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

[Garf]

There is a disconnect between reason and reality. There shouldn't be. Both are needed to build and communicate knowledge.

What do you mean by cobblers?

Old English phrase, bollockss.

 

[Acrofiend]

I should also note that I’m using sodium hydroxide using Randy’s recipe.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’ve been doing this for about a week. Pegged at 8.3. Alkalinity has been going up but I turned up the brightness of my lights to increase alk consumption during the day. I wasn’t getting growth on a lot of pieces and now I am but it could also be that I turned up the light percentage. No deaths or stn so far. Should also note my nitrates are 20 and phosphate ~.30.

I’m not sure that turning up lights is going to increase alk consumption except as it raises pH, unless it was pretty low to begin with.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Upshot is don’t screw with your Alk, to benefit pH. Probably why Chris talks about mitigating pH reduction with adequate aeration and stuff.

That is certainly my opinion. Pick your target alk for other reasons, and adjust pH as desired within that limitation.

 

[Acrofiend]

I’m not sure that turning up lights is going to increase alk consumption except as it raises pH, unless it was pretty low to begin with.

Yes pH goes to 8.4 with lights on now. Before it was 8.3 all day. The pH controller is set to not go below 8.3.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes pH goes to 8.4 with lights on now. Before it was 8.3 all day. The pH controller is set to not go below 8.3.

I'm just clarifying what I believe is the nature of the effect.

 

[Stanpr6]

Well I followed his discussions closely on Reefs and Reefbum channel. Yes he is adding kalk PAST his evaporation rate and topping off with slightly slighty concentrated salt water.

He is also using potassium hydroxide as an alkalinity source. I have no idea why instead of Sodium Hydroxide. It is nothing new as well and makes sense for a large scale operation to some extent. It will make carbonates certainly.

Here is my version of adding kalk at night and the resulting pH swing tuned in to less than 0.08 diurnal pH swing once dialed in.



This is all it takes. I started using B-Ionic

Thank you for the apex coding

Can you tell me what OSC is abbreviation for?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Wheel re-invented. Woot!!!

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

Crazy hazy, he doesn't use reactors because his tank is the reactor.

 

[Shooter6]

I had to switch over to the slurry style. 2 cups of kalk powder to 30g of rodi. Jebao slw20 on the bottom keeping extra kalk in suspension.
I did this as my consumption is higher then my evaporation rate.

On top of the 15ml per min of slurry I also dose 200ml of tropic marin all for reef, 160ml of redsea alk, 160ml of calcium, and 200ml of mag daily.

For most the slurry isn't necessary, or suggested, but for some it's a great benefit in keeping our parameters up where they need to be.

 

[topjimmy]

I’m trying to figure it out as well. Best I can tell, it’s dose your entire day’s evaporation at night with saturated kalkwasser kept in a closed container. I.e., if you evaporate 5 gals a day, get a 5 gal contained, fill it with RO water and 6 tbs per gallon of kalk, mix it up and dose it between lights out and lights on. Apparently this results in a higher pH boost than a kalk reactor.

You need to keep the kalk in suspension. You are dosing a sort of slurry in that method.

 

[rbourgeois64]

I've tried the ACI method, and it does increase my PH but also increased my ALK to over 13 and Calcium over 500. Didn't seem to affect the tank at all and all the corals looked fine but could never get to 8.3 Ph without my other parameters going through the roof. I do have more evaporation than volume of Kalk water I was able to add to the tank. I wonder if the slurry method may work better. Anyone in the same boat?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Aci grows and sells corals, why is everyone else trying so hard to raise their ph a couple of points?

 

[drawman]

I've tried the ACI method, and it does increase my PH but also increased my ALK to over 13 and Calcium over 500. Didn't seem to affect the tank at all and all the corals looked fine but could never get to 8.3 Ph without my other parameters going through the roof. I do have more evaporation than volume of Kalk water I was able to add to the tank. I wonder if the slurry method may work better. Anyone in the same boat?

I get the idea that you would need more coral or calcifying organisms to pull it off (I've wondered how easy it would be for most tanks). Either that or supplement with a CO2 scrubber.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've tried the ACI method, and it does increase my PH but also increased my ALK to over 13 and Calcium over 500. Didn't seem to affect the tank at all and all the corals looked fine but could never get to 8.3 Ph without my other parameters going through the roof. I do have more evaporation than volume of Kalk water I was able to add to the tank. I wonder if the slurry method may work better. Anyone in the same boat?

Slurry effect on pH per unit of alk added is identical to fully dissolved kalkwasser.

I’m not a fan of the slurry idea, though folks have been trying it for decades.

 

[Shooter6]

I've tried the ACI method, and it does increase my PH but also increased my ALK to over 13 and Calcium over 500. Didn't seem to affect the tank at all and all the corals looked fine but could never get to 8.3 Ph without my other parameters going through the roof. I do have more evaporation than volume of Kalk water I was able to add to the tank. I wonder if the slurry method may work better. Anyone in the same boat?

Slurry would not work better. Your attempt to up ph via kalk is fine but you should not dose kalk via ph measurements. Ph increase Is a byproduct of kalk dosing and the benefits should be viewed as a bonus. Not the main purpose.

 

[jhuntstl]

This is how the method was explained to me.

I would recommend increasing the volume of kalkwasser dosed into the system per unit time; this will increase both the pH and the alkalinity. Both parameters are important in recirculating aquatic ecosystems. Because the average pH value in your system is below the natural seawater value, I recommend moving towards increasing system pH to ~8.30 - 8.40. Using kalkwasser to achieve this will increase alkalinity, however this alkalinity is hydroxide-based, not carbonate-based (which is the metric utilized by most aquarists, but is not entirely suitable when hydroxide salts (such as calcium hydroxide) are being dosed on a regular basis). In short, the alkalinity value in the system will increase, however I would recommend that you try to keep in mind that this increase in alkalinity is of a different nature than the "industry standard" alkalinity, and that you don't need to be concerned. Without going into tremendous detail, hydroxide-based alkalinity tends to be less stable than carbonate-based alkalinity, so in the event that the alkalinity in the system gets over 10 dKH (or even 15 dKH), figure that the value can fluctuate dramatically over the course of a day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This is how the method was explained to me.

Well, whoever said that does not understand chemistry of seawater and I would not take advice on chemical issues from them.

The comment about hydroxide alkalinity is entirely wrong in multiple ways and should be ignored.

At the same pH and total alkalinity, there is no more hydroxide present just because you dosed it that way than if you got there by dosing carbonate. As soon as hydroxide hits the water, it gets converted into carbonate by combining with bicarbonate (plus some other things, like bicarbonate by combining with CO2, etc.

 

[Shooter6]

This is how the method was explained to me.

I'd definitely stop listening to that person and start researching dosing more. That person sounds dangerous to your reefs well being.

 

[jhuntstl]

I figured that would ruffle some feathers.

I'm not here to advocate for the method, just share what I've been told. I am testing it. I've always been open of my failures. If this becomes the next one, I'll be more than happy to share.

 

[Shooter6]

I figured that would ruffle some feathers.

I'm not here to advocate for the method, just share what I've been told. I am testing it. I've always been open of my failures. If this becomes the next one, I'll be more than happy to share.

Hopefully no corals are injured in your experimenting. Remember they are living animals after all.