Raising dKH

Do you have corals etc in your tank Casey?

If so, you dont want to be raising DKH by more than 1 degree in any 24 hour period
this is more important if your keeping SPS corals, they can suffer from Alk burn ( the tips go very white and the polyps dont come out)

Your mag level is going to influence the balance between DKH and Calcium
whilst your DKH was 7 your calc was 450
when you raised the DKH some of your calcium preciptated out of solution
typically this manifests as for every 1 degree of DKH raised your Calc will drop by 20ppm

which means based on your current mag level, if you then decided to dose calcium to get it back to 450ppm, your DKH would probably drop to 8

Mag - dont dose more than enough to increase by 100ppm in any 24 hour period
Ca - dont dose more than enough to increase by 20ppm in any 24 hour period
DKH - dont dose more than enough to increase by 1 degree in any 24 hour period

if you stick on the conservative side of the above generally accepted principles
then you should not experience any problems which can result from rapid changing of chemical composition of your aquarium water

Steve

 

You should also always raise your Magnesium first, before going after Calcium and Alkalinity. Without the proper level of Magnesium, you will just chase Calcium and Alkalinity. I like to keep my Mag between 1400 and 1450. Might seem high, but it sure does make it easy to keep Calcium and Alkalinity where I want them.

 

excellent advice from both

 

Yes I do have a mixed tank of SPS, LPS, and Leathers.

I did raise my dKH too fast based on everyones comments. I raised it about 5 in 24hrs. Whoops.

I have always struggled raising my Mg. I believe this is because of the salt that I am using, Oceanic. I am finishing up my last container of salt and then I will switch to IO reef crystals. I have been dosing Kent Mg for the last few months. I started out every other day dosing but now have gone every day. Once again, I have been 1280-1350 since day one.

I will not dose Mg today because of the raise of my readings until I can get to my LFS tomorrow for testings.

My readings today are:

Ph 8.4
dKh 12
Ca 440
Mg ???

One day I will by a Mg test.

So far I don't see anything unhappy so maybe I got lucky during dosing. In fact, everything is extremely happy so I guess I am really lucky.

I am still very shocked that a 1/3 dose worked this well. This is my first time dosing dKh so I have learned a lot.