Dosing Kalkwasser but Alk still bellow 7...

[BFResende]

Hey,

I have a Fluval Evo 13.5 with 4 fish, 4 soft corals, and a clean-up crew.

I'm dosing kalkwasser continuously through a Versa pump – 200ml per day, mixed at 1g per liter.

Nitrates: 12ppm
Phosphate: 0.01ppm
dKH: 6.8
pH: 7.8/7.9

I also have my Versa connected to a Milwaukee MC122 PRO (pH controller) to avoid pH spikes.

I can't dose more kalkwasser because I don't have enough evaporation throughout the day.

What do you recommend to increase my dKH and pH?

Note: I don't know my current calcium and magnesium levels, but I will measure them later today.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How did you select 1 g/L? You can raise that to about 1.5 g/L.

 

[BFResende]

Indeed.

Will try in the next dose but I don't think it will be enough.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If it is not, which certainly can be the case, and you cannot increase evaporation, then adding a different method as well, such as some AFR or a two part, is a good way to go.

 

[rdavidw]

I use a kalk stirrer to get max saturation on the same ph controller you have. I also dose two part, mag and so on.

With just a few soft corals, I am guessing you are seeing lots of pink coralline growth that is sucking up the kalk?

 

[Brian916]

With your described tank load and size, I am kind shocked that you aren't seeing a pH rise let alone an.increase in alk. Maybe check your pH probe calibration? I supplement my Kalk with All for Reef. Kalk does my pH and All for Reef maintains my dKH.