Kalk to Carbo calcium

[Hermie]

I've been dosing it for the past several days using a 12VDC 1ml/min doser. I still need to calibrate it, but I'm dosing about 25 ml per day now and hoping to get up to 50ml or 75. Either way, any dosing now is going beyond my kalk supplementation limits since I am still using kalk at virtual maximum levels for tank size.

 

[SoggyNW]

I spent the evening getting the pump calibrated, carbo calcium mixed, and a diy reservoir figured out.

The calibration took a bit longer than it should. The app for the pump is absolute junk, freezes over and over, I had to manually close and restart it at least a half dozen times. In addition I couldn't get the pump perfectly dialed in, should be close enough though.

And for a reservoir I went with an old Nalgene bottle that I had kicking around. I measured the ml marks with a 100ml graduated cylinder and it appears to be spot on. Pretty spiffy for a $10 option.

I did what I could with dosing calculators and decided to start off with 20ml. It should put me in just a bit over what I was doing with the kalk and that's good because Ive been supplementing with bionic pretty heavy. I'll have to increase it more but for now we will see where this gets me.

 

[Hermie]

20mL is only like 400mL of Kalk... how much kalk wwere you dosing?

 

[SoggyNW]

20mL is only like 400mL of Kalk... how much kalk wwere you dosing?

No I was adding about a 1/2 gallon of saturated top off to a 50 gallon system.

I was trying to use the 2 calculators below to work out the conversion but I wasn't sure that I had it correct. The only comparable between the 2 was DKH/day.

Kalk Contribution Calculator

Aquarium calculator; Estimate the contribution of a kalk solution towards the calcium and alkalinity of a system.

www.hamzasreef.com

CARBOCALCIUM - Tropic Marin®

With CARBOCALCIUM, the total calcium and carbonate hardness needs of a typical reef aquarium can be covered with a single solution. Ultra Concentrated.

www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com

 

[Hermie]

No I was adding about a 1/2 gallon of saturated top off to a 50 gallon system.

I was trying to use the 2 calculators below to work out the conversion but I wasn't sure that I had it correct. The only comparable between the 2 was DKH/day.

Kalk Contribution Calculator

Aquarium calculator; Estimate the contribution of a kalk solution towards the calcium and alkalinity of a system.

www.hamzasreef.com

CARBOCALCIUM - Tropic Marin®

With CARBOCALCIUM, the total calcium and carbonate hardness needs of a typical reef aquarium can be covered with a single solution. Ultra Concentrated.

www.tropic-marin-smartinfo.com

If you were using 2000litres of kalk per day then the equivalent carbo calcium would be more like 200 mL very roughly.

For a 50 gallon system, dosing calcium up about 9ppm from the kalk contribution. So you should try to find how much calcium is needed to raise your system using carbo calcium (700g powder = 40,000mg calcium).

 

[Hermie]

For example, I have a 30 gallon system. I am basically maxed out on kalk through evaporation.

I'm starting Carbo Calcium at 25mL per day. This will only increase my calcium level by about 1.5ppm.
Kalk alone is doing like 5 ppm for me.


So in order to replace kalk entirely I would need to dose about 100mL per day of carbo calcium.

 

[BiggestE222]

So my tank has run out of track on the Kalk train and I've decided to switch over to Tropic Marin Carbo-calcium. I like the simple one additive solution. But in all of my googling I haven't found any info on how to actually switch from one additive to the other. Can I switch cold turkey or do I need to do it somehow gradually? Each additive has a different Affect on PH, but is it enough that it could cause me a problem? I'm usually around 8.2-8.4.

Tank photo

Maybe try making your own All for reef. If you have carbo Calcium. you only need a few more Tropic Marin products I liked the results but I am going from all for reef to Kalwasser lol

 

[Hermie]

Maybe try making your own All for reef. If you have carbo Calcium. you only need a few more Tropic Marin products I liked the results but I am going from all for reef to Kalwasser lol

how come?

 

[SoggyNW]

If you were using 2000litres of kalk per day then the equivalent carbo calcium would be more like 200 mL very roughly.

For a 50 gallon system, dosing calcium up about 9ppm from the kalk contribution. So you should try to find how much calcium is needed to raise your system using carbo calcium (700g powder = 40,000mg calcium)

I have a good idea of my system volume so I'm going to measure the drop over 24 hours and then make a calculation off of that. I agree that I'm probably not adding enough, But 200ml is over 4X the max that the instructions say can be added to a system.

So tomorrow after I get a 24 hour ALK drop the plan is... start low, test daily, top off with B-ionic, and slowly up the carbo calcium until I reach equilibrium.

This seems the safest way to implement the carbo calcium with the lag it has showing up in testing.

 

[Hermie]

I have a good idea of my system volume so I'm going to measure the drop over 24 hours and then make a calculation off of that. I agree that I'm probably not adding enough, But 200ml is over 4X the max that the instructions say can be added to a system.

So tomorrow after I get a 24 hour ALK drop the plan is... start low, test daily, top off with B-ionic, and slowly up the carbo calcium until I reach equilibrium.

This seems the safest way to implement the carbo calcium with the lag it has showing up in testing.

I'm just not sure how it's different than kalkwasser yet.

By the way, one of the Tropic Marin representatives (ceo) has reported multiple customers that use more than the max recommended. The max recommended, for my system, only gives about 1.5ppm calcium per day.

There's no logical reason for me to use carbo calcium instead of kalkwasser if I can get 6ppm calcium per day with kalk and I'm limited to 1.5ppm calcium with carbo calcium. So yeah the recommended max is more or less arbitrary IMHO.

 

[SoggyNW]

I'm just not sure how it's different than kalkwasser yet.

By the way, one of the Tropic Marin representatives (ceo) has reported multiple customers that use more than the max recommended. The max recommended, for my system, only gives about 1.5ppm calcium per day.

There's no logical reason for me to use carbo calcium instead of kalkwasser if I can get 6ppm calcium per day with kalk and I'm limited to 1.5ppm calcium with carbo calcium. So yeah the recommended max is more or less arbitrary IMHO.

No I think you are misunderstanding how concentrated carbo calcium is. According to tropic Marin carbo calcium has 40,000 mg ca/l. Kalk according to Seachem is 960 mg ca/l. Over 40x the concentrate.

So if I was dosing 2000ml/ day of max saturated Kalk, I can fully replace that with 50ml/day of carbo calcium.

 

[Hermie]

So if I was dosing 2000ml/ day of max saturated Kalk, I can fully replace that with 50ml/day of carbo calcium.

That's awesome. I hope my tank can handle it then.

 

[Hermie]

No I think you are misunderstanding how concentrated carbo calcium is. According to tropic Marin carbo calcium has 40,000 mg ca/l. Kalk according to Seachem is 960 mg ca/l. Over 40x the concentrate.

So if I was dosing 2000ml/ day of max saturated Kalk, I can fully replace that with 50ml/day of carbo calcium.

I've been going based on, 30 gallon system 14ml = 1ppm calcium increase

so for a 50 gallon system you'd need almost twice as much, and then to match kalk you need 9mg/litre of calcium.

 

[Hermie]

basically carbo calcium mixes up to 43,000mg calcium per litre, you can find out how much 20ml adds by dividing 43,000 by 50. then you just have to calculate that compared to your tank volume for mg/litre and compare that to the kalk's contribution.

 

[SoggyNW]

Here are the sites I'm getting my info off of. No one should be following any advice/math that I am doing on this subject. I'm just beginning to wade into the subject and have no experience beyond "add kalk to ato"

Info for Kalk.

Seachem - Reef Kalkwasser

www.seachem.com

Infor for carbo calcium.

Carbo-Calcium by Tropic Marin Redefines the Meaning of Concentrated | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Carbo Calcium by Tropic Marin is a new additive which packs an incomprehensible concentration of both calcium and carbonate buffer. Coming from the makers of the classic and iconic Turbo-Calcium…

reefbuilders.com

 

[Hermie]

its complicated thats why I posted in here to receive a knowledgable answer ;Joyful

 

[SoggyNW]

As long as you understand tha

its complicated thats why I posted in here to receive a knowledgable answer ;Joyful

As long as you understand that I'm not a source of reliable information on the subject

 

[blasterman]

Just a quick comment. I routinely switch back and forth between kalk and two parts and hybrid. Always trying to find a way around the kalk wall.

Anytime I switch fully away from kalk there's the inevitable alk consumption drop due to lower pH. It's not huge, but its there. Be aware of this when switching away from kalk.

 

[arking_mark]

Just a quick comment. I routinely switch back and forth between kalk and two parts and hybrid. Always trying to find a way around the kalk wall.

Anytime I switch fully away from kalk there's the inevitable alk consumption drop due to lower pH. It's not huge, but its there. Be aware of this when switching away from kalk.

This is what I have found as well. Higher pH = higher Alk/Ca consumption. So if you change from Kalk to non-elevated pH supplement your consumption goes down.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you were using 2000litres of kalk per day then the equivalent carbo calcium would be more like 200 mL very roughly.

typo