Salifert Test – KH/Alk

Description

Salifert Test – KH/Alk is for testing the KH of your aquarium water.

This Salifert Profi Test kit works for both freshwater and marine use.

It is important that your aquarium KH is right for your animals. The right KH will stabilise the aquarium environment and ensure that the pH doesn’t swing too low or too high. We recommend researching what the ideal KH is for the type of fish that you keep.

Freshwater KH

In freshwater, the KH varies hugely depending on where fish come from.

Some freshwater shrimp keepers will aim for a KH as low as 0.6 dKH, whereas some African cichlid keepers will aim for a KH of up to 18 dKH.

Here at Cornwall Aquatics, we aim to keep most of our community freshwater aquariums at a KH of between 1 to 2 degrees dKH. We use Re-Mineral Tropic to add more alkalinity to community aquariums.

Marine KH

Natural seawater has a KH of 7 – 8 dKH (or 2.5 – 2.9 meq/L which is a different unit for expressing KH/alkalinity.

Here at Cornwall Aquatics we aim to keep most of our reef aquariums a little higher than that at around 9.5 dKH.

If you need to add alkalinity to your saltwater aquarium, it is first worth checking that your salinity is correct. Most salts are now designed to be used with RO or RODI water. This means that they have a good KH content. If you have been making regular water changes with a good quality salt and your KH is still too low, it could mean that your animals are using the KH from the water to grow. In this case you will need to add some KH + pH Buffer to slowly bring the KH of the aquarium up to the desired level.

The key with KH is stability. Whatever KH you decide is right for your aquarium – try to stick to it. Ideally test the aquarium at least once a week so that you can monitor it.

The Salifert KH Profi Test contains enough reagent to test 100 – 200 times.

Unlike some test kits, you can accurately check your KH to within 0.3 dKH with the Salifert KH Profi Test kit. If you have a saltwater reef aquarium and require more accuracy, you could instead use the Hanna Handheld Colorimeter to measure dKH.