KH/PH levels

[britishguy]

Can anyone help me? I have recently set up a new tank 180 litres (approx 38 gallons).

I have added plenty of live rock and used "red sea" salt. I have added a number of corals 2 hermits, 2 cleaner shrimps then 2 Clowns, after that a royal tang , then a powder blue tang. Everything was going really well, then my Powder blue tang started looking quite distressed, so i took him back to the shop. The guy told me that my KH level was very low and I needed to get it higher, so I bought a bottle of KH buffer, I have been adding this at the reccomended rate, but my KH is still only 5. Now my Royal Tang is looking really distressed (althought the clowns look perfectly happy).

 

Should I keep adding the KH buffer over a short period to get it up to 10, or should I keep raising it slowly.

Also I was told that the salt i was using isnt very good, is there a commonly accepted view on which salt is best?

 

My Nitrates, Nitrites and ammonia are all fine

 

Any help or advice is much appreciated

 

thanks

[redfishsc]

There is no common held idea on which salt is best. For price, reliability, time-tested proven results, use Instant Ocean. It's the closest thing to an "industry standard" and has been in use for decades. You will need to dose calcium and alk to get it up to reef standards-- a lot of folks do that (including me). I also dose magnesium.

 

 

Anyhow, I'm no tang expert, but they can tend to be picky. I'm not sure i'd be so quick to blame the KH here. Check your pH instead. How is it? Anything 8.0 or over should be fine for a fish, but preferably 8.2-8.4

 

Also, you say that all your nitrogen compounds are "fine". Give us a number. Should be 0 for all of them, except maybe nitrate (ideally 0, preferably under 10, mediocre at 20, questionable at anything over 20).

 

If there's even the slightest bit of ammonia, the tangs may freak.