Having trouble maintaining KH and CA

Hello,

I have done allot of research on this subject but for some reason I just cannot get it right. My tank will not maintain a KH level of 7 or higher. Recently I purchased crushed coral and added it to my fluval filter but that has not helped.

I have read that using buffers are not a good idea, but after speaking to someone at the fish store I frequent they suggested I use Brightwell's reefcode A&B buffer. I user the buffer last night and tested my KH today and still KH is only at 6!

I don't understand what I am doing wrong. I am using RO water, and reef crystals as my salt. When making source water my KH is at 9ish, but it seems that no matter how many rapid water changes I do it never seems to raise the KH in the fish tank itself. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

 

Do you have good surface agitation? How about a skimmer?
Both of these will inject oxygen into your water giving you a higher PH.

 

Hi and Welcome.

Please post your parameters of pH, magnesium level and what you are using to test.

Also the size and age of your tank as well as the list of fish.

We love pictures here as well, hint hint.

 

I wish I had a picture for you and I will try and get one.

Unfortunately I do not have a magnesium test kit so I will have to pick one up.

My tank has been up for a little over a year. I have a 46 gallon bowfront with a little over 50 lbs of live rock. I have a hang on back corallife superskimmer 2 protein skimmer. Currently I am running crushed coral (tried to naturally raise my KH) and phosgard in my canister filter (Been getting algae). I use reef crystals as my salt mix and generally my source water has a KH of 9.

My PH is about 8.4
CA is now 450
I finally got KH too just about hit 8 but I had to buffer the hell out of my tank to get it there. I will likely test it tomorrow and it will be back to 7 or lower.

My nitrite/nitrates/amonia are all at 0.

Here is what confuses me. I have been doing rapid water changes all week to keep my KH up. If my source water is at 9, why does it not elevate the levels in my tank?

 

Welcome to 3reef

+1 to Corailline's post

 

Crap.... please ignore my previous post.....

Magnesium levels are what you need to check. I struggled with getting my Ca up for the longest time until I found out my Mg was dreadfully low. The higher your Mg is, the more Ca your water can hold before precipitating out.

 

The mg level may hold the key to your alk level.

With that said I see no problem with using one of the many A/B products available to maintain a higher alk. Many people do with good results as long as you continue to test for what you are attempting elevate and make changes to the system slowly.

Hope that helps a little.

 

+1 on all the above posts

SG= the amount of ions dissolved in solution
Magnesium is a binder and will help to hold both calcium and carbonates in solution

if your magnesiums is to low, you get a swing effect between Ca and Alk

so if you do manage to increase your DKH, you may find your Calcium drops - at approx 20ppm Calcium for every 1 degree of DKH increased

so having that Magnesium test kit, is key to working out exactly what levels of the other 2 ions can be achieved in your set up

Steve

 

Guys.... but if his CA is at 450, doesn't that imply his mg must be somewhere around 1350 at least?

 

I used to think so and that Mag must be at least 3 x the Calcium level
Im not sure anymore

you can exceed the 1/3rd ratio of Calc to Mag - people with mag levels of 1300 or less can exceed 500ppm calcium
and often in these cases its the Alkalinity/ carbonates that wont stay in solution

Steve