Dose with kalkwasser

[36boo]

If I been dosing calcium and alkaline everyday to keep it at the right levels when should I dose kalkwasser or should I not worry about it

 

[Anthony Wood]

You shouldn't be if your already dosing two part. Kalkwasser is a ratio of both alk and calcium so you would just be throwing off the levels in your tank.

 

[36boo]

You shouldn't be if your already dosing two part. Kalkwasser is a ratio of both alk and calcium so you would just be throwing off the levels in your tank.

Ok one more question is it better to stop dosing with calcium and alkaline and just dose with kalkwasser to keep the levels up

 

[Anthony Wood]

Ok one more question is it better to stop dosing with calcium and alkaline and just dose with kalkwasser to keep the levels up

Not necessarily better just a different way to keep levels consistent. Kalkwasser is definitely cheaper. My two cents keep doing the two part. Way less risk involved with two part. Now there are people out there stuck in the old ways and have great success but it's not my cup of tea.

Kalkwasser has a high risk of pH shocking the tank. You have to add so much of it along with other reasons it has to be added via your ATO. That involves fine tuning and have to have consistent water evaporation if your evaporation changes your adding more or less of Kalkwasser solution to the tank e.g. inconsistent levels. If your ATO goes whacky and sticks on you kill the tank. Or you forget to turn off your ATO doing a WC and dump a bunch of Kalkwasser solution in you kill the tank. I'm sure I'm missing a couple inherent risks buts that's the big ones off the top of my head.

Dosing two part you can fine tune easier and has way less inherent risks. You can also use a dosing pump. Kalkwasser you can not put on a Doser, I looked this up for countless hours and for the life of me can't remember a single reason why you can't put Kalkwasser on a Doser but do know you can't do it.

 

[36boo]

Not necessarily better just a different way to keep levels consistent. Kalkwasser is definitely cheaper. My two cents keep doing the two part. Way less risk involved with two part. Now there are people out there stuck in the old ways and have great success but it's not my cup of tea.

Kalkwasser has a high risk of pH shocking the tank. You have to add so much of it along with other reasons it has to be added via your ATO. That involves fine tuning and have to have consistent water evaporation if your evaporation changes your adding more or less of Kalkwasser solution to the tank e.g. inconsistent levels. If your ATO goes whacky and sticks on you kill the tank. Or you forget to turn off your ATO doing a WC and dump a bunch of Kalkwasser solution in you kill the tank. I'm sure I'm missing a couple inherent risks buts that's the big ones off the top of my head.

Dosing two part you can fine tune easier and has way less inherent risks. You can also use a dosing pump. Kalkwasser you can not put on a Doser, I looked this up for countless hours and for the life of me can't remember a single reason why you can't put Kalkwasser on a Doser but do know you can't do it.

Thank you o much that's the the answer I was looking for

 

[Anthony Wood]

To add to that since Kalkwasser adds alk and calcium in equal ratios if for some reason your tanks uptake is unequal you'll end up having to dose anyways. Most of the time that's calcium.

 

[Anthony Wood]

Thank you o much that's the the answer I was looking for

No problem! Just to throw it out there a lot of people that use Kalkwasser have calcium reactors on their tanks so they'll use Kalkwasser in order to keep pH levels from dropping. Since calcium reactors use CO2 injection to lower the pH of the water inside the reactor in order to dissolve it's media the water coming out of the reactor is very acidic (very low pH) and Kalkwasser keeps their pH from dropping which effects other things that I won't get into haha

 

[36boo]

No problem! Just to throw it out there a lot of people that use Kalkwasser have calcium reactors on their tanks so they'll use Kalkwasser in order to keep pH levels from dropping. Since calcium reactors use CO2 injection to lower the pH of the water inside the reactor in order to dissolve it's media the water coming out of the reactor is very acidic (very low pH) and Kalkwasser keeps their pH from dropping which effects other things that I won't get into haha

So it's easier t ok dose calcium and for alkaline instead of kalkwasser dosing

 

[Sabellafella]

If I been dosing calcium and alkaline everyday to keep it at the right levels when should I dose kalkwasser or should I not worry about it

How large is your tank? And how much 2 part do you dose of what brand?

 

[36boo]

BRS 2 part and about 3 Oz a day

 

[36boo]

BRS 2 part and about 3 Oz a day

36 gallon

 

[dragon99]

Kalk has benefits too. It's not all risks:

I'd suggest reading this (or any of the other countless articles Randy has written) and make your own decision about what's best for your tank.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/chemistry

 

[cmcoker]

I dose kalk via ATO. I have a 120g tank and used the same setup on my 55g before upgrading to the 120g.
I have an avast ATO, which uses a pressure sensor switch, connected to a aqualifter pump.
The ATO is on a digital timer that only allows it to run for 2 minutes every half hour.
I also add vinegar to my ATO reservoir.

I had a problem a few weeks ago, which caused about 6g of kalk to be dumped in over 24-36 hours. Nothing died. I did have a bacterial bloom from the vinegar. I turned of my ATO for a couple days and corrected levels but everything is plugging along fine now.
There are risks of overdosing kalk, but there are risks of overdosing any alkalinity supplement...
My setup is designed to mitigate those risks and has been working well for me.

I really recommend reading Randy's article on kalk, what your grandmother never told you about lime. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/

 

[Flippers4pups]

I'm old school and dose kalkwasser in my ato and dose alk using baked baking soda via drip. Dosing kalkwasser with a autotopoff double redundant switch for years and years (10 to be exact) with no problems whatsoever. I have a new house and it's tight! Dosing this way keeps my ph in check.

 

[Velcro]

One of the biggest benefits to kalk is that you are helping keep pH up. I plan to continue kalk until saturated top off no longer keeps up with demand, then start dosing 2 part

 

[FlyinBryan]

Kalk is king! When I added Kalk to ato water it really turned my tank around! It's very stabilizing for higher ph as well. I wouldn't get to wound up about small fluctuations in parameters from Kalk. My corals just grew like crazy after I started it.

 

[Velcro]

just make sure you start small with kalk. If you have low demand and you try to start with saturated kalk you WILL spike alk. People say kalk doesn't raise alk but it is the biggest piece of misinformation in reef chemistry in my opinion (especially if you have high CO2).

 

[wcharon]

I am also using saturated Kalk thru ATO but I am thinking to lower the strength because my PH is raising to 8.6 during final stage of light on. I added fans to my canopy to avoid electricity costs with the Chiller and my PH has raised due to more evaporation. My other parameters are spot in.

Should a Ph of 8.6 be a concern???

Thanks in advance...

 

[mrgoulding]

The only way to completely guard against a kalk overdose is to use a kalk stirrer (Avast k1) coupled with a peristaltic pump (Cole-Parmer Masterflex.) The peristaltic pump drips constantly throughout the day and night, which allows you to dose kalkwasser consistently without ph spikes. The peristaltic pump should be set to a drip rate just short of the amount of water evaporated so a completely independent ATO (Tunze Osmolator) can make up the difference with fresh RODI.

In my example, my tank evaporates about one gallon per day (93g cube,) but my tank needs 2.5 gallons of saturated kalkwasser to maintain proper calcium and alkalinity. I therefore increase evaporation with a small fan (Walmart) attached to my overflow, which blows across the surface of my display tank and triples evaporation to nearly 3 gallons per day. This method does require a stronger heater, as air blowing across the water's surface quickly depletes heat (and perhaps mitigates some of the need for a chiller during the hotter months.) I can still add a small fan to my sump and evaporate a fourth gallon per day, if needed.

With this method, it's difficult to surpass what kalkwasser can supply, especially if you have a larger tank with more surface area over which to move air and force evaporation. When calcium and alkalinity demand finally surpasses what you can evaporate, or you get sick of making RODI, a calcium reactor can be added.

If you're new to this and you're already thinking you've surpassed what kalkwasser can supply, then you should ask yourself if you can evaporate more water and implement a more consistent means of delivering the kalk.

Disclaimer: I learned this method from bbyatv: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kalk-calc-combo.200585/

 

[Reef Pets]

I have used Kalk+2 for years which keeps mag at the proper level as well.
All of my top off goes through an Avast stirrer. Keeps everything stable and colorful with little to no effort.