for example . .... 8-9 DKH "balances " out with nitrates at 0-10 phosphates around .05 calcium around 400-430 and mag at 1300-1400 in theory if you raise everything equally and maintain the same ratio think should grow faster . But .... at those ranges corals become very sensative to and changes so the likleyhood for loosing corals become greater and algae blooms are also greater . I tried this out when I had 650 gallons of water . in the end when I got best results and less headaches my params were all closer to what are considered the norm . And just before I broke down for my move my last test showed an alk of about 6 . It was at that time I got the fastest growth . But if it dipped any lower things could have gone sour . That is another reason to stay within 8-9 . It creates a buffer between ranges above and blow what the corals can tolerate

 

[Matt Kiely]

Thanks for the input i think i will keep it in the normal range