Is my KH too high?

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baldyguy

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High guys........... tested my water and my KH constantly comes out at 14 (drops).....is this too high?

Ca is 440 & Mg 1300..... fitted my Calc Reactor four weeks ago and that's doing fine however not alot of Coraline appearing yet. Is this because of the KH.

Secondly what does KH do? I have scanned the web for hours and found loads but all too confusing....can someone put it into poor mans terms?

Many thanks for any help guys!
 
The problem with Alkalinity (Kh) is that it is complicated. Basiclly it represents a relationship between carbonate and bicarbonate which is carbonate hardness basiclly another way to measure alkalinity. We often hear about corals needing calcium to grow thier skeleton well just as much so they need a stable Kh with out the proper stable Kh your corals will not be able to use the Calcium in the sea water. I've seen my tank with an extremely high Calcium reading and a low dkh reading and to fix this I stared dosing Alk supplement when I buffered my dkh to 9.0 I noticed a gradual decline in my Ca levels. Now I have everything balanced and my dosing is done through my top off water. What salt do you use? Do you add any ph buffer?

Jason
 
High guys........... tested my water and my KH constantly comes out at 14 (drops).....is this too high?

Ca is 440 & Mg 1300..... fitted my Calc Reactor four weeks ago and that's doing fine however not alot of Coraline appearing yet. Is this because of the KH.

Secondly what does KH do? I have scanned the web for hours and found loads but all too confusing....can someone put it into poor mans terms?

Many thanks for any help guys!


14 is high. What test kit are you using? I believe natural seawater is around 7-8 and many reef tanks are slightly higher than that.
 
On second thought I just re-read the post and you say 14 drops. My elos test kit goes .5 dkh per 1 drop so for me 14 is 7 drops.
 
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