kh problem, needs raising

[marinetanker]

hi,

my tank has been set up around a year and a bit now and lately for some rteason the kh has dropped to 6, my other new tank is at 8, how can i raise this safely thanks for your help in advance

[MikeTR]

if your calcium is already in the 380-460 range.. then you can use some buffer.. how often are you doing water changes?

 

 

if your calcium is lower than that range.. you would benefit from a 2 part dosing regimen.

[marinetanker]

hi, i do 30% every week on a sunday, my calcium is at 440ppm what do i use to raise the kh and how ??

[Chyendra]

I'm surprised your ca is so high with your alk being so low, do you dose Ca?

 

A simple method is baking soda:

 

I use the reef calculator found here

 

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

What I've found is that I can dissolve about 1tsp of baking soda in 100ml of RO water. This way if it says I need to dose .7 tsp or somthing ridiculous like that, I can just dose 70ml.

 

don't dose this all at once... you want to bring it up slowly over several days so that you don't raise your pH too much.

[FiRsT-aNd-LaSt]

I've been having great results dosing Searchem Reef Builder to raise my KH, just don't dose to much or your calcium will drop to much.

[Mr. Fosi]

The short answer is: baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) if you want your pH to dip down a little just after addition or baked baking soda (sodium carbonate) if you want your pH to go up just after addition. Generally, it takes a smaller volume of sodium carbonate solution to achieve the same result as a larger volume of sodium bicarbonate

 

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

[Phixion]

I had a low alk and high Ca issue with my tank before I had moved it. The low alk was causing my tank to have low pH as well, around 7.5 I solved this issue easily (over a long period of time mind you) by dosing in about 7.5mL of B-Ionic ALK suppliment only, once a day.over the course of a couple months, my alk rose and my pH was peaking during the day once again at 8.2 My Ca throughout that whole duration held steady at between 450 - 500.

[marinetanker]

sounds like great help, i will try this after the bank holday and the shops are open again let you guys know how i get on, thanks

[marinetanker]

one thing i didnt think to ask is, once my kh is raised to adequate levels, ie 10 - 12 what do i do, just stop adding and testing every week ?? or how long will it take to drop ??

[Chyendra]

This will vary for every tank. The key is stability, so pick a kh level and stick with it. To figure out what your maintenance dose needs to be, just test your levels and wait a week and test again. Knowing how much is drops in 7 days will allow you to figure out what you need to dose every day (or every other day) to maintain adequate levels.