Putting the questions upfront:
1. Why did the dKH initially continue to rise with no dosing and a 1g daily AWC with 7.5dKH salt mix?
2. After 14 days with no dosing and a 1g daily AWC with 7.5dKH salt mix, why is it still not steadily coming down?
Details:
I have a mature 7+ year old mixed 34g reef aquarium. Over the last several months I have been preparing for a ULM new build. Mid august, as part of that transition, I implemented an AWC and decided to switch to the Triton method using GHL KH Director. I was using IO Reef Salt and unaware of it's high 11dKH. The AWC was doing 1g per day and my tank dKH was around 8 and Triton Core 7 supplements were being added to the tank. By the end of August, my dKH was getting to 10 with the minimum dose (I hadn't suspected the salt yet). So in September, after I was comfortable, I switched over to having the KH Director automatically adjust the dose with a target of 8dKH. With the KH Director controlling the dosing (dosing nothing due to high dKH), the numbers came back down and were stable around 8dKH. Then by early October, the tank was consistently getting higher and higher dKH and no dosing was happening. I decided to test my AWC water and found what I thought was the source of the high dKH. So I decided to switch up my salt mix to Brightwell Neomarine which has a 7.5 dKH. Switch was made 2 weeks ago. During the 1st couple days after the switch, the dKH in my tank kept rising. After a week of the new salt mix, I hit 10.6dKH. 10 days after that high, I am at 9.3 and it's been bouncing and not a steady decline.
1. Why did the dKH initially continue to rise with no dosing and a 1g daily AWC with 7.5dKH salt mix?
2. After 14 days with no dosing and a 1g daily AWC with 7.5dKH salt mix, why is it still not steadily coming down?
Details:
I have a mature 7+ year old mixed 34g reef aquarium. Over the last several months I have been preparing for a ULM new build. Mid august, as part of that transition, I implemented an AWC and decided to switch to the Triton method using GHL KH Director. I was using IO Reef Salt and unaware of it's high 11dKH. The AWC was doing 1g per day and my tank dKH was around 8 and Triton Core 7 supplements were being added to the tank. By the end of August, my dKH was getting to 10 with the minimum dose (I hadn't suspected the salt yet). So in September, after I was comfortable, I switched over to having the KH Director automatically adjust the dose with a target of 8dKH. With the KH Director controlling the dosing (dosing nothing due to high dKH), the numbers came back down and were stable around 8dKH. Then by early October, the tank was consistently getting higher and higher dKH and no dosing was happening. I decided to test my AWC water and found what I thought was the source of the high dKH. So I decided to switch up my salt mix to Brightwell Neomarine which has a 7.5 dKH. Switch was made 2 weeks ago. During the 1st couple days after the switch, the dKH in my tank kept rising. After a week of the new salt mix, I hit 10.6dKH. 10 days after that high, I am at 9.3 and it's been bouncing and not a steady decline.
