high dkh

[eastonreef]

my dkh is way tooooo high! i have done 2 water changes this week and plan to do one later today , but that has not helped. here is what i have:

dkh - 16 (should be 2.9)
mag - 1350
cal - 500
ph - 8.2
no3 - 0

the only number that is not right is the dkh --- what should i do. i am concerned because i have no polyp extension.

help

 

[eastonreef]

i tested the water i made for todays water change. the dkh is 10.6 which is high also. so then i tested the ro water and it is 1.0 before i add the salt. i am using instant ocean.

what should i do to lower the dkh ??????

 

[brianblack]

calcium is a bit high at 500 - no? Do you dose that? IO is round 350 or so. Do you use Bionic? or some kind of buffer?

UMM I will test my IO -reef crystals - how old is the test kit?? I do not think IO would be that high??

Wait alk params are
7-11dkh
2.5-4 is in meq/L
125-200 ppm CaCO3

I am gonna post a params chart on the other board - Mike asked for it.

 

[eastonreef]

i have a calcium reactor that i have shut off today. the test is a salifert and i have 2 test kits .. both were the same

i did about a 15 gal water change and i am making more water tonight. i will see what i can do with several water changes.

what else could cause loss of polyp extension????

 

[brianblack]

Just a question but do you have a grounding probe? How long has this been going on? maybe they would like to live at my house. Wait it is too crowded here already:lol: :lol: Sometimes at the end of the day my corals seem to have enough and go to bed early. I had a frogspawns that were not fully extending so I put them in a different tank separate from my system and they came back - I thought my problem was they mish mosh of corals I have IE leather chem warfare and such

 

[eastonreef]

i have a ground probe..
i guess this has slowly come to this over a few weeks. .. it seems to only effect the sps corals .....the lps seem fine

 

[brianblack]

Maybe Steve would have an answer. You could post out under the coral forum here too. Lots of experienced people here.

 

[brianblack]

I see ya posted to the men - good. hope the responces helped!

 

[akaatomic]

Time and water changes are probably going to be the majority of responses. I suppose that your reactor media could've been driving up the alk. What are you using? Are you sure the test kit isn't in dkh? 16 is still high, but that would drop to 12 or so within the week. I recently read an article that alk is maintained at a very low level now a days. They talked about people in 70's and 80's keeping their alk at 24dkh! There was never a negative effect reported, just never a positive one either. Time and water changes.

 

[eastonreef]

i have a tunze cal reactor. when i bought it it had media in it --i had it dripping very slow-- at least i thought it was slow enough. the dkh is now 14.7 calcium 430 and ph is 8.33.

i did a water change last night,, and will do another tomorrow.

thanks for all the help

 

[brianblack]

Keep us posted. I thnk since the Cal is down the alk should follow.

 

[akaatomic]

Most A.R.M. reactor media has a dkh of about 20, so it sounds like you have that and your just dripping a bit too much. They make pure calcium media and a few other aragonite effluents. You can slow your drip and use something additional for calcium (you shouldn't have to) or mix your media with pure calcium media and find the best "blend".