ph and kh a bit low help...

Civicdemon

Civicdemon

Go Big Or Go Home !
What can i use to raise my ph and kh. My ph is at 7.9 and kh is betwen 7 and 8 useto be up at 10 and 11 but not any more since i now do water changes every 2 weeks and not every week. All other perametter are spot on.
 
Both of those are still within normal limits, so I honestly wouldn't worry about it at this point unless you have several hard corals in your tank that are starting to eat up the kH. For now I'd start testing your alk and calcium once a week and see how stable it is over the course of the two weeks between water changes - if it stays between 7-8 you should be just fine, if you notice that it starts to drop towards the end of the second week before you do your water change, then you can consider dosing (but will want to check your calcium as well to know whether you need to dose one or both).

For pH, you are also in an acceptable range, but if you are concerned about it you can try running the light on your 'fuge 24/7 (you might already being doing this, I'm trying to recall from your other threads). pH tends to be highest at the end of the day after the lights have been on for awhile. If you find your pH dropping below 7.7 then I'd look into adding a buffer, but as long as you are at 7.9 you are just fine!
 
Before I started dosing for alkalinity, which will also bring the PH up some. I'd do a water change and see if that brought it up.
Why mess with dosing when a water change will likely fix the problem?
 
I had just recently done a water change on sunday, this is the weekend i dont do one. i have ben keeping an eye on things and nothing seems to have droped any more yet, in fact ones i opened the windows up and i aimed the returns up to make even more riples in my tank it seems things went up a little. Im going to turn my skimmer up a bit also so i get more wet skimm and see if this helps.
 
You guys think if i add a fan on the sump Also it would help ????/ i have a fan on the top of the DT since the lights are so hot but i notice some people have them in the sump also.
 
If the tanks running hot, then a fan over the sump will help, since the warmer water usually goes into the sump any how. But it's also gonna increase evaporation.
 
I think the effects you are seeing might be related more to oxygen exchange than cooling. I met a guy recently who runs an amazing reef tank and his only issue has been keeping his pH up - he has dealt with this by basically setting a mechanism for water to be pumped into a separate bucket in his sump with tons of air stones to agitate it and the air exchange helps keeps his pH in check. I don't really know enough about how this helps, but thought I'd share anyway :) At the very least though it doesn't sound like your levels are dropping so I wouldn't worry about dosing at this point.

As a side note, I've seen a lot of posts recently about alk being low or high (and I also have been having problems) - I'm wondering if companies did something to change salt formulas in recent months or if we've all just gotten buckets that have been sitting around for awhile and as a result our starting alks aren't the same as they were previously.... just a thought :)
 
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There's been quiet a few changes in the salts here lately. Some venders buying out others and some changing the way their salts are mixed. At least that's what we've been hearing at the LFS.
And yeah, we've been having the same problems at the store.
 
Well i just got some kalkwisser and i mixt some up but Im worried im not doing it right. I mix it let it sit over night but i dont really get the clear in the middle, mine stay cloudy, i do get the residue on the top, but no clear middle. Am i mixing it wrong, i usually add about 3/4 of a gollon of ro/di water then i add 1/2 a teaspoon of kalk, then i mix with a plastic spoon for a minute or 2. Then i just let it sit. But im scared to use it since i have not seen the clear mixture it says we should be using.
 
I'd be really careful with kalkwasser - you can easily use too much of it and crash your tank when it precipitates out. Read Biff's 90g downgrade thread which has her kalk crash experience in it.
 
im planning on setting it up on a dripper to the up most slow of a drip i can get, and i plan on testing about 5 to 6 hours after then test again. But first im going to see how many drop come out in a minute and then figure out how much would come out in a hour. from there i can pretty much tell if its to much. Here a picture of what my mixture looks like after removing just the center portion.

DSC_0184-1.jpg


See its still cloudy and this is soposto be the clear part.
 
well after i said i was going to have the LFS check my readings it turns out my MAg, was a little low at about 1200 and my calcium also at 380. so im not planning on dolsing on a daily basis just trying to get everything back up then ill just dose as stuff starts to go down.
 
Have you considered dosing a regular old liquid calcium supplement? Why dose kalk instead of something like Kent's Liquid Reactor?
 
well i figured it bring the KH up and PH also and i could use that so why not.
lol maybe im wrong but IDK. Everything i have read says its pretty safe to use
as long as i add it slowly.
 
But your kH is in an acceptable range at 7. Unless you have a heavily stocked stony coral tank there is no need to worry about your kH, calc, or mag. And your pH while on the lower end of the scale is still in an acceptable range. If it were me, I wouldn't worry about dosing because the risk of a disaster with dosing far outweighs the potential benefits at this point.
 
According to other people with the small amount being only at 1/2 a gallon and ussing a 1/2 teaspoon of mixture theres no way of over doesing as long as i dont dump in the hole amount at ones. they said that even if it all goes in in 8 hours it still should not do any harm since its so little.
 

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