dKH going down too quick?

OK so I got my dKH up to around 12 or 13 as of Sunday. I tested my water just now, and it's back down to 7 or 8 already! Wtf? Is that normal?

I used Baking Soda to raise it.

 

What are your other levels at? Like cal, ph, mag, alk?

 

Doesn't alk = dkh? Aren't they one and the same?

My calcium is at 300 (low I know)
Phosphate at 0
Nitrate 20
I don't actually have a test kit for the rest, and I know that's bad but my tank is in "rehab" right now. I have a pH additive that says it boosts it to 8.3 and keeps it there even if I overdose. And I've used it once so far. So I'm assuming it's 8.3.

Also I know my Nitrate is high, but I've been over feeding in an attempt to fatten up my Tang. I'm doing weekly water changes - 6 gallons. I also just setup a refugium/sump almost 2 weeks ago. Right now the light over my fuge is on 24/7, and I have Feather Culerpa (sp?) and Red Grape macro algae in there and I'm hoping those will govern my nitrates as well.

 

Yes DKh and Alk are one in the same, but so is PH. If your alk/dkh is low, your ph just might be too. I also have that seachem ph booster and everytime I used it it raises not only my ph but the alk as well. You need to test for mag as well. Try to raise your cal to 400-420, mag to 1200-1300 and dkh at 8-12. Some ppl like those numbers to be much higher, but thats the way I have my tank. Hope this Helps, Luna

 

What do you do to maintain those parameters,Lunatik?

 

It does help, and thank you very much!

I do feel kind of naked without the other tests, like pH and ammonia and nitrite (oh my!!). Guess that will be my excuse for visiting the LFS this weekend.

 

I do 20gals water changes every week, I pour some Kent Marine Liquid calcuim and some mag liquid in the containers. I use natural sea water. During the week when evaporation occurs, I use r/o make up water with Kent Marine R/O right. Once a day I pour some reef solution for trace elements and thats about it. Oh, if my PH falls, I prepare some baking soda. What about you?

 

At this point I am doing a weekly 10% water change, daily top offs with RO/DI, and daily dosing with B-ionic two part Calcium/Alk buffer...I was concerned earlier this week that my Alk was below 6 until I found out that the test I was using was not giving me an accurate reading....

 

Becareful with the B-ionic! I use to use that myself until I was over dosing it. I almost killed alot of stuff in my tank. Dont get me wrong, its a good product, just dont over do it like I did. I dont use it anymore b/c all I need is the cal part and not the alk. Ever since I over dosed, I never have a problem with my DKH and my ALK. Thats why Im buying the Kent Marine's liquid calcuim now. The cal part of that two part system is actually pretty good, look at the ingredients. It has alot of the trace elements that you need anyways.

 

for you guys using the liquid dosing you should really try out the two part solution. for like 17 bucks shipped you get 1 gallon of calcium 1 gallon of alkalinity and enough mag to balance it out and the receipe and dosing are all on the the twopartsolution.com site there even is a video to make it, super simple.