Alkalinity and carbonate hardness question?
- Thread starter grantman
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wannabfish
Member
from my understanding, yes! its the waters ability to keep a steady ph, and has a direct corralation to how much the water is capable of absorbing as far as minerals and nutrients such as calcium and etc. i could look up a more detailed explanation of the alk. chemistry of water for you if you need, but that is as much as i could give you off the top of my head.
grantman
Member
My lfs owner was telling me that the reason my corals may not be growing as fast as they should be is because my alkalinity may be low. He said the alkalinity number has to be at a certain point so that the corals can use the calcium in the water. I thought that dkh and ph were measures of alkalinity but he said that they make a seperate test for alkalinity so I am shall we say confused. By the way I really like this lfs guy. He has his personal tank in the store and it is beautiful. He seems to know his stuff.
squidd
Active Member
They are very closely related but not the same...
Carbonate hardness /temporary hardness is the amount of carbonate and bicarbonate in the water...which is close to alkalinity but.
Alkalinity includes borate and phosphate and other compounds...
Hardness/permanent hardness is the sum of calcium and magnesium in the water...
Carbonate hardness /temporary hardness is the amount of carbonate and bicarbonate in the water...which is close to alkalinity but.
Alkalinity includes borate and phosphate and other compounds...
Hardness/permanent hardness is the sum of calcium and magnesium in the water...
wannabfish
Member
im sure your lfs guy knows his stuff, but i think he confused you a bit. Ph and alkalinity are different. alkalinity is more or less the waters ability to resist change in your ph. but to make things simple, let me say that to keep your corals happy and growing, you need a ph test kit, you will need alkalinity test kit, a calcium test kit, and some form of a buffer and calcium additive to add to your tank. Let me give you some numbers to shoot for, although this isnt gospel, just a figure to start with.
keep your ph at 8.2 to 8.4
keep your alkalinity levels around 3.5 to 5 or 7-12 dkh
and i would recommend keeping calcium levels 450 or so
Once again, those numbers arent a must or gospel, just a good range to aim for. if after testing your water and your ranges arent in that vicinity, remember to make adjustments gradually. hope that helped a little, and im sure there are people on here to help you out much more than i.
keep your ph at 8.2 to 8.4
keep your alkalinity levels around 3.5 to 5 or 7-12 dkh
and i would recommend keeping calcium levels 450 or so
Once again, those numbers arent a must or gospel, just a good range to aim for. if after testing your water and your ranges arent in that vicinity, remember to make adjustments gradually. hope that helped a little, and im sure there are people on here to help you out much more than i.
wannabfish
Member
your dkh reading is alkalinity. :cheer: number looks good, and calcium level looks good. as long as your ph is 8.2 to 8.4 which id imagine it is from your dkh reading. Assuming all your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate is good, your water chemistry should be good enough for thriving and growing corals. you may want to make sure you have proper lighting, water flow, and feeding the corrals properly as well.
grantman
Member
I have 250watt mh ushio's. The coral that I have that I think should be growing faster is this one. I actually don't know if it is a fast growing coral or not. I just feel that it should be bigger after seven months. The other issue is my zoos. I have one rock that is full of the zoos but they have not "migrated" to any other rock.
:cheer:
