dKh Emergency - How to lower safely?

[AquAttila]

A friend has recently contacted me that he began seeing his carpet anenome show signs of dying off. His tanks is mainly FOWLR, other then softies and anenomes. He has tested his water and turns out that his dKh is 20! I do know that sudden swings in Kh can be detrimental to corals, and even some fish can be sensitive to large swings in Kh over short period of time. However, my feeling is that the increase was over several months and slowly rising as I believe during each water change he adds "Kent super dK buffer". Any advise on how to slowly lower dKh? I hear some add vinegar? my guess is that the water volume is about 340g (260g tank with about 80 gal sump).

Thanks!

 

[dhanking]

1. If you have a Fowlr tank with softies and anemonies, you shouldn't be adding a buffer in the first place, It's a marketing trick.
2. To solve the problem now, get your friend to a big water change. That will balance out the KH

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

he needs to stop the buffer for sure.

Being certain it is 20 dKH is first priority. If that is test error and it really is 7 dKH, lowering it is worse than nothing.

First, I'd use the kit on some new salt water, made with RO/DI (not tap). Tap could be how it got high, if it is.

 

[AquAttila]

he needs to stop the buffer for sure.

Being certain it is 20 dKH is first priority. If that is test error and it really is 7 dKH, lowering it is worse than nothing.

First, I'd use the kit on some new salt water, made with RO/DI (not tap). Tap could be how it got high, if it is.

Thanks for the response... he is using the red sea Kh test kit and also tested the newly mixed salt water. New salt water is 9 dKh. Don't think it is an error on the 20 dKh ... as he did a 50 gal water change, the test kit now showing 18 dKh. So slowly going down. Told him to do another one in a few days. once it hits 12 dKh, he should be OK at that stage.

 

[AquAttila]

1. If you have a Fowlr tank with softies and anemonies, you shouldn't be adding a buffer in the first place, It's a marketing trick.
2. To solve the problem now, get your friend to a big water change. That will balance out the KH

I agree. When I first got into this hobby I used that stuff and was wondering why the heck things were not doing good in the tank! honestly, only reason I even have the dKh buffer is when I do fresh water dip and need to use to match my Alkalinity to my tank water.

 

[blasterman]

What Randy said.

Alk can be safely lowered using muriatic / hydrochloric acid that can be found at any home improvement store.

I've done this multiple times after various dosing pump errors and it works perfectly. Just do it gradually. Randy should know the exact amount to add.