OK, my tank has been set up for about a year. Have not really been tracking my KH until last month when my corals started to die off. My water perameters are:
temp 79
PH 8.2
KH 15 drops using test kit, so what is that 450 maybe.
Nitrate 0
Mag no way to test at this time.
Cal can't remeber, but was in line.

My KH was above 30 drops or well above 500ppm.
I have done a complete water change to drop the KH, but i am still at 450ppm. I am donw to one clown, everything else has died off as my local LFS told me to add calcium to drop KH and the tank clouded and just about everything died. :( I am at a complete loss, my tap water has a KH of 7 drops, so some where between tap to tank my KH is raising. HELP me please so I can get back to rebuilding my tank.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

P.S I have read about using Backing soda, but am not really sure how.

Make your Salt Water mixes with distilled or deminerlaized water instead of your tap water. Your KH should stay down. Remeber that Coral is a net comsumer of Ca++ and CO3-- and these ions need to be replaced as they are consumed. Try and get a Calcium addditive from you local fish store, they would be safer than an invented one.

I would stop dosing and just let kH drop down on it's own.

I would also get calcium and magnesium test kits and start the diy 2 part system to keep those thing in line.

after some time magnesium can be very low like down to 800ppm instead of 1350ppm or so. It happens.


And this happens to be my.


.02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Thank you for all the input.

I also read somewhere that it may be high until i have something that consumes it...True/False?

Yes

And that is always true of anything.

but with kH snails, corraline algae, hard agae like halimeda (spelling), pods, shrimps, clams, and so on all use calcium carbonate and therefore consume carbonate or kh.

what they actually mean is tanks with large populations of hard corals (SPS) consume calcium carbonate very quickly. and therefore you have to replace that consumption.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Calcium, KH, GH, pH, Electrolytes & Magnesium in Aquariums; Mineral Ions, Cations
This will help you out.

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