Kh

[nasher8860]

Hey whats up ya'll.....
I was wondering what KH really stood for. I was talking to a coworker and she was saying something about carbonate hardness but really couldn't grasp the idea and how she was explaining it. What I would like to know is the effects of having an IDEAL KH level which I beleive is around 15, and the con's of having a low KH or in some cases a high KH level. I would really like to get a hold on the whole thing because every SW Tank we do, we test for KH and adjust the levels and yet I have no idea of why we are doing it.Thanks for any reply's.

-Nash

 

[Kensn]

Well here is what I found usefull.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.php

 

[MikeS]

KH or dKH stands for Carbonate Hardness, or degrees of Carbonate Hardness. It is a measurement of alkalinity, but only the amount of alkalinity that can be contributed to carbonates (which, off the top of my head I believe in NSW is roughly 87% of total alkalinity).

The "ideal" level of KH depends on many things, like salinity, calcium, ect. If you are shooting for NSW values (which I belive you should), than the ideal KH would be around 7-9 dKH @ 420ppm Ca and 35 ppt salinity (1.026 sg)...at 15 dKH you need a calcium balance of around 470ppm Ca....a bit high, and not good for the corals...

MikeS

 

[nasher8860]

extremely helpful guys Thanks