Alkalinity : What dKH do you target and why?

I am making a series of blog entries to help me understand water chemistry and organize my information. First, I investigated Specific Gravity and captured my results here http://www.3reef.com/forums/blogs/mmcdonald/specific-gravity-notes-307.html

Now, I am delving into Alkalinity.

My questions for this poll are as follows:

What dKH do you target?
How do you measure dKH?? (which kit or other means?)
What method do you use to maintain dKH?

Feed back and links to related articles appreciated. As before, I'll organize it all into a single integrated blog entry to capture for everyone as a reference.

Thanks,
Mark

 

I keep my alk at 11 dkh

I use API test kit

To maintain my alk I use a geo calcium reactor

 

What dKH do you target? 10.0
How do you measure dKH?? Salifert
What method do you use to maintain dKH? BRS two part

 

I should have posted my own answers... exact same as tatted4ever

What dKH do you target? 10.0
How do you measure dKH?? Salifert
What method do you use to maintain dKH? BRS two part

 

Revert to My Thread where I ask for ALL Parameters. No chemest online yet obviously. LOL;D

 

8-9dkh here. My tank is using about 1dkh a day right now so by the end of the day it's down to about 8 and then i boost it to 9 dosing with BRS 2 part.

My new tank will use a ca reactor and I'll have to play with it a little. I'd like to target 9dkh but I might drop that down a little bit if I run into problems. Some ultra-low nutrient systems (using vodka or carbon dosing) do better with slightly lower alk.

I use Elos test kits right now, quickest and easiest kit I've found. I may get a Salifert kit as well since you get more tests for your money and I test alk more than I test calcium because it's easier for the alk to get out of the ideal range than cal. For example if you lose 2dkh from your target of 8dkh that means you will have lost less than 20ppm of calcium generally (you lose generally about 2.8dkh alk to every 20ppm of calcium). My target calcium is over 400 so 20ppm doesn't put that into the danger zone. The alk gets into the danger zone much more quickly than my calcium so it's better to watch your alk, so you can save some money/time on calcium testing.

 

bump

 

12dkh
api test

dont really try to "target" just seems to be what it stays at. i do water changes to maintain. 25% or so a month. i do add some kent marine alk buffer to top off water sometimes

 

What dKH do you target? 11
How do you measure dKH?? (which kit or other means?) Salifert
What method do you use to maintain dKH? BRS Two Part