Help With KH

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Thanks Myka! Can you look at my last post as things have changed for the better and now just looking to tweek the calcium reactor and if I should put the kalk reactor back on line. Sorry, forgot to mention. Since my first post I have switched new test kits. Elos now for KH

You're welcome. How much difference did you find between the Elos and Salifert?

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Ok so got my kh down to 10 and have been maintaining that for about a 2 weeks with my calcium reactor back on line. Now my cal is at 360 and i'm running my mag a liitle high right now at 1500. I have yet to put my kalk reactor back on line. If I do will it bring up my calcium and make my alk to high again? My calcium reactor is set at 20 bubbles per minute and the effluent is at 40ml per minute. Any suggestions on tweeking the calcium reactor?

Is that 10 dKH with the Elos? You should aim to be in the 7's for dKH with an Elos kit. Turn off the reactor for a day or a few (depending how many corals you have) to lower the alkalinity further.

Calcium and alkalinity won't magically balance themselves just by turning the reactors off or on. Both calcium and kalk reactors add calcium and alkalinity in fairly balanced amounts, so turning these reactors on or off will raise or drop both elements at a fairly even rate. You can't get either of these reactors to just dose one element, the reactors dose both simultaneously.

You need to dose calcium manually to bring it up around 400-420 ppm to be in balance with the alkalinity in the 7's. Kent Turbo Calcium or Fauna Marin Calcium chloride are two of my favourite calcium products. For alkalinity Seachem Reef buffer 8.3 and Fauna Marin Sodium bicarbonate are my two favourite alkalinity products. You should have a calcium and alkalinity product on hand at all times as calcium and alkalinity will get out of balance on occasion and need to be manually dosed to avoid situations like you have now. There will be times when you will need to dose alkalinity to bump it up a tad to keep it in balance, and there will be times (like now) that you need to dose calcium to bring it into balance.

You understand what I mean by balanced calcium and alkalinity?

If you go test calcium and alklinity right now, then dose calcium to bring it up by 25 ppm or so, then test alkalinity again you will find that the alkalinity will have dropped a bit. By dosing the calcium that is needed you will help to bring the alkalinity down as well.