Anyone have problems after switching to kalk?

roadrashpaul · May 19, 2014

I meant to take some pics but forgot last night. Since switching to kalk (~3 weeks ago), I have lost a big monti cap, I am losing another smaller grape monti, my birds of paradise doesn't look great and my clam is gaping. All my lps and softies look great but my sps is dying. My monti just bleached out and started turning brown. The tips of my bird of paradise where it was growing have started turning brown and its not extending fully. Clam was looking awesome earlier in the week and over the weekend has started gaping.

I checked my params last night:

Cal: 320
Alk: 8.9
Mag: 1280

Did not check nitrates or phosphates. Going to try to do that tonight. I did a 10gal water change on Thursday and plan to do another one tonight or tomorrow.

Any suggestions? It may not be the kalk but just seems all my problems started when I started using it.

Pete polyp · May 19, 2014

Check your Ph. Kalk increases Ph. Your CA and mag are also low. Try to raise CA to around 400 and your magnesium to 1350.

Tahoe61 · May 19, 2014

How are you administering the Kalk and how long after mixing are to adding the solution to the tank. Also yes bring up the mag.

roadrashpaul · May 19, 2014

Pete polyp said:
Check your Ph. Kalk increases Ph. Your CA and mag are also low. Try to raise CA to around 400 and your magnesium to 1350.

I will check it tonight. I planned to bring both of them up some.

roadrashpaul · May 19, 2014

Tahoe61 said:
How are you administering the Kalk and how long after mixing are to adding the solution to the tank. Also yes bring up the mag.

Mixing it in a 5 gal bucket. Letting it sit overnight and then siphoning out the clearish water while making sure not to get any of the powder on the bottom. It is then gravity fed through my top off.

Dowtish · May 19, 2014

You needed to know exactly what your alk and cal levels were, more importantly ALK, when you started dosing. It sounds to me that you spiked your numbers too fast. Montis will be the first to show an alk swing in my experience.

I would stop using kalk for now. Get your numbers exactly where you want them first. Then start using the kalk to maintain those numbers. You will have to test every single day for about 2 weeks to make sure you are dosing the right amount.

roadrashpaul · May 19, 2014

I had my ALK between 8-9 daily using baking soda for 2-3 months. It never varied much so I did get lax in my testing for it.

I certainly didn't test every day when I started the kalk but I was testing about every 4-5 and my alk never jumped much. It got up to around 10 for a couple of days but I adjusted it back down slowly. Not saying you aren't correct but I didn't notice a jump that I would have thought would cause this kind of problems.

Dowtish · May 19, 2014

Was you mag and cal that low when you started? or did they fall to those numbers since starting?

roadrashpaul · May 19, 2014

Dowtish said:
Was you mag and cal that low when you started? or did they fall to those numbers since starting?

They have fallen since starting it. I don't remember their exact numbers but I think cal was around 390 and mag was 1300 or so.

I believe you are correct though. After you mentioned the alk spike I started doing some reading on the effects and it is basically everything I am experiencing. Tonight I noticed some tissue receding on my candy/trumpet coral. If I only lose the monti's I will be perfectly happy with that. If I keep it more stable now, I hope the trumpet will pull through. The only thing I really don't want to lose is my clam. It's still gaping but not as bad as yesterday. I moved it down on the sandbed tonight in some lower flow water to see if it would help some.

Do you think it would be beneficial to move it to a more stable tank until I get this one figured out or will that stress it even more?

Dowtish · May 20, 2014

I would leave it where it is.

Get your calcium up to at least 420. Mag at 1350.

When you dose the cal and mag it will drive your alk down, so you will have to dose it a bit to keep where its at. Once you get the numbers perfect, then start your kalk again. But drip it conservatively since the numbers falling wont hurt near as much as spiking them. then dial it in slowly to the exact amount you need to drip to maintain your numbers.

roadrashpaul · May 20, 2014

Thank you for the help and advice Chris. I really appreciate it. I guess everyone will get to see what not to do with a tank this weekend :lol:

Paul B · May 20, 2014

The only time my tank looked lousy was when I used Kalk. I used it for about a year, big mistake.

Dowtish · May 20, 2014

roadrashpaul said:
Thank you for the help and advice Chris. I really appreciate it. I guess everyone will get to see what not to do with a tank this weekend :lol:

No problem man.

Paul B. your tank requires its own entire forum because it runs differently than anyone elses on the planet.

ReefPiracy · May 20, 2014

I found kalk raises cal more then alk.

Dowtish · May 20, 2014

SloppyWhenWet said:
I found kalk raises cal more then alk.

Well being that it is Calcium Hydroxide yes.

But if your corals are consuming calcium it can be added at the proper doses and it will maintain all the big 3.

aquariumworks · May 20, 2014

Possible low DO(Dissolved Oxygen)?
What's your pH?

This is all fairly new growth, I had a misfortune with a faulty heater in January.
Wiped out 90% of my coral with a temp of 91 deg., I'm surprised my fish made it..
So I figured it would be a good time to try a more economical way of supplementing, since I'd almost be starting from scratch...

I switched back to Kalk after 10 years of using C-Balane and EcoSystem Reef Solution; Simply for economics..
I mix 3 table spoons of Kalk in one gallon of RODI and it every other day as evap.(pour off the clear solution into the sump near my skimmer intake)
On opposing days to Kalk mix, I use Strontium Chloride(2 Table spoons in one gallon), and Bright-well MagnesIon-P(2 table spoons in one gallon)

Weekly I add NF metals, Potassium, and 5ml of lugol's (This was part of my supplementing before switching back to Kalk)

120 Gallon Mixed Reef

NO3 - <10 PPM
PO4 - <.1 (Note: before using Kalk PO4 was .1-.25)
CA - 420 PPM
MG - 1470 PPM
SR - 16 PPM
DKH - 10Âº
SG - 1.026
pH - 8.6

roadrashpaul · May 20, 2014

Not sure about the dissolved oxygen and forgot to check PH last night. I have not had ph problems in the 7 months or so this tank has been running though.

Pete polyp · May 20, 2014

From what I understand its hard to increase calcium and alkalinity unless you're using concentrated kalk. I accidentally dosed 3x my daily consumption on Saturday at full saturation rodi. It had no impact on calcium or alkalinity. My Ph did rise to 8.72 though which probably should have killed a bunch of stuff. So far I haven't lost anything, and the effects may not be seen for quite a while still.