Question about high kh

Tham121988 · Oct 18, 2017

I started dosing triton core7 about a week ago (had water tests sent in) and am about to start the 6x water changes with the salt it recommended. Previously I was using coral pro systems by zeovit. The issue is I stopped dosing per tritons instructions to have the kh drop, but it has gone up. It is about 15. I test tap water and it's less than half that( I use ro/di water for my tank of course). What can I do to lower it to 8? It's a 12 gallon nano with a 10 gallon sump. It has been up about a year. Thanks for any help.

Humblefish · Oct 18, 2017

Tham121988 said:
I started dosing triton core7 about a week ago (had water tests sent in) and am about to start the 6x water changes with the salt it recommended. Previously I was using coral pro systems by zeovit. The issue is I stopped dosing per tritons instructions to have the kh drop, but it has gone up. It is about 15. I test tap water and it's less than half that( I use ro/di water for my tank of course). What can I do to lower it to 8? It's a 12 gallon nano with a 10 gallon sump. It has been up about a year. Thanks for any help.

http://www.seachem.com/acid-buffer.php

Source: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...ke-you-can-with-ph.188293/page-2#post-2186160

Humblefish · Oct 18, 2017

15 dKH is very high, but I would still lower it down to 9 slowly. Bringing it down too fast would be more harmful than the high alkalinity itself.

Diesel · Oct 18, 2017

Can I ask where your PH sit's at?

Diesel · Oct 18, 2017

Ok I'm confused, are we talking KH (general hardness) or DKH (carbonate hardness)?
Cause a KH of 15 can be possible but it says nothing about your DKH.
KH (general hardness) is the measurement of the total dissolved minerals in your aquarium water.

Humblefish · Oct 18, 2017

Diesel said:
Ok I'm confused, are we talking KH (general hardness) or DKH (carbonate hardness)?
Cause a KH of 15 can be possible but it says nothing about your DKH.
KH (general hardness) is the measurement of the total dissolved minerals in your aquarium water.

Good catch, bro.

Diesel · Oct 18, 2017

Humblefish said:
Good catch, bro.

All that matters is the OP & his KH problem are getting help, my friend.

Hmmm, I have seen that before

Humblefish · Oct 18, 2017

Diesel said:
All that matters is the OP & his KH problem are getting help, my friend.

Hmmm, I have seen that before

Diesel · Oct 18, 2017

Humblefish said:

Can we stay on topic please!

Tham121988 · Oct 19, 2017

Holy moly! Thanks for all the responses. I've been caught up with something else. Yes KH, not dKH. My pH is at 8.3 exactly. Using a digital pH meter and it's accurate. Just calibrated it again not long ago.

Diesel · Oct 19, 2017

Tham121988 said:
Holy moly! Thanks for all the responses. I've been caught up with something else. Yes KH, not dKH. My pH is at 8.3 exactly. Using a digital pH meter and it's accurate. Just calibrated it again not long ago.

In that case 15 on the KH don't worry about that.
Test for your DKH (Carbonate Hardness) or as we here on R2R say ALK.
For a reef tank you test your DKH not KH.

Here's something to read up to http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 19, 2017

KH is carbonate hardness. It is not general hardness (GH, or dGH).

dKH stands for degrees of KH.

He should be writing dKH, in any case. That is certainly what he is reporting. General hardness values in seawater are very large numbers.

Seawater has a total (general) hardness of about 6.3 g/L (6,300 ppm) of calcium carbonate equivalents or 353 dGH .

Stigigemla · Oct 21, 2017

I would test the osmosis water. It shall have a kH less than 0,01. That means a color change for the very first drip.
And I wouldnt add the anything from the carbonate bottles until the kH is down to 8.