How to lower dkh???

cwb_reeftank · Jan 31, 2015

My dkh is staying around 12-12.9 and I have not dosed my tank for one to two weeks. I want it to be at 8 or 7 also truly don't have that many corals so could that be why it hasn't gone down? But the weird thing is it actually went up?

duke4130 · Feb 5, 2015

What are the other parameters in your tank? If you keep doing water changes and the ALK, CAL and MAG are not lined up with each other then your alk can rise because the corals are unable to utilize the ALK and sucking up what they can of the cal and mag.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 5, 2015

duke4130 said:
What are the other parameters in your tank? If you keep doing water changes and the ALK, CAL and MAG are not lined up with each other then your alk can rise because the corals are unable to utilize the ALK and sucking up what they can of the cal and mag.

I'm not sure I understand what mechanism you are proposing for his alk to be rising.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 5, 2015

cwb_reeftank said:
My dkh is staying around 12-12.9 and I have not dosed my tank for one to two weeks. I want it to be at 8 or 7 also truly don't have that many corals so could that be why it hasn't gone down? But the weird thing is it actually went up?

Many salt mixes come in that high and if corals and coralline are not growing fast, it wills tay high.

I personally wouldn't bother to lower it, but if you want to, you can do so with muriatic acid (from a hardware store) or sodium bisulfate (like Seachem acid buffer). Both lower the pH the same and a lot to drop alkalinity.

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

We'll would lowering it help my coral or does it have no effect as long as it's stable? I was going to lower it to 8-7 bc I see a lot of people at those ranges and I couldn't decide if it was that or my nitrates that was causing my coral to bleach nitrates are at 8.0? Which is really bad ik but I can only test on Fridays so it might be lower now

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 5, 2015

What kind of coral?

IMO, it is only important to be in that range if you have an SPS tank with ultra low nutrients. Otherwise, they will probably grow faster at higher alkalinity.

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

I want sps but right now I have a green montipora, tyree red dragon?, another sps I don't really know what it is, and my meteor shower it was blue for a few days then it went white?

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

the tyree went white too and my green montipora is still green but the outer rim isn't white anymore

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 5, 2015

Well, I suppose they may have been shocked int he move, changes in alkalinity, lighting, nutrients, etc.

They certainly aren't growing if the alk is not declining and you are not adding any.

I guess I'd consider very slowly lowering the alkalinity, because the answer may be more of a problem than the original problem if the pH drops too low.

Here's a thread discussing using acid:

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/re...t-there-lower-alkalinity-like-you-can-ph.html

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

I actually posted on that one because no body posted back on mine haha

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

but would my nitrates be a big factor?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 5, 2015

Nitrates at 8 ppm don't usually cause corals to bleach (turn white). High nutrients usually cause them to get more brown as zoox levels increase.

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

im just concerned with my tyree red dragon bc it was red then the base turned white now the whole thing is white and the other sps was white with a blue tip and in the bag the polyps were out but even sense I took it out of the bag they haven't came out and my meteor shower

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 5, 2015

How long in the tank before they turned white?

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

the tyree red dragon probably a week and the other one has been sense I put It In and that was the second week of jan. and the meteor shower turned white probably 4 or 5 days after I put It In. I put them all In at the same time.

cwb_reeftank · Feb 5, 2015

id like to make a correction to my nitrate level its actually at 80 ppm

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 6, 2015

OK, 80 ppm nitrate is a bigger concern. Still not sure if that is it, but it might be contributing. This has more on reducing nitrate:

https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium

cwb_reeftank · Feb 7, 2015

ok I just got home today from college and I saw that the sps coral that I didn't know the name of Is half white and half redish?
like split down the center ?

sawdonkey · Feb 7, 2015

Sounds like you are experiencing RTN. White pretty much = dead. How old is this tank? How did your nitrates get so high?

cwb_reeftank · Feb 7, 2015

What's RTN and I've had it up for probably 4-5 years now and idk how it got so high I only feed my fish twice a day and not a lot but I don't starve them