Having KH issues - even with Kalkwasser Reactor - @ 6.75 now

S

Spar

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I thought that a kalkwasser reactor would keep KH consistent? It is keeping my calcium high and consistent @ 460.

I get my KH up to 9 or so, and then a week later it is down to 7.

I went out and bought a new testkit this past week to verify it, and get the same result.

Any advice on what to do?
 
HI
First question what kind of test kit are you using and what is the expiration date if any.
And two what is your magnesium reading?
and three if you use buffer to get the alk right, does it still fall faster than the calcium?
This will help us help you
Joe
 
i am using AP testkits. the new one I bought has a manufacturer date of 3-06. old one was 4-04 and both give the same reading.

Mg is 1200, so about 180 under the 3x calcium mark.

i just upped my KH by 1d using baking soda, so I will check tomorrow what the impact on Ca is.
 
How much kalk are you adding to your kalk reactor? How many gallons per day are you evaporating? Sounds like the kalk reactor is not large enough for your tank.

Try bringing the ca down a bit as well, having a high ca or alk can make keeping the ca/alk balance difficult.
 
the kalk amount varies, but seems to be being used up quickly.

The pH in the reactor is 12.5 about an hour or two after mixing.

I only add 1.5 gallon's per day of kalk. My auto-top-off runs independtantly. But to answer that question, I have about 5-6 gallons of evaporation per day in total.

I assume the only way to bring down calcium is to stop kalk'ing for a few days, right?
 
At this point, I would just try to increase your Alk to about 12 dkh. You can use various products with seachem's reef builder products or cheaply with Leslie's Alkalinity Up or Baking Soda. If you use BS, take about 3 tablespoons in 20 Oz of tank water and drip it in the sump in high flow. I have plenty of IV tubing if you need some to get it to drip. PM me and I can make arrangements.

Keep on Rechecking. The Kalk will continue to maintain your current Ca and Alk levels. Hold off on dosing for a couple of days to let your Ca get to 400-420. With the BS your alk should climb. If you dosed Ca alone, that could have caused your Alk to drop.

Hope this helps.
 
12 dkh Ryan? Any reason why so extreme? I'm finding that my reef looks a lot better at 8-9.

Just had a thought Spar, what salt are you using? Do you dose anything into your salt mix? If you are using Oceanic, you may need to start adding baking powder to bring up the Alk. IO is just the opposite.

Also, if you are only adding 1.5 gallons of kalk a day, that may not be enough to keep up with your alk demands. If your tank is primarily sps, then you may want to rethink how you have your auto-top off. Do you know how much your tank uses per day of alk?
 
I am going to start monitoring KH dropping over the next week daily.

I used BS yesterday to increase KH by 1d. I only plan on getting it to 9d though. 12 seems pretty high.

I really only have softies and LPS in my tank. only a couple sps pieces. so my calcium uptake may not be very high.

i will still cut off my kalk for a few days to get it down to 420-430 area.

I use Tropic Marin salt. not sure what the kh is, but think I remember testing it at 9.
 
With the Ca so high, I would supersaturate the water to maximize calcification.

What is the Ph of your water? Just curious.


EDIT: I assumed that you had more stonies. Let the Ca fall as discussed, continue to drip the BS. Once you have your Alk up to About 8-10, check your Ca. At that time, if all parameters are at a good target range, continue to drip Kalkwasser :p.
 
If I want calcium around 440-450 in the end, should I go ahead and start dosing Magnesium now? Get it to 1320-1350?

On a side note, forgot to mention that I talked to Marc last night and he said that KH has a quick tendency to drop quickly when changing out PO4 absorbant material. I did this last week, so a drop of 2d is not unlikely.

I will still continue to look at trending of KH dropping.

pH was 8.25 during this. Used to be 8.4-8.45 during my KH of 9d days.
 
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