Food Grade Kalk vs. Pharma Grade Kalk

[Isaac Alves]

Last year, I switched from BRS Pharma Grade Kalk to Avast Marine's 5-gallon bulk option to save on costs. I think the Avast mix is similar to, or actually is, food-grade pickling lime (like Mrs. Wages), but I made the switch because both Avast and a lot of online resources suggested the difference is negligible.

Honestly though, after a year using Avast's Food grade, I'm wishing to go back to the BRS Pharma grade stuff.

A couple of reason:

1. The biggest reason...pharma grade held the pH so much longer in the reactor
2. I used less Kalk with the BRS formula, so am I saving money? I might still be saving money if I don't count my time.
3. There was never a solid sludge buildup like I have with the Avast Kalk.
4. I just want kalk to be less of a maintenance issue

But geez...a 5 gallon bucket at BRS is $260. Is this reasonable for Pharma grade?

What do others think?

 

[KrisReef]

Thanks for sharing your experience with these two products.

If a 5 gallon bucket lasts for a year then for less then a dollar a day the lower maintenance issue would be reason enough to pay the extra, how much extra is it?

I wonder how they process the different grades? I’m surprised that they are that much different, but seems like they are based on the original post.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There may be differences in these actual brands, but it is not a food grade vs pharma grade difference. There is no difference in the specifications that can explain any of your reported differences. The only specification difference I could find is that the USP pharma grade allows more lead than the food (FCC) grade.

 

[KrisReef]

There may be differences in these actual brands, but it is not a food grade vs pharma grade difference. There is no difference in the specifications that can explain any of your reported differences. The only specification difference I could find is that the USP pharma grade allows more lead than the food (FCC) grade.

^This is what I have often assumed for many products that are available in these two grade classes, with "Pharm" grade generally being significantly more expensive. The cost difference makes sense (to me) if the product is being used in a chemical production process but I always figured that food grade (OK to ingest) was sufficient for reefing applications.

But generalizations may be the road to less then satisfactory results, so I wonder. THanks again for posting this thread, and for the dialogue thus far.

 

[Isaac Alves]

I don’t know. That’s just been my experience.

There was a weird post somewhere where @AVAST Marine stated that they had switched food grade products because of some “issue”. I don’t recall but I think they had a blog post about it.

 

[KrisReef]

I don’t know. That’s just been my experience.

There was a weird post somewhere where @AVAST Marine stated that they had switched food grade products because of some “issue”. I don’t recall but I think they had a blog post about it.

I always want to insist that "You probably can't taste the difference" but I have to be careful incase somebodies baby reefer would put a cup full of Kalk power in their mouth!

 

[Isaac Alves]

I probably should purchase a smaller bag of the BRS and see what the ph and Alk do vs the avast grade.

Note— it is sealed in an air tight container as well.

 

[KrisReef]

I probably should purchase a smaller bag of the BRS and see what the ph and Alk do vs the avast grade.

Note— it is sealed in an air tight container as well.

Update this post if you do! Great info is useful.

 

[rtparty]

BRS kalkwasser isn’t like any other brand out there. It’s more granular and less powdery. BRS also sent a bunch of them out to be ICP tested and have a video about it

I would bet most on the market are just relabeled Mrs Wages

If you’re part of Ryan’s new Serious Reefs channel, he did a great video about kalkwasser just the other day

 

[Isaac Alves]

BRS kalkwasser isn’t like any other brand out there. It’s more granular and less powdery. BRS also sent a bunch of them out to be ICP tested and have a video about it

I would bet most on the market are just relabeled Mrs Wages

If you’re part of Ryan’s new Serious Reefs channel, he did a great video about kalkwasser just the other day

What?! I didn’t see it. I’ll check it out. Thank you.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Update this post if you do! Great info is useful.

For sure. I’m really curious. I only have my anecdotal experience, but I’m not sure. My memory is probably bad. It’s definitely frustrating to have to clean that reactor out all the time now though — so something is being left behind more than the BRS Pharma version ever did.

I should add I use the smaller K2 reactor.

 

[Isaac Alves]

BRS kalkwasser isn’t like any other brand out there. It’s more granular and less powdery. BRS also sent a bunch of them out to be ICP tested and have a video about it

I would bet most on the market are just relabeled Mrs Wages

If you’re part of Ryan’s new Serious Reefs channel, he did a great video about kalkwasser just the other day

Is this the video?

I’m making threads about trying to get the most value for my dollar and this video is members only…ha. Yeesh.

This hobby.

 

[KrisReef]

For sure. I’m really curious. I only have my anecdotal experience, but I’m not sure. My memory is probably bad. It’s definitely frustrating to have to clean that reactor out all the time now though — so something is being left behind more than the BRS Pharma version ever did.

I should add I use the smaller K2 reactor.

I have a calcium reactor. I tried Kalk many, many years ago and I struggled with it.

Sometimes I just want to go back to weekly water changes and not measuring anything ever!

 

[rtparty]

Is this the video?

I’m making threads about trying to get the most value for my dollar and this video is members only…ha. Yeesh.

This hobby.

Depends where you find value

 

[Fredlee]

I took a look at the two products in question.

Avast 5 gallon container has 22.5 lbs of Kalk @ $135.00 = $6.00/lbs.
BRS 5 gallon container has 38.0 lbs of Kalk @ $260.99 = $6.87/lbs.

Not a whole lot of difference in price. Also how does BRS get 38 lbs of kalk in a 5 gallon container and Avast have only 22 lbs. and why does one weigh so much more than the other, makes you wonder ?

 

[Isaac Alves]

I took a look at the two products in question.

Avast 5 gallon container has 22.5 lbs of Kalk @ $135.00 = $6.00/lbs.
BRS 5 gallon container has 38.0 lbs of Kalk @ $260.99 = $6.87/lbs.

Not a whole lot of difference in price. Also how does BRS get 38 lbs of kalk in a 5 gallon container and Avast have only 22 lbs. and why does one weigh so much more than the other, makes you wonder ?

Thanks for doing that. Didn’t even occur to me. That really changes the value prop for me.

 

[GSPClown94]

I took a look at the two products in question.

Avast 5 gallon container has 22.5 lbs of Kalk @ $135.00 = $6.00/lbs.
BRS 5 gallon container has 38.0 lbs of Kalk @ $260.99 = $6.87/lbs.

Not a whole lot of difference in price. Also how does BRS get 38 lbs of kalk in a 5 gallon container and Avast have only 22 lbs. and why does one weigh so much more than the other, makes you wonder ?

Simple, the extra weight comes from the lead in the pharma grade calcium hydroxide.

 

[Jimbo327]

Non-reef calcium hydroxide is about ~$1 per lbs in bulk (food grade). So yeah, you guys are definitely paying a reef premium.

 

[Isaac Alves]

I understand the cost, and trust me, I don’t want to pay a reef tax. I even noticed this evening that the Avast Bucket literally says under ingredients: Vitacal Mississippi Hydrated Lime (Food Grade). Which I think you can buy a 50lb bag for around $100.

My reason for this thread is that, in my usage of both brands, there is something significantly different between my experience using the Avast Kalk and using the BRS Pharma Kalk.

I’m just curious if others have used Pharma grade and food grade and seen a similar difference.

For me, the probe in the reactor reads different strengths between the two, and the pH drop in the reactor is very fast with the Avast Kalk. And finally, the sludge build up with the Avast Kalk over a months time is very noticeably greater (for me) than the BRS Pharma version ever was.

I don’t understand why.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Interesting, your experience (with the avast stirrer and different powders) is opposite of mine. While I didn’t notice/track potency differences between the two brands of powder, I sure noticed that the brs powder became a heavy sludge whereas Vitacal did not.

With the stirrer and brs I had to clean the reactor frequently. The way around this was to use less powder, and refill more often. With vitacal i could load up the reactor, and run it only cleaning it once or twice a year.

Many moons ago, I had always used brs in my ato reservoir (I never had the sludge issue noted with the stirrer though. Probably as it was measured to the volume of water in the reservoir). I’m thinking that having an over abundance of powder to water volume, plus not having much in the way of circulation in stock form, makes the stirrer prone to sludge formation (especially so with brs powder). Modding the stirrer helps with this, as does using less powder more frequently.

I currently just use saturated vitacal (last time a 50+# bag delivered from consolidated was about $120) in my top off.

Avast doesn’t hide the fact they use vitacal. In fact they have an entire write up about it on their site.

I haven’t tested to see which makes better tasting pickles though!

Oh and I’m not bashing one over the other, or stating one is better overall than the other. Just adding what my experience was with the two brands within the limitations of the avast stirrer.

Edit. How much, and how often are you adding powder? What’s the throughput of water through the stirrer and at what flow rate? Meaning are you well under the limits of the stirrer and only pushing a cup of water a day through it? Is the flow of water through it super slow like a dosing pump 24/7 or faster like an ato pump but in short duration bursts?