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

[thatmanMIKEson]

Apparently, ACI is not going to respond to my email asking if they stand by what they posted that is shown earlier in this thread. Hopefully they have learned it was erroneous.

As you know sometimes no answer is the answer, im sure everyone will grow from this and all information will eventually be updated.

 

[Garf]

It appears, unless I misunderstood the initial method, the method is evolving, lol. Last week on Melevsreef, Chris goes on about gradually increasing the pH at night, working on averages of pH from the previous day, until you get to a pH of 8.29. I don’t remember that being in the initial recipe. In fact I just rewatched the initial method and there’s very little detail in it. This may be a work in progress, lol. I’m a guinae pig, hooray.

 

[Garf]

Apparently, ACI is not going to respond to my email asking if they stand by what they posted that is shown earlier in this thread. Hopefully they have learned it was erroneous.

Chris doesn’t think that kalkwasser directly increases Alkalinty. It frees carbonates that are locked away in the sand and rocks by neutralising carbonic acid. Not sure what he means by that, lol. About the 4 minute mark;

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Chris doesn’t think that kalkwasser directly increases Alkalinty. It frees carbonates that are locked away in the sand and rocks by neutralising carbonic acid. Not sure what he means by that, lol. About the 4 minute mark;

I presume he is trying to say that OH- combines with carbonic acid in the water (nothing to do with rocks or sand) and make bicarbonate and carbonate.

 

[Semisonyx]

However, I hear dosing large amounts of HCl is a great way to get “trapped carbonates” out of your rock and sand!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

However, I hear dosing large amounts of HCl is a great way to get “trapped carbonates” out of your rock and sand!

lol

Definitely.

 

[CoralChic101]

Wheel re-invented. Woot!!!

EDIT: Not sure the aquarium behind him makes me think that he has a real grasp of coral growth.

He maintains over 17,000 gallons.

 

[CoralChic101]

Take any claims from Chris with a major grain of salt. Every questionable chemistry related claim he has made has been checked by true chemists and proven totally false. Less than a year ago he claimed you needed to use a special 4 ingredient alkalinity supplement or you'd never have consistent alkalinity in your system.

I asked Randy about it and Randy scientifically shut it down in less than a couple minutes.

pH is extremely important and completely overlooked within the hobby but dumping in a ton of kalk every night isn't the fix for 99% of

He is says he uses two part, he says he uses a reactor and then he uses kalk. Why? Why do this this is unbelievably ummmhhh complicated.

If he is using any other method to dose in addition to kalk additions to maintain pH he is going to have to sync to the other methods to ensure the alk stability. I am also unsure and his video gives no reciepts as to whether his alk moved, as a part of his "method". I am going to go ahead and say that the alk is going to move. Because how would a program deal with a two variable equation. Sorry software can't solve this.


Yes he did mention potassium hydroxide and then said don't use it ... the one thing that I would concur with. It seems interesting to me that he would use this at all for hydroxide addition this is ... ummmhhhh ... less than optimal. Also using trident (or any other automated system) to control things in your aquarium is ummmhhh ... dangerous. The weak link for any automation system is always going to be sensors. It is best not to rely on them. Especially if you don't have multiple redundancies, and even then they are a really bad idea.

This person wants you to watch his YouTube channel because he wants to make money. Why isn't his coral business doing that for him? Also anyone who watches videos has a rudimentary understanding that if your background is your room and it is a complete mess and the person is trying to explain his new and amazing organization system is not really going to bring in viewers. I would think that this is obvious.

I will never trust those that use word salad, and this guy brings new meaning to it. Sorry I am not buying what he is selling.

dude… I started to read your first few sentences and you seriously have selective hearing. lol

He is says he uses two part, he says he uses a reactor and then he uses kalk. Why? Why do this this is unbelievably ummmhhh complicated.

If he is using any other method to dose in addition to kalk additions to maintain pH he is going to have to sync to the other methods to ensure the alk stability. I am also unsure and his video gives no reciepts as to whether his alk moved, as a part of his "method". I am going to go ahead and say that the alk is going to move. Because how would a program deal with a two variable equation. Sorry software can't solve this.


Yes he did mention potassium hydroxide and then said don't use it ... the one thing that I would concur with. It seems interesting to me that he would use this at all for hydroxide addition this is ... ummmhhhh ... less than optimal. Also using trident (or any other automated system) to control things in your aquarium is ummmhhh ... dangerous. The weak link for any automation system is always going to be sensors. It is best not to rely on them. Especially if you don't have multiple redundancies, and even then they are a really bad idea.

This person wants you to watch his YouTube channel because he wants to make money. Why isn't his coral business doing that for him? Also anyone who watches videos has a rudimentary understanding that if your background is your room and it is a complete mess and the person is trying to explain his new and amazing organization system is not really going to bring in viewers. I would think that this is obvious.

I will never trust those that use word salad, and this guy brings new meaning to it. Sorry I am not buying what he is selling.

he doesn’t use two-part … where are you people getting this nonsense?

didnt he advise 2 times the amount of your evaporation????dosed at night using ph as the controlling factor.

NO!! He never said that! OMG! LOL

 

[CoralChic101]

didnt he advise 2 times the amount of your evaporation????dosed at night using ph as the controlling factor.

NO! He never once said that! lol

 

[CoralChic101]

I don‘t think you will get the exact method out of Chris because I don‘t think he fully understands what he’s doing chemically. I am not claiming I do either but on my quest for better PH I have spent a lot of time experimenting on my tank, reading @Randy Holmes-Farley posts, and have come to a few conclusions.

1. It does not matter what hydroxide you dose, they all provide the same ph boost per unit of alk.
Calcium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide all provide the same. So Chris mixing hydroxides and keeping some secret doesn’t really make sense. Nor does using potassium hydroxide unless your tank uses a ton of potassium (mine does not).

according to randy
” The immediate effect on pH for dosing 1.4 dKH of each additive is about:
hydroxide 0.66 pH units (calcium or sodium, doesn't matter)
carbonate 0.34
bicarbonate -0.04 ”

2. Chris seems to have come to some anecdotal conclusions that I have also; such as when you have good PH stability, instability of other parameters have less of a detrimental effect. When my ph stays above 8.25, alk swings, nutrient swings, etc. don't seem to affect my sensitive corals, but as soon as my PH drops to around 8.1 any instability throws them into stn/rtn.

So dosing a hydroxide at night will give a greater alk swing than dosing over a 24 hour period but the 8.3 Ph stability may mitigate any detrimental effects of the alk swing.

With my tank I try to keep everything stable but put more care into keeping my PH at 8.3 +/- 1.5
I do keep a close eye on Alk, and don’t let it swing more than 1 dkh (but it usually doesn’t swing more than 0.5 daily)

I dose sodium hydroxide at night and sodium carbonate during the day(if i need more alk)
(Amazon food lye and BRS soda ash)
For calcium I dose Calcium chloride (BRS brand)

Previously I dosed Kalk, soda ash, and calcium chloride but found the evoperation restriction of saturated kalk to be annoying and sodium hydroxide takes up way less space In my cabnit.

So if you were my friend I would recommend you do not use Chris’ method and just dose as much Kalk as possible at night with no regards to alk.

I would instead recommend you first try to get outside air to your skimmer or use a co2 scrubber if you absolutely can’t run an air hose to outside air.
Then track your ph with an apex or something and switch to hydroxide dosing based off alk consumption.
Then when your average Ph gets to around 8.3 start skewing your dosing to the times your ph is lowest without causing a large alk swing.
Once you get to the point where your tank is consuming so much alk that your ph is getting above 8.5 start switching out some of your hydroxide dosing for sodium carbonate dosing (during the time your ph is highest).

I hope this helps

I don‘t think you will get the exact method out of Chris because I don‘t think he fully understands what he’s doing chemically. I am not claiming I do either but on my quest for better PH I have spent a lot of time experimenting on my tank, reading @Randy Holmes-Farley posts, and have come to a few conclusions.

1. It does not matter what hydroxide you dose, they all provide the same ph boost per unit of alk.
Calcium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide all provide the same. So Chris mixing hydroxides and keeping some secret doesn’t really make sense. Nor does using potassium hydroxide unless your tank uses a ton of potassium (mine does not).

according to randy
” The immediate effect on pH for dosing 1.4 dKH of each additive is about:
hydroxide 0.66 pH units (calcium or sodium, doesn't matter)
carbonate 0.34
bicarbonate -0.04 ”

2. Chris seems to have come to some anecdotal conclusions that I have also; such as when you have good PH stability, instability of other parameters have less of a detrimental effect. When my ph stays above 8.25, alk swings, nutrient swings, etc. don't seem to affect my sensitive corals, but as soon as my PH drops to around 8.1 any instability throws them into stn/rtn.

So dosing a hydroxide at night will give a greater alk swing than dosing over a 24 hour period but the 8.3 Ph stability may mitigate any detrimental effects of the alk swing.

With my tank I try to keep everything stable but put more care into keeping my PH at 8.3 +/- 1.5
I do keep a close eye on Alk, and don’t let it swing more than 1 dkh (but it usually doesn’t swing more than 0.5 daily)

I dose sodium hydroxide at night and sodium carbonate during the day(if i need more alk)
(Amazon food lye and BRS soda ash)
For calcium I dose Calcium chloride (BRS brand)

Previously I dosed Kalk, soda ash, and calcium chloride but found the evoperation restriction of saturated kalk to be annoying and sodium hydroxide takes up way less space In my cabnit.

So if you were my friend I would recommend you do not use Chris’ method and just dose as much Kalk as possible at night with no regards to alk.

I would instead recommend you first try to get outside air to your skimmer or use a co2 scrubber if you absolutely can’t run an air hose to outside air.
Then track your ph with an apex or something and switch to hydroxide dosing based off alk consumption.
Then when your average Ph gets to around 8.3 start skewing your dosing to the times your ph is lowest without causing a large alk swing.
Once you get to the point where your tank is consuming so much alk that your ph is getting above 8.5 start switching out some of your hydroxide dosing for sodium carbonate dosing (during the time your ph is highest).

I hope this helps

“So if you were my friend I would recommend you do not use Chris’ method and just dose as much Kalk as possible at night with no regards to alk.”
Chris’s method is NOT “dose as much kalk as possible at night”.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

He maintains over 17,000 gallons.

Yes, and he still doesn't understand kalkwasser. It's remarkable how he can falsely portray it to others the way he did above. Did you read what he wrote? Blatant misinformation.

 

[CoralChic101]

I don't understand. There's no need to dose saturated limewater (kalkwasser) for all evaporated water. Like any supplement, you can reduce the amount or potency of what you dose as low as you want. For years I used less than saturated limewater for this exact reason.

You don’t understand because you’re responding to people that are misquoting Chris continuously. This is like the MSM in these forums. lol

Yes, and he still doesn't understand kalkwasser. It's remarkable how he can falsely portray it to others the way he did above. Did you read what he wrote? Blatant misinformation.

 

[Garf]

You don’t understand because you’re responding to people that are misquoting Chris continuously. This is like the MSM in these forums. lol

The most Incoherent start to a rant I’ve seen today, cheers

 

[CoralChic101]

Yes, and he still doesn't understand kalkwasser. It's remarkable how he can falsely portray it to others the way he did above. Did you read what he wrote? Blatant misinformation.

To say he doesn’t understand kalkwasser is egotistical and stupid statement. You need this space to see you’re right about an equation?
You can type out as many equations as you like but what he is doing for the animals in his care and this industry is much more than you are doing sitting behind your keyboard. Chemistry is only one part of a reef ecosystem. Understanding how the marine life reacts to your equations is a big part in what makes him way more experienced then someone reciting textbook chemistry to prove a point. People like you should take a step back and see the bigger picture and long-term goals before claiming he is full of misinformation. Shame on you! What happened to supporting the people that are actually doing the good work for the animals? Instead, you sit back and critique a single screenshot (which I can’t find anywhere but on this thread) and from others that have completely misquoted him throughout these threads. And then you feel the need to double down and type that he didn’t respond to an email and therefore couldn’t comprehend what you were saying? You sound like a jerk, not a mentor. Sir, you don’t impress me at all.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

To say he doesn’t understand kalkwasser is egotistical and stupid statement. You need this space to see you’re right about an equation?
You can type out as many equations as you like but what he is doing for the animals in his care and this industry is much more than you are doing sitting behind your keyboard. Chemistry is only one part of a reef ecosystem. Understanding how the marine life reacts to your equations is a big part in what makes him way more experienced then someone reciting textbook chemistry to prove a point. People like you should take a step back and see the bigger picture and long-term goals before claiming he is full of misinformation. Shame on you! What happened to supporting the people that are actually doing the good work for the animals? Instead, you sit back and critique a single screenshot (which I can’t find anywhere but on this thread) and from others that have completely misquoted him throughout these threads. And then you feel the need to double down and type that he didn’t respond to an email and therefore couldn’t comprehend what you were saying? You sound like a jerk, not a mentor. Sir, you don’t impress me at all.

I’m not trying to impress you or anyone. I’m trying to make sure we all understand the same reality. You also mischaracterize my conversation with him, but since you haven’t seen it, I don’t blame you for that.

Do you believe what he wrote above is true?

That kalkwasser is unbalanced because it has two hydroxides and only one calcium?

There’s no misquoting, and when I was emailing with Chris, he would not say if he believed what he wrote or not. He could easily have said it was a simple mistake, or he believed it, or something else. He could have even have denied writing it if he didn’t. He didn’t. He choose to talk about other things. He simply disagreed that he gave any misinformation.

He may be super successful despite this lack of understanding. I am not taking anything away from his successes, just pointing out a fact.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

ToChemistry is only one part of a reef ecosystem. Understanding how the marine life reacts to your equations is a big part in what makes him way more experienced then someone reciting textbook chemistry

You believe he has more experience with kalkwasser in a reef tank than I do?

Reefing is not a contest, but if you make a statement like that, it is worthwhile to know why you think it and perhaps to know me before stating it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You sound like a jerk, not a mentor. Sir, you don’t impress me at all.

Jerk aside, in the spirit of being a mentor, or at least helpful to someone I don’t know, my last email to him gave a list of a bunch of ways that he might have experienced a calcium drop despite kalkwasser being slightly overbalanced to too much calcium, in hopes he might figure out what caused it. Here’s the exact email:


As a follow up, it might be worth looking into why you see a calcium decline when you presumably dose kalkwasser for all calcium and alkalinity, despite the fact that you should see the opposite.
For that to happen, the most likely scenario is that something else is adding alkalinity without you knowing it, hence you are not adding enough calcium and alk via kalkwasser to meet the whole demand.

Here are some possibilities:

Dosing nitrate in any form adds alkalinity when it is consumed.

1. Dosing phosphate in some forms adds alkalinity (though typically much less than dosing nitrate)
2. Dosing amino acids may add alkalinity
3. Dosing silicate will add alkalinity
4. Replacing evaporation with tap water or other source water that contains alkalinity
5. Doing water changes with a mix that has relatively higher alk than calcium EVEN IF the water change water has higher calcium than the tank water. For example, if the new salt water is 430 ppm calcium and 11 dKH, and the tank is 420 ppm calcium and 7 dKH, water changes will tend to deplete calcium if alk is maintained.
6. Slow dissolution of substrate that contains a substantial amount of magnesium in the calcium carbonate, relative to the demand by corals, will tend to lower calcium if alk is maintained.
7. Slow release of alkalinity for artificial rock (cement) can boost alk and that may deplete calcium if alk is maintained.

Are any of those possibilities in your systems?

 

[Semisonyx]

Apparently Chris was on ReefBum a few days ago. Keith said in his promo on IG that there would be no discussion about kalk. Haven’t gone back to watch it to see if that was the case

 

[KStatefan]

Apparently Chris was on ReefBum a few days ago. Keith said in his promo on IG that there would be no discussion about kalk. Haven’t gone back to watch it to see if that was the case

I did not watch the whole video but when it started kalk was an off limits subject.

 

[Garf]

On various streams there is much excitement about ridiculous polyp extension when applying this method. And it is true in my case, the polyps on sticks were vastly enlarged, almost immediately. In my case, I don’t think was a reaction to maintaining high pH at night. I’ve maintained and exceeded that pH now using a different method and have not noticed this phenomena. Maybe it was a cry for help, rather than revelling in its newly found water parameter.
I would like to hear about the coral growth explosion from folks using the Chris method, especially when their Alk has also gone through the roof.