Ok, another question - Lowering KH

[DiannaDZ]

My kH is 15 dKH, I know this is high, I just put the salt in my tank yesterday, no3 is 0, PO 4 is 0, Ca is 480, salinity is 1.0026. I made my salt water with tap water as my home unit has a really slow output. How do I lower the .kH and do I want to. I will probably do the test again today to confirm that reading

 

[fort384]

Hi there, welcome to AA!

What kind of salt mix are you using? I would reconfirm the reading to be sure as 15 is awfully high. It is possible you have extremely hard tap water, and it is throwing off the reading. The way to lower it would be to use RODI water to mix your saltwater. At readings that high, you could end up having issues with Ca and coral growth (if you have coral) as high alk like that can cause precipitation of CaCO3 before coral can uptake the ions in suspension.

 

[Phranque]

You really don't want to be using tap water.... I about guarantee that's where the extra dKH is coming from, plus a bunch of other nasty stuff which will give you problems. If you use RODI, most salt mixes will give you 8-10 dKH.

 

[DiannaDZ]

I don't have anything yet besides 4 mollies I put in to help with cycling my tank, but I was looking forward to doing coral and other invertebrates. I guess I will just hold off with the coral till I do enough water changes to bring down the kH. That's was I get for following the advice at the local chain pet shop and there "expert" on saltwater tanks. I asked if I should make up my water with RO water and he said it wasn't necessary. In the 70's I used instant ocean mix with tap water and was fine, but no one I knew of tried to do corals in those days.

 

[DiannaDZ]

You really don't want to be using tap water.... I about guarantee that's where the extra dKH is coming from, plus a bunch of other nasty stuff which will give you problems. If you use RODI, most salt mixes will give you 8-10 dKH.

From now on I'll be using my RO water! I just have a 2 gal holding tank on my unit. I bought it to use for watering my orchids. And it's fine for that. I can probably get 10 gal a day from it. What would be a good container type to store it in and for mixing up my salt? Another "expert" said to get a paint bucket from lowes, but I'd be concerned about BAP and other things leaching out of the plastic. I wondered about going to a restaurant supply company and buying something that was food grade plastic. Any suggestions?

 

[fort384]

Hdpe trash cans or rubbermaid containers are fine. A lot of folks use them.

I use a 12 Fallon potable water storage tank from grainger.com.

 

[Qube]

Rubbermaid Brute trash cans from Lowes work for me. I always have 30g of RODI and 30g of saltwater ready to go. Best purchase I ever made!