# How to......



## LisaF316 (May 5, 2012)

Hello. How do I lower my Alk levels? The are sitting at 13 and ph is at 7.8.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

If you have a lid on your tank it needs to be open.The low pH could be do to higher than normal co2.Surface agitation and lighting (both increased) can help to eliminate some of the co2.
The kH should even itself out when the pH stabilizes as the rock and reef creatures will start to use it up.
Reef Aquarium pH and Alkalinity Balance


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## LisaF316 (May 5, 2012)

So today I did a water change, about half, and a couple hours later I checked my levels and here is where we are at 

KH-17
Nitrate- between 20 and 40
Calcium- 460
Phosphate- 0
Ph- 0
Ammonia- 0


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

What kind if salt are you using?
What is in your tank?
What are you using for your water source?
Possibly a different salt(not for reef tanks ,but standard salt) will have lower kH right off the rip(have you tested when you mix your replacement water)?
If you are using tap I would test it (without salt) to what the kH of it is.I would then consider ro or distilled.


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## LisaF316 (May 5, 2012)

I was using petcos brand but switched to Coralife. I have about 20lbs live rock and 25lbs live sand a couple of hermits some snails and 2 crabs, not sure if I still have the shrimp tho. Water source is tap water treated with Kordon Amquel plus. I did test the straight tap and the Kh was 9. I thought about using bottled water the next wc.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

If going with bottled water make sure it is RO or Distilled as spring water often has even more minerals than tap.
I would give up on the amquel plus if you switch water.
Although your calcium is high already I have read to lower kh/alkalinty raise the calcium and it will cause the alkalinty to precipitate out of water column.
I'll look for the link.
Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
RHF(Randy Holmes Farley) is a go to guy for marine aquairiums(I learned about him from ReefingMadness).


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## LisaF316 (May 5, 2012)

So I decided to leave my tank alone for a while since all the testing and water changes were driving my hubby as well as me crazy. So after about two weeks decided I had better test it and see what was up, here are the results
Salinity- 1.024
Calcium- 500
Kh- 11
Phosphate- 0
Nitrates- 10
Other than the calcium being high what do you think??


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Sounds great!*h/b*W


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## LisaF316 (May 5, 2012)

Thank you thank you!!


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