KH is very low

oliverout · Jun 24, 2023

Hi guys my kh is 2.6 and I was wondering how fast I can raise this back to normal? I ran out of dosing liquid for a few days and thought it would be fine but it's not.

DonTavo27 · Jun 24, 2023

Raise it slowly. Anything fast will be problematic for your coral if any.

gbroadbridge · Jun 24, 2023

oliverout said:
Hi guys my kh is 2.6 and I was wondering how fast I can raise this back to normal? I ran out of dosing liquid for a few days and thought it would be fine but it's not.

What is it normally?

I'd bring it up by no more than 1 dkh per day.
Do not panic and try to go up faster

oliverout · Jun 24, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
What is it normally?

I'd bring it up by no more than 1 dkh per day.
Do not panic and try to go up faster

I'm usually at 8. I'll bring it up slowly. Most of my sps are good a little bit of bleaching on one and a bit on the other.

gbroadbridge · Jun 24, 2023

oliverout said:
I'm usually at 8. I'll bring it up slowly. Most of my sps are good a little bit of bleaching on one and a bit on the other.

They'll likely be fine.

My tank drops 3dkh a day if the dosing breaks, and I've been down under 4dkh when a head clogged.
Nothing really got upset.

You can go up 1dkh a day, don't forget to take into account the daily consumption, so you will probably need to dose more than 1dkh each day.

i.e. for me to go up 1dkh I'd probably have to dose that on top of normal consumption.

bakbay · Jun 24, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
They'll likely be fine.

My tank drops 3dkh a day if the dosing breaks, and I've been down under 4dkh when a head clogged.
Nothing really got upset.

You can go up 1dkh a day, don't forget to take into account the daily consumption, so you will probably need to dose a bit more than 1dkh each day.

Eeek! That’s crazy. How big is your tank again?

liddojunior · Jun 24, 2023

bakbay said:
Eeek! That’s crazy. How big is your tank again?

It’s also depends on the corals. If they are well establish colonies. They just soak up materials to make skeletons

gbroadbridge · Jun 24, 2023

bakbay said:
Eeek! That’s crazy. How big is your tank again?

It's a 75gal display total 90 gal.

But it's SPS heavy with some large colonies.

I dose about 325ml a day of 3 part (3 x 325ml)

oliverout · Jun 24, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
They'll likely be fine.

My tank drops 3dkh a day if the dosing breaks, and I've been down under 4dkh when a head clogged.
Nothing really got upset.

You can go up 1dkh a day, don't forget to take into account the daily consumption, so you will probably need to dose more than 1dkh each day.

i.e. for me to go up 1dkh I'd probably have to dose that on top of normal consumption.

Thanks.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 24, 2023

That value seems so low that unless you have a good explantation of how it got there, I would not boost alk without strong verification.

I do not believe that calcifying organisms can drop it that low.

Mike1970 · Jun 24, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
It's a 75gal display total 90 gal.

But it's SPS heavy with some large colonies.

I dose about 325ml a day of 3 part (3 x 325ml)

Kalkwasser is your friend

gbroadbridge · Jun 24, 2023

Mike1970 said:
Kalkwasser is your friend

I don't believe it could keep up.
Additionally, I travel a lot and if it can't run unattended for at least 6 weeks it doesn't work for me

oliverout · Jun 25, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That value seems so low that unless you have a good explantation of how it got there, I would not boost alk without strong verification.

I do not believe that calcifying organisms can drop it that low.

What ways could have it dropped to this?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 26, 2023

oliverout said:
What ways could have it dropped to this?

Test error is by far the most likely. Second is a lot of accumulated nitrate (several hundred ppm). Third is a massive overdose of calcium. Last is accidental acid addition of some sort.

oliverout · Jun 26, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Test error is by far the most likely. Second is a lot of accumulated nitrate (several hundred ppm). Third is a massive overdose of calcium. Last is accidental acid addition of some sort.

I don't think it is the first 2 I tested on kh guardian and sailfert, my nitrate is around 6ppm. Not sure about calcium but I'll test that later. Last one could it be deodorant?

oliverout · Jun 26, 2023

oliverout said:
I don't think it is the first 2 I tested on kh guardian and sailfert, my nitrate is around 6ppm. Not sure about calcium but I'll test that later. Last one could it be deodorant?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 26, 2023

Normal deodorant would not deplete alkalinity. Calcium overdose didn't happen without you knowing (tank would turn milky white).

Have you used those kits on new salt water?

oliverout · Jun 26, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Noraml deodornt would not deplete alkalinity. Calcium overdose didn't happen without you knowing (tank would turn milky white).

Have you used those kits on new salt water?

I havent tried the test kits on new water.