ACI Kalkwasser Method.... I've watched this video and read a few articles, still not sure the exact method.

njreefkeeper

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Any update since employing the updated method? Curious how your alk has been. How are you supposed to keep alk stable if consumption doesn't match how much dosing is needed to raise pH?
Any update since employing the updated method? Curious how your alk has been. How are you supposed to keep alk stable if consumption doesn't match how much dosing is needed to raise pH?
ive bens
People are making Chris’ method harder to understand than it needs to be. I’ve been doing it with good results and haven’t lost any acropora. Granted, they’re in frag stage but I’m actually seeing improvements and better growth and color than previously.

I’ve spoken to Chris personally about the method when my alkalinty spiked to 13.4 dkh. So he asked “how do your corals look?” “Amazing I said”. So he said leave it be and it’ll come down after in due time. Currently sitting at 11.2 with absolutely no issues whatsoever. Now, I think it’s important to take into consideration that a higher alkalinty does better in a nutrient rich environment with good lighting and lots of flow. So that’s what I’ve got. Nutrients are currently 10ppm NO3 and .1 PO4 (a 100:1 ratio which I shoot for).

Now, as for his method, it’s basically using a large sealed container that can hold about 7 days worth of saturated kalk solution. You figure out how much you evaporate and dose 100% of that amount during your reverse light cycle period. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. It’s not complicated and mystical. I turned off my ati and started dripping kalk until I figured out how much I was evaporating and slowly reached my full top off. Once my dkh starts to level out around 8.5-9 dkh where I like to keep it I’ll bring a calcium reactor online to come on when needed.

And so far I’ve noticed that Chris is correct in chasing PH. As long as your ph is suppressed and you’re able to raise it and keep it steadily elevated I’ve witnessed no losses, no paling in SPS and much better coloration regardless of the high alkalinty. I’ve come to believe that ph swings can affect corals as much as alkalinty swings.
 

njreefkeeper

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How does he deal with evaporation during the daytime, when natural pH is high?
Your ato can kick on if you’d like via apex during lighted period but I’ve found if I dose enough kalk at night it really doesn’t come on much at all. If you’re dosing 100% of your daily evaporation at night then the ATO is nothing more than a fail safe really. I go slightly above my Tunze Osmalator level and by the time the dosing comes on again it’s good to go.
 

njreefkeeper

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To reiterate...the ACI Method is dosing (via dosing pump) 100% of your DAILY evaporation during your 12, 14 or whatever lights out period. It is not replenished via ATO. I turn my ATO off a half hour before dosing and a half hour after dosing every day via apex. It barely ever kicks on at all and I run halides and T5 as my primary light source on all my systems with led as supplemental lighting only. So I have the added benefit of evaporating more than most people who don’t evaporate as much with cooler running LEDs.
 

JMetaxas

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Got it, thank you. I dose Kalkwasser all day, via an ATO. I have a heavy SPS load, so the need for a Ca+ Reactor is necessary to maintain Alk levels, but the reactor probably lowers my pH somewhat, hence the need for Kalkwasser.

Using this method, my pH swings about .3 units a day, which probably isn't desirable.

My mix up method is similar to Chris' method.
 

njreefkeeper

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Got it, thank you. I dose Kalkwasser all day, via an ATO. I have a heavy SPS load, so the need for a Ca+ Reactor is necessary to maintain Alk levels, but the reactor probably lowers my pH somewhat, hence the need for Kalkwasser.

Using this method, my pH swings about .3 units a day, which probably isn't desirable.

My mix up method is similar to Chris' method.
I’ve definitely found that this method raises my overall average ph. That’s when the growth was noticeable. I don’t have any science to back it but I’m noticing that if you can tighten the daily ph swing then alkalinty doesn’t matter as much we’ve all become accustomed to.

Not to derail the point of this thread but I’m old enough (been in the hobby 20+ years) to remember when EVERYONE dripped kalk at night and a 9 dkh was on the low end; whereas 10 was the norm and nobody batted an eye at 11. Nowadays people have followed a trend of keeping their alkalinty 7.5-8.5. As an observer, I’ve noticed that when vodka dosing and ULNS was the order of the day, everyone started keeping lower dkh as a protocol to ULNS. But when ULNS fell out of favor people still held on to the lower alkalinity values. I’m choosing to go in the opposite direction because I’ve had far more success with higher alkalinty, kalk dosing and keeping a good amount of nutrients in my systems and feeding my fish VERY well. Polyp extension has increased, corals are encrusting faster and i really don’t see any difference in loss of color with the higher alkalinty like others claim; but few have tried. In fact, you just don’t see anywhere near as many people growing their sticks out of the water with lower dkh these days as we did with higher values from 2000 to 2010.

Long term, kalk is the safest method to raise your ph into the grail number of 8.3 without having large parameter swings.

just my .02
 

Oregon Grown Reef

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People are making Chris’ method harder to understand than it needs to be. I’ve been doing it with good results and haven’t lost any acropora. Granted, they’re in frag stage but I’m actually seeing improvements and better growth and color than previously.

I’ve spoken to Chris personally about the method when my alkalinty spiked to 13.4 dkh. So he asked “how do your corals look?” “Amazing I said”. So he said leave it be and it’ll come down after in due time. Currently sitting at 11.2 with absolutely no issues whatsoever. Now, I think it’s important to take into consideration that a higher alkalinty does better in a nutrient rich environment with good lighting and lots of flow. So that’s what I’ve got. Nutrients are currently 10ppm NO3 and .1 PO4 (a 100:1 ratio which I shoot for).

Now, as for his method, it’s basically using a large sealed container that can hold about 7 days worth of saturated kalk solution. You figure out how much you evaporate and dose 100% of that amount during your reverse light cycle period. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. It’s not complicated and mystical. I turned off my ati and started dripping kalk until I figured out how much I was evaporating and slowly reached my full top off. Once my dkh starts to level out around 8.5-9 dkh where I like to keep it I’ll bring a calcium reactor online to come on when needed.

And so far I’ve noticed that Chris is correct in chasing PH. As long as your ph is suppressed and you’re able to raise it and keep it steadily elevated I’ve witnessed no losses, no paling in SPS and much better coloration regardless of the high alkalinty. I’ve come to believe that ph swings can affect corals as much as alkalinty swings.
I've got an experiment that I'm going to be starting once I acquire all of the materials that should help with overall pH without messing with dKh or seeing crazy swings at night. I was inspired by @Garf. I'll be collecting data for pH throughout the day and night, oxygen levels, and dKh swings (if any). Once I have some good data sets and have done it for long enough, I'll be posting to this thread. Either that or starting a new thread and linking it here. There's no reason to think that we have to sacrifice stability on one parameter in order to achieve stability and optimal numbers on another. Excited for this and I will hopefully be able to help others as well.
 

Nanogeek815

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I've been using this method as well and it seems to be working for me!
The problem I've found is due to my system size (~500g) the kalk has a hard time keeping up when the windows are closed. So I plan to supplement with another hydroxide.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I've been using this method as well and it seems to be working for me!
The problem I've found is due to my system size (~500g) the kalk has a hard time keeping up when the windows are closed. So I plan to supplement with another hydroxide.

Sodium hydroxide is my recommendation for that purpose. KOH risks substantial rises to potassium, and magnesium hydroxide is not soluble enough to dose in a dissolved form.
 

Nanogeek815

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Sodium hydroxide is my recommendation for that purpose. KOH risks substantial rises to potassium, and magnesium hydroxide is not soluble enough to dose in a dissolved form.
Agreed. I looked at mag and it would be less effective thank kalk. Sodium Hydroxide seems to be plenty strong enough and readily available.

Do you have any additional safety/health considerations compared to kalk?
 
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I started Dosing my 18000 ml (4.75 gallons per day) of evaporation on reverse light cycle about 4 months ago. My Alk elevated for a little while to around 11, but then settled back down to 9.0 now. My PH on the other hand now holds 8.35 day time and 8.30 night time lights out. I used to run 7.8- 8.1 PH at best. CO2 Scrubbing no longer needed. My coral growth has really accelerated and are coloring up quite well. The difference is I'm just using a kalk stirrer on the Apex DOS instead of a weeks supply of super saturated Kalk in a 55 gallon drum. I have a PH meter in my Kalk Stirrer which really helps me keep a strong accurate saturated alk of 12.5. I like this method and will continue to run and tweak this method.
 

Nanogeek815

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I started Dosing my 18000 ml (4.75 gallons per day) of evaporation on reverse light cycle about 4 months ago. My Alk elevated for a little while around 11, but then settled back down to 9.0 now. My PH on the other hand now holds 8.35 day time and 8.30 night time lights out. I used to run 7.8- 8.1 PH at best. CO2 Scrubbing no longer needed. My coral growth has really accelerated and are coloring up quite well. The difference is I'm just using a kalk stirrer on the Apex DOS instead of a weeks supply of super saturated Kalk in a 55 gallon drum. I have a PH meter in my Kalk Stirrer which really helps me keep a strong accurate saturated alk of 12.5. I like this method and will continue to run and tweak this method.
I plan to use the kalk stirrer with pH Probe. How much does the kalk mess up the probe over time? Or do you remove the probe?
 
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14 foot reef

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I plan to use the kalk stirrer with pH Probe. How much does the kalk mess up the probe over time? Or do you remove the probe?
So far PH probe is running pretty accurate, and not any noticable effect yet. I would assume long term it will degrade, once I get closer to knowing my Kalk powder consumption, I will probably not keep it in 24/7. But during this start up period, I don't mind if I burn through a probe or two.
 

Nanogeek815

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So far PH probe is running pretty accurate, and not any noticable effect yet. I would assume long term it will degrade, once I get closer to knowing my Kalk powder consumption, I will probably not keep it in 24/7. But during this start up period, I don't mind if I burn through a probe or two.
Good to know. I'll look into using a probe in a stirrer. My thought was to turn on the stirrer based on pH as well as knowing when to replace kalk. Doing as much automation as possible...
 
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Good to know. I'll look into using a probe in a stirrer. My thought was to turn on the stirrer based on pH as well as knowing when to replace kalk. Doing as much automation as possible...
I found running the stirrer motor 24/7 delivered a way more consistent PH. And as soon as PH drops below 12.25 or 12.0, I add the kalk powder to the stirrer. If I let if fall lower than 12, I can see my night time PH fall lower each day until I top off the Kalk powder. Its working really well. I also ended pushing the time of dosing 3 hours after lights came on. Another step that really narrowed my PH swing between day and night.
 

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I found running the stirrer motor 24/7 delivered a way more consistent PH. And as soon as PH drops below 12.25 or 12.0, I add the kalk powder to the stirrer. If I let if fall lower than 12, I can see my night time PH fall lower each day until I top off the Kalk powder. Its working really well. I also ended pushing the time of dosing 3 hours after lights came on. Another step that really narrowed my PH swing between day and night.
Glad it’s working for you, however, the method calls for total evaporation replacement by saturated kalk. I’m pretty sure at pH of 12 or 12.25, that’s far below saturated, in fact it’s almost spent. No harm in that, as long as your tank is doing well though.
 
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Glad it’s working for you, however, the method calls for total evaporation replacement by saturated kalk. I’m pretty sure at pH of 12 or 12.25, that’s far below saturated, in fact it’s almost spent. No harm in that, as long as your tank is doing well though.
I'm only letting it drop below 12.50 to see its effect on the night time PH, once I document this for a couple more weeks I will be refilling anytime its below 12.4
 

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I'm only letting it drop below 12.50 to see its effect on the night time PH, once I document this for a couple more weeks I will be refilling anytime its below 12.4
Do you get a good reading with a pH meter? My meter is very reliable and calibrates great at 7 and 10 but fully saturated kalk reads 12.77, which is impossible.
 
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14 foot reef

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2 nights purposely letting the Kalk stirrer run at 12.25. Then filled with 1/2 cup Kalk powder, right back up.
I will do this a few times to watch the trends then always refill once it comes off 12.5



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