Help with Alkalinity

[koldreef]

I've been having a hard time balancing out Calcium, Alk, and Ph over the past week. Last week my levels were:
14 dKH, 8.4 pH, 320 Calcium. I did large water change and added some calcium, have been adding 1 scoop of Tropic marine calcium/day in hopes to remidy the problem.
1 week later, my levels are:
14dKH, 8.4 pH, and 360 Calcium. I'm not sure how to drop down the dKH without changing everything else.. (or increase calcium to 400-420 where it was initialy..)
Little history: 3 weeks ago I got pH tested and it was 7.4 *prepairs for flaming* (So being the noob I am, I added some buffer according to the back of the bottle... at once.) Soooo after doing that... my pH jumped up to 8.4. Great, then I tested dKH and it was 14. Not sure how to get this down.

I had been adding Stronium/ alkalinity buffers but stopped after my levels got out of whack (And obviosly ph buffer..). I'm still adding Iodine and Trace elements though. Should I stop adding or add more, when should I add more.

 

[dawman]

A lot of PH buffers will also raise the ALK . I use Seachem buffer 8.4 and doesn`t raise the alkalinity .

 

[promisetbg]

Stop using buffer, and do not add iodine{what other trace elements?}. It is way too easy to overdose iodine, and test kits for it are not accurate. Water changes with a good salt mix,and the elements in a two part are enough.Use a 2 part A & B in equal parts..BUT for now...just add some CA and it will lower the Alk.