Alkalinity is being used up, dose individually or use kalk?

[Brinkfish312]

And those 2 levels have always read high without dosing anything. It's weird. That may be my misunderstanding of what I read about the kalk. First bring the levels to where they need to be then use kalk to maintain them. Is that not right? Well, maybe I just need to figure out how to deal with the pH for now, and bring that back up and keep the other stuff when I really start seeing a drop. I DEF do not want to add anything if it's not necessary. Our tank has had pretty nice levels of everything on its own except for the Alk (now it's 12.6) and Mg (1680). Well, and the one time the Ca dropped significantly. But other than that, it's good.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There is nothing you should add to boost pH if you do not need alkalinity.

The protocol on limewater is fine, but that presumes alk (and secondarily, calcium) is slowly dropping and limewater will stop that drop.

If it is not dropping, then any significant limewater addition will push up the alkalinity, possibly too high. The calcium rise will be minimal, but real.