diff between ALK and KH.....Sharks ....anyone!

deucey

Member
Hi....i was doing some water testing today....i have all my parameters my test kit will test.....here they are:
Calcium 400ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Nitrite <0.3mg/l
Ph ~8-8.3
Ammonia 0mg/l
KH 9 dH German degrees hardness
carbon dioxide 2.7mg/l
My question is...my kit does not have an Alk test so is the KH the same as Alk...if my carbonate hardness or KH is good as mine is according to the test then does that mean my Alk is good....and i can't seem to get my Ca level up....that is why i am wondering if there is a prob with my Alk....
thanks.....hope this isn't to long....
 

deucey

Member
is there not anyone that knows this....sammy...any sharks out there....any other chemists.......haha......
 

deucey

Member
no Wamp i haven't.....maybe i need too....sharky...haha.... <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" />
 

deucey

Member
sorry Wamp had to do it....that was the firt time you have wrote to me since you b/c a shark....i know you will prob get me tomarrow at work.....
 

ruaround

Active Member
With all the talk of pH, alkalinity, KH and calcium goin on I had to search it out to see if I understood it all. Check out this link:
<a href="http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aquariacentral.com%2Farticles%2Fcalcium.shtml" target="_blank">http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?s ite=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aquariacentral.com%2Farticles%2Fcalcium.shtml</a>
In the article it states that with higher pH it is harder to keep calcium up because of some methods of adding calcium the pH may go up.
 
For the layman and aquarist alk kh and dkh are all the same.
dKH(degress carbonate hardness} is a reading of KH(I believe german for Carbonate hardness) a measure of alkalinity.
There are three commom ways in the hobby to measure this in ppm, meg/L and dkh
50ppm= 1meg/L =2.8dKH
<a href="http://www.ozreef.org/reference/alkalinity_conversion.html" target="_blank">http://www.ozreef.org/reference/alkalinity_conversion.html</a>
Your reading of 9 dKH is fine.
 

deucey

Member
WOW trailer trash that is an awsome tank you have....and i must say that that info on KH and Alk was very helpful....thanks.....and thanks to everyone else too.....
 
Top