11 DKH to high?

JMLewis

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Switched over to Red Sea coral pro did a pretty large water change.

CA: 460
MG: 1380
Alk: 11 dkh!!!

Have always kept my DKH around 9, so my eyes kinda bugged outa my head when i saw 11...my purple monti cap looks like the tips are a bit white, not sure if theyre burning from the higher Alk. Gonna keep an eye on it, definitely not gonna dose anything until it drops.

Dont have a high enough damand to dose 2 part yet. I dose kalk with my topoff so in theory it wont drop if im correct. Dont have the highest demand system, 5 x 3 branch frags and some monti cap so kalk typically keeps up.

Should i be worried?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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11 dKH is fine (IMO) unless you have a ULNS (ultra low nutrient) SPS system.

But if you want the alkalinity lower, you can add less limewater into your top off. :)
 

Zacco

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Stop dosing Kalk. Kalk will only increase your alk. if your trying to bring it down. Your Alk. level will come down naturally as the corals use up the carbonate. Only dose a "Calcium Chloride" supplement if your worried about keeping your calcium levels in check. Once your Alk. has dropped to a lower level, return to using Kalk. or a 2 part dosing/buffer solution. It seems to me that your dosing too much when your tank doesn't have a demand for it. 460mg/L=ppm of calcium is a little on the high side. Should be around 420. It's important to know exactly how much calcium and Alk your tank is consuming on a daily basis before adding any supplementation.
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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Stop dosing Kalk. Kalk will only increase your alk. if your trying to bring it down. Your Alk. level will come down naturally as the corals use up the carbonate. Only dose a "Calcium Chloride" supplement to keep your Ca. in check as your Alk.drops. Once your Alk. has dropped to a lower level, return to using Kalk. or a 2 part dosing/buffer solution.

FWIW, there's no need to dose calcium chloride in this situation. Calcium, will only drop from 460 to 446 ppm if he just doses less (or no) limewater to allows alkalinity to drop from 11 dKH to his target of 9 dKH. :)
 

Zacco

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FWIW, there's no need to dose calcium chloride in this situation. Calcium, will only drop from 460 to 446 ppm if he just doses less (or no) limewater to allows alkalinity to drop from 11 dKH to his target of 9 dKH. :)
Thanks Randy. I did edit my post when I saw his calcium was at 460ppm. Yes, no need to dose calcium chloride in this particular situation as the calcium level should be dropped from 460 to a lower ppm. This will occur naturally as the dosing of Kalk is reduced or eliminated.
 

David M.

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I've been using red sea coral pro for years, and my alk has always been 11 dkh. Never had any issues.
 

Doobie65

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So im just starting a reef tank and I cant find an answer to this question- What are these different DKH levels for? Some salts 7-8 some 8-9 some 9-11. What, the higher the number for more corals in the tank? Please explain as this is so confusing lol. Thanks
 

islander84

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So im just starting a reef tank and I cant find an answer to this question- What are these different DKH levels for? Some salts 7-8 some 8-9 some 9-11. What, the higher the number for more corals in the tank? Please explain as this is so confusing lol. Thanks
That is your alkalinity level, measured in dkh(Carbonate Hardness). Some salts have a higher level as a means of replenishing alkalinity through water changes instead of supplemental dosing.
 

Doobie65

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That is your alkalinity level, measured in dkh(Carbonate Hardness). Some salts have a higher level as a means of replenishing alkalinity through water changes instead of supplemental dosing.
So if I want to replinish this by water changes then I need a higher alk salt? I use the tropic marin pro reef. It says 7-8. Mind you I only have zoas and mushrooms right now and 5 head trumpet coral.
 

islander84

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So if I want to replinish this by water changes then I need a higher alk salt? I use the tropic marin pro reef. It says 7-8. Mind you I only have zoas and mushrooms right now and 5 head trumpet coral.
Correct, test your levels to calculate your systems demand though. You don’t want your dkh too high. Soft corals like mushrooms and zoas should not cause your dkh to drop.
 

Fishbird

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So if I want to replinish this by water changes then I need a higher alk salt? I use the tropic marin pro reef. It says 7-8. Mind you I only have zoas and mushrooms right now and 5 head trumpet coral.

I think you'll find that many (all?) experienced reefers will say that the most important thing is to keep your alkalinity stable. Any alkalinity within a certain range is acceptable, you just want to keep it steady. If you get to the point where water changes with your chosen salt don't maintain the alkalinity because your corals are using so much, then you maintain it by dosing two part or kalkwasser or some other thing, and you can keep using the same salt.
 

Fishbird

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Correct, test your levels to calculate your systems demand though. You don’t want your dkh too high. Soft corals like mushrooms and zoas should not cause your dkh to drop.

Isn't trying to dose alkalinity by constantly changing salts a very imprecise way of doing it? The OP would have to figure out how many gallons of water they'd need to change every week or twice a week, and hope that their chosen higher alk salt would be able to actually raise the alkalinity without having to be a very different salinity, causing more problems?
 

islander84

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Isn't trying to dose alkalinity by constantly changing salts a very imprecise way of doing it? The OP would have to figure out how many gallons of water they'd need to change every week or twice a week, and hope that their chosen higher alk salt would be able to actually raise the alkalinity without having to be a very different salinity, causing more problems?

I don’t recommend using WC as a method of maintaining ALk, CA or Mag, I do recommend WC to help maintain some trace elements though. Supplementing is one reason, but there are other reasons that salts have different dkh as well like maintaining different levels of dkh.
 

Fishbird

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ok cool. I was just confused because when the OP asked if they wanted to replenish their alkalinity, should they use a higher alkalinity salt and you said yes I thought. But I agree, water changes to replenish trace elements are important.
 

blasterman

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Isn't trying to dose alkalinity by constantly changing salts a very imprecise way of doing it?

Works for calcium. Not for alk....or I should say not well.

Salt mixes sit in two categories; those who are going to dose and those that don't. Reef Crystals for instance isn't designed for reefers that are going to dose because RC mixes with very high alk....I've tested it as high a 13. I tested one bag of Coralife that hit 15 dKH.

Mixes with high dKH content (they just add more sodium bicarbonate / baking soda) are intended for tanks where you only do water changes. So, they crank a lot of alk in it because alk is going to drop like a rock anyways and a lot of people that use it only do water changes. Sometimes pretty infrequently.

If you are doing dosing / reactor or a fussy SPS keeper you will probably use a salt mix with much lower dKH. Often called 'pro' mix as kind of an unofficial industry label. A lot easier to raise dKH a point or so vs start out with dKH well over 10 if you have a tank you want stable at a dKH of 8 or less.
 

islander84

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I never replied to the OP, my replies were to doobie65 Question. But if your system has a low alk demand you can replenish it by WC. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it on a sps dom tank....
ok cool. I was just confused because when the OP asked if they wanted to replenish their alkalinity, should they use a higher alkalinity salt and you said yes I thought. But I agree, water changes to replenish trace elements are important.
 

Fishbird

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Yeah sorry I was referring to Doobie as the OP since they were the one who got this thread going again. It’s all good, I just wanted to clarify that you weren’t saying they should switch from their current salt to a high alk salt in order to maintain alkalinity in their tank since I thought that’s what they were asking.
 

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