kh/gh problems

[fishy all the time]

Okay I am having a little problem understanding this one. We just had a clam die and our elegance seems to be looking horrible. Everything else looks great. I thought this was strange but then I thought maybe not. The clam was only 3 weeks old tops. It was in a 75 gallon with 300 watt MH and 72 watts pc. Anyway, I tested everything. Everything came out like normal. The things that I noticed that were off are all realated. The pH was 8.0 which is normally what it runs at. This time though my calcium was only 300, I usually run it a little higher. My biggest worry was my kh. The test kit that I have says that my dkh is under 1. Now normally it is around 7. I am not sure what to do since this has never been a problem. If I calcium and a buffer to raise th pH will it go up?

 

[barracuda]

Your water parameters are way to low. PH should be 8.2 - 8.4, alk should be 7-12dKh, Ca - 400-450, better at 450. Alkalinity is responsible for PH stability. Alk also affects Ca saturation. Usually very high calcium levels will lower Alk and vice versa.This is from my experience.There are several products which will adjust your alkalinity. Seachem has product called Reef builder. You can also use other buffers like Seachem's reef buffer or Kent Marine buffers. From what i understand you cannot adjust Ca and Alk at the same time. Start with alkalinity and then when Alk is set, start adjusting Ca level. This maybe done by adding Kent Matine's Turbo Calcium, but very acurately.
How do you maintain your Ca and Alk?
Do you have any kalkwasser top-off, Calcium reactor or you just add liquid Ca and buffers?

 

[fishy all the time]

I realize that these levels are low, Like I said normally I run all three of these higher. I have been following the same routine for years with no problems. I check my levels from time to time but they are always the same. I am unsure though why they all of a sudden dropped. I add kent pro buffer with every water change once a month and add with water top offs. I add calcium and iodine once a week. I also add coral vital and combo vital once a week. This has always been a good blalance but I have more corals then I used to have. So I should be using more calcium and such, correct? Is it possible to have a calcium of 330 and a dkh of 1 of do you think my test kits are just off. I do know that the calcium test I have is really hard to read and I know there is no consistancy with it. I am not sure that it is real accurate. Is there a good test kit I can use for calcium that is easier to read? So I should first add more buffer to bring up the pH and then retest. And then raise the calcium.

 

[barracuda]

hi there,
you cannot just add calcium withou monitoring its levels. When Ca level is high and you still adding it, eventually it will decrease alk. What is actually happend in your case IMO. Calcium is used up by corals only during the calcification (building of limestone sceleton). Stony corals are the most Ca demanding animals. It takes time to new coral to start calcifying and grow. So if you have brought a new coral home, it won't start building its sceleton tomorrow. You need to monitor Ca levels all the time, unless you have good calcium reactor, that you ca rely upon. Even then, you will need to monitor Ca, only less frequent. I use Tropic Marin Ca test kit, which IMO very acurate. I have no choice here in Israel, having Red sea, Hagen and Tropic Marin (Twice expensive than others) test kits sold in LFS. I tested all of them and found Tropic Marin most acurate.
If your daily evaporation is no less than 0.1 of total volume you maybe want to dose Kalkwasser. This will maintain PH, Alk and Ca levels. You won't need to add liguid Ca, buffers anymore. Kalkwasser iis the cheapest way IMO to maintain these levels.

 

[fishy all the time]

We have a 75 gallon tank and evaporate about at least one gallon per day. I am scared to use kalkwasser. It seams messy and hard to get the hang of. Is that true or am I just worried for nothing?

 

[barracuda]

well, it's kind of messy. Ones you get used to it, you'll be fine.You don't need to be scared.
Adjust all your parrameters first, but in a meanwhile you can start researching on kalkwasser dosing methods. There are some. You may find tons of info using search feature of this board. Anyways i would be glad to help you with kalkwasser, if you will have some questions. IMO evaporation rate of 1 gal/day will work great for you, if your tank is not SPS only.
Have a nice day!
P.S. do a search on my latest posts, you will find info about Kalkwasser.