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i just had my water tested at my LFS (even though i test my own ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH, i wanted them to check phosphates, etc) and they said the only thing that was off was that i had little or no alkalinity.

i found this a little strange... my tank is a 10G with 10lbs of live rock and about 1.5" of aragonite for substrate. it's been set up for about a year, and currently has no fish in it. i don't have corals or inverts, either. i generally do weekly water changes, and add prime, salt and seachem reef buffer.

to correct it, they only suggested doing water changes. is there anything else i should be doing? they also said that this could be causing the greenish-grey algae that has been growing.

i usually trust this store, but this piece of advice sounded a little off, so i thought i'd double check with the experts ; )

IMO, you should double check it with your own test kit. Plus you might end up needing to dose something for alkalinity or dKH. I always think its the best idea to test whatever you are dosing for.

I like to use B-ionics as a 2 part alk/Ca supplement.

So if you don't have fish, coral, or other inverts....why do you have a tank? Or for that matter....why are you concerned about the levels in the tank?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Mantis shrimp tank! Well, I don't really know, but that's what I'd keep if I had an empty 10 gallon. . . Hehe. Some sort of invert only tank perhaps? Still need to worry about the levels of stuff, but don't have fish or corals in there? Besides that I have absolutely no usefullness in this thread. . .

[url=http://dragcave.ath.cx/viewdragon/bNFR][/url]

haha - i'm not some wierdo who just enjoys keeping a tank full of rocks and water. lol. it's just temporarily empty: i lost the fish in a power outage, unfortunately, and haven't had a chance to restock it. so, i figured i'd better get everything checked out before i put anything in it again.

so, an update: i did double check the KH with a test of my own. it took 6 drops to turn the water yellow which, according to the chart, is very low! this is what the stores' kit said, too.
so... i bought and added seachem reef builder, as well as added the appropriate amount of seachem reef buffer, too. i'll test again when i get home today.

i think (?!) what happened is that i misread the label of the reef buffer and had not been adding enough of it or adding it often enough. does that make sense? the whole pH-kH relationship is a little confusing...

let me know if i'm on the right track!

Yep, never add more than they suggest, but then again, you have no animals to worry about. Other than that dose as much as you can, then test a few hours later. Repeat until you have proper levels of hardness. Then figure out what you have to add to keep your levels constant.

Out of curiosity, what is your calcium level?

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

not sure about calcium... i didn't have it tested because i don't have any inverts or corals and apparently it's not a 'standard' test. i've never added calcium supplements, but i know that that is tied into alkalinity... should i be adding calcium, too? i have calcium for my plants in my freshwater tanks... is this the same? (stupid question, maybe, but worth asking!)

another potentially stupid question: what should my alkalinity be at? it's gone up from 4 drops to 8 since yesterday... but i can't remember exactly what level is good. : )

thanks for all the help so far!

What does 8 drops equate to? Should be a measure in dKH, meq/l, or ppm. I think 2 - 4 or 5 meq/l is acceptable which equates to 100 - 200ppm and 5.6 - 11.2 dKH.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

the kit i'm using says one drop is equal to 1 degree dKH or 17.9 ppm KH.

how many drops should i be using ideally?

So 8 drops would be within the ideal range. 4 was not. since the ideal range for dKH is 6-11, it would be good to test drops between that number.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

thanks for all your help : )