KH question

[kevine6678]

I have a 20 L reef tank. I'm using 96 watts of t5 HO lightning.
My question is that I have noticed that over the past couple months my corals have seemed to really slow their growth and I have very little corraline growth. I have had trouble keeping my KH stable and it always seems to be low. Could this be why my corals have stopped growing and how can I get my KH to stablize?
Peramiters:
AMM - 0
rates - 0
rites - 0
pH - 8.0
cal - 400 - 420 ppm
spec grav - 1.023 ppm
Thanks!!

 

[jstdv8]

you could try kalkwasser dripping, it will raise your PH alk and calcium.

 

[halamaya]

I was using Kent products switched to Brightwells two part solution. very easy and it buffers your ph, kh, calcium , and magnesium. Highly recommend it.

 

[david12]

try adding aquasonic carbonate hardness does the trick with my tank

 

[david12]

by the way this is the could be partly the reson why your corals have stop growing as they need this to be right on the mark anything like this can make them stop growing how is your ph levels are they above 8.1 ? i know once your kh is low your ph is low as well

 

[kevine6678]

my ph has been low too. I figure this is a direct result of my KH prob. I moved a few months ago and since I moved I have had this problem. It must be because of using differant water.

 

[kevine6678]

I've never used kalkwasser. What is it, what does it do, and how do I use it? Do I need any special equiptment for it?

 

[bang guy]

Can you list your KH level? What is low to you? You mention it's not stable, how much does it fluctuate?

 

[9supratt4]

I use a 2 part solution that I highly recommend to people. I dose my tank every day with about 25ml of Alk and Calcium about once a week. My levels are always stable unless I miss a dose

 

[truperc]

How frequently are you doing water changes? And how much?
What is your KH on your new water?

 

[kevine6678]

I guess my KH doesn't really fluctuate so much as it is usually low. It bottoms out at about 89.5 ppm and I use seachem reef buffer to get it up but it doesn't take long for it to go back down. I don't know if it is safe to use this stuff more than I already am which is about once a week between water changes.
I try to do water changes once a week but sometimes I only get around to it once every two weeks. I do 2-3 gallons at a time (20 gal tank)

 

[9supratt4]

I had to figure out what 89.5 was lol....it's 5dKH. In my experience...buffers do not work very well to keep KH stable. Also, I believe with buffers you really need to keep an eye on your PH level.
If I were you, I'd switch to a 2-part solution. It works better and once your levels are in check, all you have to do is figure out your maintnance dose and dose it daily and you'll be ok.

 

[jstdv8]

for the kalkwasser you mix up a bit of it from a powder to a liquid with your RO water and tehn put it in some sort of container that you can control the flow rate on. The idea is to dose the same amount as you have water evaporate from the tank.
So say you top off a gallon a day that would mean you would want to use a gallon of kalkwasser water every day to top off. keep checking your parameters of course as you go.
so you need to get a container with some sort of control valve on it so you dont dose more than that and then test it in a pail or soemthing to check your desired flow rate to make sure you are getting the right amount of top off. Kent makes a nice unit called aquadose.
make sure and mix it and let it sit for a bout 24 hours so it seperates, you dont want the pasty stuff on the top or bottom, just the clearish liquid in between.
it sounds like a pain but once you get it going you can do it pretty easily.
I had PH and calcium problmes and now my PH is at a constant 8.3-8.4 and my calcium is around 440

 

[jstdv8]

on another note i used buffers before I used the kalkwasser and it lifted my alkalinty all the way to the top of the scale. and once i dosed kalkwasser that number stayed way up which isnt good, but if your is down and your PH is down it should work as advertised.
BTW, you can also use kalkwasser to make a paste to inject aiptasia with and it kills them really well.

 

[posiden]

Does your calcium ever go up and down?
What salt are you using?
When I used Seachem's reef salt, After a water change generally I had to dose Alk and watch the Calcium. Once the calcium came down to where I wanted it, I would dose both parts to keep the levels where I wanted them. I like my Alk at 7-8 and the Cal at 420-440. But that is me. Alk is easy to dose since it is just Baking soda.
Kalk will only help you as long as you evaporate enough water during the day. What I mean is, your evaporation dictates how much the Kalkwasser will help you. You evap too little and you will still have to dose 2 part to some extent too make up the difference.
My tank is a 29 Bio Cube and I dose 10ml of each part from C-balance. I am probly going to switch to B-ionic next or dose Kalk. I am not sure if my evap is stable enough to support Kalk dosing.
I should be more clear on the calcium question. You calcium levels will drift one way or the other MUCH more slowly the the Alk level will. This is due to calcium being a MUCH larger reserve in the water column. It wont supprise too many of us if you say the calcium stays about 400-420 like you have posted. But if the Alk isn't kept up and stable then the calcium can't be utlized properly.