dKH question

[vance.110]

What does everyone keep their dKH at? I've never been one to mess too much with calcium or dKH other than water changes because I've always kept mostly softies and a few LPS. But I've started keeping some SPS over the past year and I just do not have hardly any noticable growth over the past year. I know that since I run VHO's growth will be lower than under MHs but it is almost non-existant except for a few chalices I have. I recenly checked my dKH at 6.2 and my calcium at over 450. I know that the Ca amount is fine but I think the dKH is pretty low. I've begun raising it slowing using super buffer from Kent. Where should I be looking to maintain it?
Also does this seem to affect color as well as growth or just growth alone?

Thanks,
Bill

[okkiedokki]

I've always kept my dKH as close to 10 as possible.

check out this thread its got a few articles on the calcium and alkalinity relationships:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=102605

PS. because of my laziness I've had a hard time keeping it close to 10 or 11, but I just made a nice Kalk ATO to help with that.

[hollback]

Mine floats between 8.5 and 9 over several months. I have issues with higher and lower than this range. I keep mostly sps with some lps.

[MarineFishGuy]

I have mostly softies and LPS with a couple SPS (Thanks Jason).

I have a Kalk reactor which helps keep mine around 10-11. Over 12 and I stop dripping for a day.

The SPS I got at the Christmas Party is looking really good, polyp extension has been good, and growth has been slow but noticeable.

I added a 250w MH (10K Ushio) last week, the SPS seemed to color up when I did that. Under VHO only, it was kind of pale yellow. Now I see more blue near the tips. Polyp extension is about the same.

I still run VHO, but I switched from 3 Actinic white and 1 Super Actinic, to 2 white and 2 super.

HTH,
Ken

[porky]

I like 10

[vance.110]

I run 2 actinics and 2 white bulbs also. I'm swithing to t5s as soon as I buy some endcaps. I'm hoping the use of the t5s and individual reflectors (none currently) will help also with growth and color.

[MarineFishGuy]

When I talked to Sedar at Phishy, he indicated the VHO produce a more true Actinic light compared to T5.

The T5s give you more color choices, but otherwise are not a big difference in terms of PAR. While the T5s may produce more PAR/watt, they are also less wattage for a given bulb of the same length.

Since they are smaller you can fit more of them in the canopy though.
This is why I ended up going to a Metal Halide/VHO mix.

For the money it costs to buy the reflectors and end caps, this may be something you want to consider, plus the shimmer is very cool.

The other thing to note, is you can mix VHO and T5 on an Icecap 660 ballast. I posted a question about it in the Icecap forum and they confirmed this was a supported configuration.
So you may want to consider running Super Actinic VHO and your Daylights as T5.

HTH,
Ken

[TOURKID]

im usually about 9 1/2. i try to get it higher, but i cant seem to maintain it higher and to much fluxuation isent great either

[nrstype]

I never used to check mine.. however.. when I did finally start (thanks to Todd at reef systems for schooling me a bit on this), and raised my dkH up to around 10 -12... WHAM.. everything changed.

Coraline city, coral growth, polyp extension... etc... Never had coraline growth.. always wondered why. My calcium levels were always 400 - 450. But when I started monitoring my dkH levels.. and keeping them elevated.. (I keep mine pretty on the high side)... stuff is growing great.

I only had PC prior, but since have upgraded to MH HQI on my little nano.

Oh well... that is my story. I keep sps, lps, softies and inverts.. and LOTS of coraline now.