Dosing Kalkwasser with new tank - first timer

[Punchanello]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping for some advice on how people might begin to dose Kalkwasser on a new tank.

I have a 300 litre system that's about 3 or 4 months old. Over the past 4 weeks I've started to see coraline growth so I added 5 or 6 'test' SPS 3 weeks ago which are definitely surviving. I'm seeing alk drop consistently but water changes are no longer keeping up with demand. I've dropped approximately .6dkh in the past two weeks and changed out about 20% of the water during that period.

I've always used 2 part as my main supplement but I wanted to see how far I could get with Kalk on this build. I have no experience so looking for advice on how I might start. I will use a doser.

Current Alk is 7.4dkh, I would like to have it at 8.0 to start off on the safe side.

Here is my thinking which I would loveif you could check - By my calculations, if I use half-saturated (1 tsp per gallon) kalkwasser I would need approx 3 litres to raise my alkalinity to 8.0. So dosing approximately 215 mls gradually per day over two weeks is a pretty safe base to start from, and then I can ramp up from there to account for any increased take up of Alk. On top of the dosing I had also considered mixing a quarter tsp per gallon in to my ATO to help both reach the desired target Alk and start to account for any increased take-up, but I'm not sure if that is a recipe for disaster.

Grateful for any feedback on whether this is a sound approach or whether you would do it differently. Thanks!

 

[DIFish]

IMO- Fully saturate your calc around 2 tsp per gallon for easy dosing. Not many good reason not too and saves space and mixing time.
I would not dose through the ATO. I know some people do but it tends to clog and evaporation is harder to control than a dosing pump.
Kalk is more of a maintaining levels dosing due to the PH bump, so get you parameters where you want them and dose it at the rate you are losing it.
This reef calculator should tell you all you need to know if you use the saturated limewater option. Kalk dosing is easy and almost foolproof. Best of luck! https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[Punchanello]

IMO- Fully saturate your calc around 2 tsp per gallon for easy dosing. Not many good reason not too and saves space and mixing time.
I would not dose through the ATO. I know some people do but it tends to clog and evaporation is harder to control than a dosing pump.
Kalk is more of a maintaining levels dosing due to the PH bump, so get you parameters where you want them and dose it at the rate you are losing it.
This reef calculator should tell you all you need to know if you use the saturated limewater option. Kalk dosing is easy and almost foolproof. Best of luck! https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Thank you! I thought 1 tsp might be a little more conservative but by the sounds of it, not something I need to be too worried about. Thanks for the calculator link

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you! I thought 1 tsp might be a little more conservative but by the sounds of it, not something I need to be too worried about. Thanks for the calculator link

It’s fine to use a less than saturated solution and I did so for many years since I did dose by ato and saturated was not needed.

 

[Jeroen1975]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping for some advice on how people might begin to dose Kalkwasser on a new tank.

I have a 300 litre system that's about 3 or 4 months old. Over the past 4 weeks I've started to see coraline growth so I added 5 or 6 'test' SPS 3 weeks ago which are definitely surviving. I'm seeing alk drop consistently but water changes are no longer keeping up with demand. I've dropped approximately .6dkh in the past two weeks and changed out about 20% of the water during that period.

I've always used 2 part as my main supplement but I wanted to see how far I could get with Kalk on this build. I have no experience so looking for advice on how I might start. I will use a doser.

Current Alk is 7.4dkh, I would like to have it at 8.0 to start off on the safe side.

Here is my thinking which I would loveif you could check - By my calculations, if I use half-saturated (1 tsp per gallon) kalkwasser I would need approx 3 litres to raise my alkalinity to 8.0. So dosing approximately 215 mls gradually per day over two weeks is a pretty safe base to start from, and then I can ramp up from there to account for any increased take up of Alk. On top of the dosing I had also considered mixing a quarter tsp per gallon in to my ATO to help both reach the desired target Alk and start to account for any increased take-up, but I'm not sure if that is a recipe for disaster.

Grateful for any feedback on whether this is a sound approach or whether you would do it differently. Thanks!

Check! 3.15 ltrs.