Kalkwasser reservoir

[hardcorn77]

I want to dose kalkwasser in my 30 gallon mixed and my dosing reservoir is a gallon. My math on a starting dose is only like 24 ml a day and it’s going to take me around a month to use it all. Will it still be good towards the end of the run? I would use it with top off but I use a BRS dosing pump on a timer three times a day and figured that would be too much of a hit to ph in one dump. Thanks in advance for any replies

 

[skey44]

You should be good. There is a reaction that lowers the pH of kalk when exposed to air but if your reservoir is sealed you should be fine is my understanding. Even if unsealed you will get a crust on top and this will keep the high pH somewhat stable. Either way it’s not going to go “bad” you just might not get as much of the pH benefits from the solution. I dose dilute kalk through my open top ato and I don’t notice any decrease in effectiveness over the week it is in the reservoir (still spikes my pH similarly at the end of the week as the beginning per my downstream pH probe)
Waiting for the chemist’s response to learn more detailed explanation, but this is my practical simplified explanation.

 

[hardcorn77]

You should be good. There is a reaction that I lowers the pH of kalk when exposed to air but if your reservoir is sealed you should be fine is my understanding. Even if unsealed you will get a crust on top and this will keep the high pH somewhat stable. Either way it’s not going to go “bad” you just might not get as much of the pH benefits from the solution. I dose dilute kalk through my open top ato and I don’t notice any decrease in effectiveness over the week it is in the reservoir (still spikes my pH similarly at the end of the week as the beginning per my downstream pH probe)
Waiting for the chemist’s response to learn more detailed explanation, but this is my practical simplified explanation.

Awesome… the reservoir is obviously not air tight so so it doesn’t form a vacuum and that was my concern. Thanks for your reply I appreciate it

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How did you arrive at that dose? It seems quite low. Well below 0.1 dKH per day.

 

[hardcorn77]

I used the brs calculator and wanted to start on the low side. I’m only dropping around 15 ppm of calcium every 7 days and do a 10% water change every 6 to 8 days. I figured I would start the research on kalkwasser now and this was the main question I had. I don’t want to dose 2 part so I don’t need two dosing pumps running so I figured I’d look into Kalkwasser. So would it still be good after a month in the reservoir?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok to start slow, just expect to increase considerably, even with your demand, and it may rise with kalk.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, it is fine for a month in a closed reservoir. It need not be air tight.

 

[hardcorn77]

Yes, it is fine for a month in a closed reservoir. It need not be air tight.

Perfect… thank you for your reply I appreciate it