Controlling Kh in your tank!

[Just a Wrasse.]

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article Controlling Kh in your tank!. Please add to the discussion here.

 

[blaxsun]

Bump.

 

[Just a Wrasse.]

Bump.

Thank you?

 

[arking_mark]

Just my 2 cents, but you really should add information on how Alk is consumed in a reef tank. Generally speaking, a tank requires a balance Ca/Alk approach and one should be aware that the nitrogen cycle will consume Alk when NO3 is produced and release the same Alk back to the system when NO3 is consumed. Alkalinity also plays a key role in pH.

 

[reelreefguy69]

Just my 2 cents, but you really should add information on how Alk is consumed in a reef tank. Generally speaking, a tank requires a balance Ca/Alk approach and one should be aware that the nitrogen cycle will consume Alk when NO3 is produced and release the same Alk back to the system when NO3 is consumed. Alkalinity also plays a key role in pH.

Can you explain this more?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can you explain this more?

What specifically do you want more discussion of?

 

[Sandbaggin87]

my tank is only 4 months old and my KH swings between 9 and 12.9 through out the week between water changes is this normal for a new reef tank? My coral seem to be doing great and my duncan is sprouting 4 new heads, plus my zoas have great color along with my encrusting corals, also my favia is doing great, so i guess im just wondering if this is a problem i need to address or just wait for the tank to mature more before taking any action. I would really hate to take a miss step at this point and do something to set the whole system back, im a big fan of if it isnt broke dont fix it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

my tank is only 4 months old and my KH swings between 9 and 12.9 through out the week between water changes is this normal for a new reef tank? My coral seem to be doing great and my duncan is sprouting 4 new heads, plus my zoas have great color along with my encrusting corals, also my favia is doing great, so i guess im just wondering if this is a problem i need to address or just wait for the tank to mature more before taking any action. I would really hate to take a miss step at this point and do something to set the whole system back, im a big fan of if it isnt broke dont fix it.

How big of water changes are you doing? It would take massive changes to cause that shift.

If the tank is 9 dKH and the new salt water is 12 dKH, a 30% water change only boosts the alk to 9.9 dKH.

 

[Sandbaggin87]

How big of water changes are you doing? It would take massive changes to cause that shift.

If the tank is 9 dKH and the new salt water is 12 dKH, a 30% water change only boosts the alk to 9.9 dKH.

Well ibstarted off using instant ocean reef mix and then realized the problem of high alk then changed over to AF probing and have been doing 5g changes weekly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Well ibstarted off using instant ocean reef mix and then realized the problem of high alk then changed over to AF probing and have been doing 5g changes weekly.

Still, the alk changes are not as high as you are suggesting.

 

[Sandbaggin87]

Still, the alk changes are not as high as you are suggesting.

About 2 months in I had a massive ammonia spike and was doing water changes daily with the instant ocean salt that had mixing in a 55 gallon poly drum, then after I got everything back normal I noticed the super high kh. I was doing between 30% to 50 % changes at the time. Since then I have been only doing 5g every two weeks and now every thing is happy also I just remembered I was adding brightwell aquatics coralline accelerator.

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

Are you using RODI water for water changes?
I don't, I believe the dkh is higher from the tap water. But my levels do not fluctuate that much

 

[Sandbaggin87]

Are you using RODI water for water changes?
I don't, I believe the dkh is higher from the tap water. But my levels do not fluctuate that much

I am using rodi, I believe it was the product I was using on top of the big waters changes wich caused my lh to go threw the roof since then I have stopped using it and my kh has come down alot it is still at 12.