Low KH

[Sean Norman]

My tank is one year old today...! I have been battling low KH. I was holding around 8.5 and had a dip to 5.1. I lost some corals. I got it back up to around 7 and kept it there and now I am back down to 5.9 and cannot get it back up.
I have a refugium and a skimmer. I also have my air line from my skimmer going out a window next to the tank. I do have a wood stove, so it tends to bring my PH down in the winter.

I have been dosing for two months now. Calcium is at 420 . I am dosing 4 mls of Ca a day and 11.5 ml of Alkalinity. I am using Bi-Onic.

I use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.
SG 1.025
Temp 76.3
PH 8.15( fluctuates between 7.9 to 8.15 all winter).

Not sure what else to do to get my KH up to at least 8.

Thanks.

 

[Spare time]

Esv is supposed to be dosed equally, so for 1 ml alk, you ad 1 ml calcium. How much to addd daily can be found by testing one day and then the next day at the same time. How much is dropped is a estimate of daily usage.

 

[60CubeReefer]

What is your mag at? Are you dosing both at the same time? Into a high flow area? You might be precipitating out your additives.

 

[Sean Norman]

What is your mag at? Are you dosing both at the same time? Into a high flow area? You might be precipitating out your additives.

I am dosing it into where the pump is, I can try and change it to a lower flow area..

 

[60CubeReefer]

You want to dose into a high flow area, it sounds like you're doing the right thing. Are you dosing both at the same time? If so, separate them. Also, what's your mag at? And how are you testing?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How much alk, in dKH per day is 11.5 mL in your system? You either need to tell us that, or better yet, calculate the dose in dKH per day to know if you are dosing an appropriate amount. That is always the best way to provide information on alk dosing.

"At least 8" dKH is not needed, but at least 7 dKH is a good goal.

What does it mean that "and cannot get it back up."

When you add more of the ESV B-ionic, what happens? 15 mL per day? 30 mL per day?

 

[phixman]

Are you using a doser ? Alk and Calcium drops a lot through the day . You're supposed to setup a doser , test , and change the dosing amount accordingly. Also, make sure you test at the same time of day whenever you test, levels will be different throughout the day

 

[Sean Norman]

You want to dose into a high flow area, it sounds like you're doing the right thing. Are you dosing both at the same time? If so, separate them. Also, what's your mag at? And how are you testing?

I am testing with a Hannah checker. I am dosing the Ca and Alk at opposite ends of the day. Ca in the am to early afternoon, and Alk begins at 7:00 pm to midnight.
My mag is at 1180. I manually dose that.

 

[Sean Norman]

How much alk, in dKH per day is 11.5 mL in your system? You either need to tell us that, or better yet, calculate the dose in dKH per day to know if you are dosing an appropriate amount. That is always the best way to provide information on alk dosing.

"At least 8" dKH is not needed, but at least 7 dKH is a good goal.

What does it mean that "and cannot get it back up."

When you add more of the ESV B-ionic, what happens? 15 mL per day? 30 mL per day?

I did have my Kh at 8.5 but it has since dropped. I did find that the end of the hose from the dos pump was in the water and had plugged up, so I moved it up out of the water. That was about two weeks ago.
My DT is 112 with a 39 gallon sump. I increased my dosing of the Alk and still no change.. my Kh has remained below 6.

 

[Sean Norman]

I did have my Kh at 8.5 but it has since dropped. I did find that the end of the hose from the dos pump was in the water and had plugged up, so I moved it up out of the water. That was about two weeks ago.
My DT is 112 with a 39 gallon sump. I increased my dosing of the Alk and still no change.. my Kh has remained below 6.

I test every morning, and have gone through two different testing solutions in the last month or so, so my guess is it cannot be a bad batch of reagent.

 

[60CubeReefer]

So every day you're dosing 11.5 ml of alk and doesn't hold? What happens when you dose more alk manually (not using your DOS)? Are you able to read an increase?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So every day you're dosing 11.5 ml of alk and doesn't hold? What happens when you dose more alk manually (not using your DOS)? Are you able to read an increase?

The reason we had to know the tank size was to determine the dose.

You are hardly dosing anything. 11.5 mL of B-ionic in 120 gallons is only 0.2 dKh per day!

Even a soft coral tank might consume ten times that amount if coralline is growing well.

Unless you see apparent excessive precipitation of calcium carbonate, keep upping the dose of both parts.

 

[Sean Norman]

The reason we had to know the tank size was to determine the dose.

You are hardly dosing anything. 11.5 mL of B-ionic in 120 gallons is only 0.2 dKh per day!

Even a soft coral tank might consume ten times that amount if coralline is growing well.

Unless you see apparent excessive precipitation of calcium carbonate, keep upping the dose of both parts.

Thanks... a lot to learn in this hobby. I have all soft and LPS corals. I am increasing my daily dose, ramping it up over a period of days. I do have a lot of Coralline algae on the back walls. Thanks for the input.