High dkh?

[Munch]

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

Phosphates 0

PH 8.4

Calcium 460

Magnesium 1260

Salt 1.025

Temp 79

 

dkh is at 13, too high or am I ok?

 

39G tank SPS, LPS, clams, 6 line and pair of clowns. 1 Year old tank.

 

Use Instant Ocean for salt, Tech M lately to bring up Magnesium

 

Out of the box my calcium is 400, I dose with SeaChem ReefFusion 1 and maintain with SeaChem Kalkwasser in my ATO.

 

Perform weekly 10% water changes.

 

TIA!

[altolamprologus]

13 dkh is a bit too high. 12 is the high end of the acceptable range. If you bring down your kalk to RO ratio, you should be ok

[Munch]

13 dkh is a bit too high. 12 is the high end of the acceptable range. If you bring down your kalk to RO ratio, you should be ok

 

 

So the best way to bring it down, would be to?

[C.I._Reefer]

So the best way to bring it down, would be to?

 

would be to do nothing and let it come down naturally. just dose a bit less kalk.

[JDK]

It sounds like you have too much kalk in your ATO? I would consider manually dosing or investing in some dosing pumps instead of using the ato that could be a potential disaster. Do not try and bring it down from 12. Just let it fall naturally. Alk swings can be bad its better to let it drop from 12 by itself than rapidly dropping it. Just let it drop to where you want it and alter your kalk amounts in the ATO or dose yourself. Humidity changes throughout the year and evaporation with. Kalk in ATO water is not a good way to dose. Some days you may evaporate more or less depending on the humidity %.

[Munch]

Thanks everyone.

[Deckoz2302]

For a stoney dominated tank your where you should be. And I assume your seeing awesome growth. I keep my all at 12.6dkh and calc at 465. Softs hate it but stoney love it. Keep your alk where its at - the only reason your able to hold this level is because of your pH being at 8.4. However I would suggest raising your mag to the 1360-1400 range.

[Munch]

For a stoney dominated tank your where you should be. And I assume your seeing awesome growth. I keep my all at 12.6dkh and calc at 465. Softs hate it but stoney love it. Keep your alk where its at - the only reason your able to hold this level is because of your pH being at 8.4. However I would suggest raising your mag to the 1360-1400 range.

 

Yes, I've been slowing dosing with the Tech M to raise the Mag.

 

On a side note, what actually causes the increased alkalinity?

[Deckoz2302]

Your kalkwasser/rodi mix is the supply in conjunction with pH your tank is at

 

Refer to this post where I have explained it a little more

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=297897

[igotreefermadness]

What is your dosing regime like Deckoz? Jw becuase the ionic balance between calcium and alkillity is pretty far off, I'd imagine you precipitate quite a bit. I'm sure you're seeing amazing growth though, I have a hell of a time keeping mine above 8 without causing huge swings.

 

Also to OP: ATO is a good way of dosing alkalinity, but it does change throughout the year, so you need to be proactive in watching the rate of evaporation. Using the ATO creates a constant dosage throughout the day, which gives us stability, which is much better than dumping a bunch of alkalinity in at one point in the day. And I highly doubt a variance in humidity from one day to the next is going to create an instability that would affect the coral.

[Deckoz2302]

Precipitation occurs if the ph drops changing the supersaturation capability of the water. Which effectively changes the threshold at which precipitation will occur.

 

I dose daily

0.74dkh

17.2ppm calc

4.4ppm mag

0.03ppm iodide

0.04ppm iron

3ppm potassium

1.2ppm strontium

0.53ppm borate

 

Strontium and borate are new. I had been monitoring them and red sea reef care didn't end up providing enough in foundation a to hold new levels so I dose along

[igotreefermadness]

I believe a lower PH allows you to keep a higher ionic imbalance, but that makes sense. That's why dosing alkalinity with a baking soda is an uphill battle because I am effectively raising PH while trying to raise alk and calcium.

[Deckoz2302]

Yes and no...lower ph limits the threshold of saturation. Trying to raise alk and calc with a low ph hitting the saturation limit will cause ionic dominance which causes an imbalance causing one or the other to fall. The typical high alk low calc or vice versa complex everyone seems to run into. Ph shouldn't be chased with chemicals but instead through co2 exchange, light and photosynthesis. Or not at all. Our tanks are chemistry sets....