Well if you can read through that boring dribble about water chemistry then you'll maybe find out what going on.. But to put it simply DKH is the level of available Carbonates in dissolved into the systems water and they are derived from the additions of Carbonates. And the carbonates job is the same as a Rolaids/Tumms is to help , naturalize acids when in the system. From Food and fish waste and their respiration everything that using carbons as a food source adds acids and they have to be off set . DKH is the acronym for Degrees of carbonate hardness Alkalinity means the same thing Just a different way of saying it and or testing form them. I like DKH myself. And if you keep these levels at a proper number 12 DKH on average you won't have to much to worry about with P.H you can have a low P.H and be fine with carbonates But you can't have a Low DKH and have a good P.H . P.H is just a means to establish the waters ability to off set acids But does not tell to what extent.
Now Calcium I like mine at 450 to 500 does not like Carbonates ones a positive ion and the other is a negative ion. Like trying to push the opposite ends of a magnet together to get them to bind up and play together.. Calcium and Carbonates form Calcium Carbonates and thats the building block the corals use to build their skeleton. But as I mentioned like water and oil they don't like to mix or bond .
There where to old Epsom Salts comes in its the emulsifier to make them play nice together You have to get both the Ca and The Carbonates to raise up at the same time or one will get over the other and its a job to get them back in balance, Your Magnesium should be at a level of 1400 ppm at the minimum before you start to add the needed buffers aka carbonates and calcium. Thats about it in a nut shell
In any system I ever ran I like to keep my
DKH at 13 to 15
Calcium at 450 to 500
Mag. at 1500 to 1600 _________ Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible (Doug Larson) |