Drs1685 Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 So I've been testing/dosing my kh lately trying to keep it at about 9dkh, I've noticed though that it keeps dropping down to about a 5 or so after about a week, only thing I could think of is when I do a water change my new water had a low dkh so it was bringing the rest of the tank down. so I tested my new water change water and think I found my problem, it's only testing at about a 3dkh, so I went ahead and dosed the water in bucket before I did the water change and got it up to 9dkh to match the tank, is that the right way to go about that? Is there something I'm missing? Link to comment
GMay Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 What salt mix are your using Most will mix with a dKH of 7 or higher. You can increase dKH before adding to the tank. Be a little careful as you may form a calcium carbonate precipitate. You should be also monitoring calcium and magnesium when you are adjusting dKH. Link to comment
Drs1685 Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 I haven't tested mag, but my calcium seems good(420) in the tank and in the new water so I haven't had to dose any of that. Instant ocean is the brand I'm using but here's a question, do you think the age of salt could have anything to do with this? I got out of the hobby about 2 years ago, but I kept a brand new box of salt I had, it's just been sitting around, it had a few clumps when I opened it up but not too bad, you think this could be throwing anything off? Link to comment
CJJon Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 I haven't tested mag, but my calcium seems good(420) in the tank and in the new water so I haven't had to dose any of that. Instant ocean is the brand I'm using but here's a question, do you think the age of salt could have anything to do with this? I got out of the hobby about 2 years ago, but I kept a brand new box of salt I had, it's just been sitting around, it had a few clumps when I opened it up but not too bad, you think this could be throwing anything off? Yes. Hard lumpy salt should be discarded IMO. Especially so if only using a portion of the mix. If you are set on using it, break up all the clumps (a sieve might help) and mix the entire box of salt well. Mix the salt well before any subsequent use. The different things that make up the salt don't stay mixed together well. They also may clump together differently. This may lead to whacky numbers (high or low) each time you scoop out a few gallons worth. Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 dosing via limewater as top-off will help. What are you keeping in the tank currently? Link to comment
Drs1685 Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 Just a few small sps frags at the moment, so depletion shouldn't be a issue yet, that's what was confusing me, I thought maybe it was my rodi water that had low kh, I didn't realize the levels come from the salt, reading more about it makes sense. I'm going to mix a fresh unopened bag break up all the clumps up and mix as much as I can before putting in water, if the numbers are still out of wack I will just discard it all and start fresh. Link to comment
GMay Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Salts do not go bad. They will clump because they are hygroscopic and thus adsorb moisture from the air. If you breaj=k up the clumps and mix it thuroughly it should be fine. What is your dKH on freshly mixed salts? Also if you have healthy coraline algae they can comsume considrable quatities of alkalinity and calcium as well. Hard to know what else to suggest without more details on your system. Happy Reefing! Link to comment
Drs1685 Posted May 5, 2015 Author Share Posted May 5, 2015 Salts do not go bad. They will clump because they are hygroscopic and thus adsorb moisture from the air. If you breaj=k up the clumps and mix it thuroughly it should be fine. What is your dKH on freshly mixed salts? Also if you have healthy coraline algae they can comsume considrable quatities of alkalinity and calcium as well. Hard to know what else to suggest without more details on your system. Happy Reefing! Yea it's about a 4dkh when I tested it 24hrs after mixing, and the calcium was close to 400 so something was def out of wack. Don't have much coralline algae or corals Once I dosed ,everything has been stable so it's definatly has something to do with the salt. I'm going to mix all of the clumps out of a fresh bag and make a fresh mix and go from there, I suspect everything should be fine. Link to comment
CJJon Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Salts do not go bad. They will clump because they are hygroscopic and thus adsorb moisture from the air. If you breaj=k up the clumps and mix it thuroughly it should be fine. What is your dKH on freshly mixed salts? Also if you have healthy coraline algae they can comsume considrable quatities of alkalinity and calcium as well. Hard to know what else to suggest without more details on your system. Happy Reefing! Yes they do. Clumped salt due to moisture will lose its buffering ability that will cause alk/stability problems. Clumpy may also form insoluble compounds from components in the salt that react with each other. These components are at very high concentrations, which leads to formation of calcium carbonate, mag carbonate, mag sulfate, etc. Don't use rock-hard lumpy salt. Link to comment
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