kalkwasser

[jose hernandez]

so i want to use kalkwasser i have a 5 gallon ro air tight bucket for it i have a ecotech versa dosing pump i evaporate around 2 gallons daily how much kalk should i disolve in the 5 gallons and how many mls should i dose

 

[ryanjohn1]

Go into the search bar there’s plenty of threads about it bud.

 

[besskurz]

Unfortunately, you wont find here a magic recipe.

Reefing requires a little bit of math in cases like this.

First, find how much KH is dropping per day.
And try to define, what product / brand you will use. There are many brands with different approaches and concentration.

You should never simply dump 2 gallons of kalk in your tank because this is exactly the same evaporation you have.

Evaporation and KH reduction will happen at different speeds. So this means that the calculation will not be that simple.
You will probably need to replenish lots od fresh water and just a couple of oz/ml of KH.

Keep in mind that with such evaporation your bigger risk is first finding stability in your salinity levels.

 

[Bakki]

Once you figure out your daily consumption of alk you can use this calculator:

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/KalkContribution.php

 

[jose hernandez]

Using this more to help with low ph day I get 7.7 with lights on night it drops to 7.5 I run a hose from my skimmer to the outside of the window does not help bought a ph probe thinking it was faulty calibrated or and still same result really low ph

 

[besskurz]

If false reading is excluded, probably your room has a very high concentration of co2. There are threads with long explanations about how to fix low ph issues.

 

[jose hernandez]

I purchase a co2 meter and it’s under 600 my apartment is on the ground floor towards the back of the building no real fresh air

 

[KStatefan]

2 teaspoons per gallon and dose to match demand. Your bucket will need some type of vent to let air in to replace the water volume removed.

 

[jose hernandez]

Shouldn’t it be sealed I thought exposing air to the kalk mix would make it less potent

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Shouldn’t it be sealed I thought exposing air to the kalk mix would make it less potent

That's the conundrum. Displacing what you take out is the key.

Mix to saturation and set your doser to dose up to your daily amount not exceeding what you evaporate.

At the same time monitoring your alk and calcium up take so that you don't skyrocket those parameters.

 

[Pistondog]

How is the air exchange? 600 ppm co2 is not bad if accurate.
High ambient co2 is the major cause of low ph.
What do you think is causing the low ph, if not ambient co2?

 

[jose hernandez]

Honestly don’t know this is a old building

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If the 600 ppm CO2 is accurate, the pH likely is not (or the reverse).

If the water is pH 7.6 and the air is 600 ppm CO2, and the alk is 7 dKH or higher, simple aeration will raise the pH. If it does not, one of or both of the measurements is off.

http://www.reefedition.com/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium/
The Aeration Test

Some of the possible causes of low pH listed above require an effort to diagnose. Problems 3 and 4 are quite common, and here is a way to distinguish them. Remove a cup of tank water and measure its pH. Then aerate it for an hour with an airstone using outside air. Its pH should rise if it is unusually low for the measured alkalinity (Figure 2). Then repeat the same experiment on a new cup of water using inside air. If its pH also rises, then the aquarium’s pH will rise simply with more aeration because it is only the aquarium that contains excess carbon dioxide. If the pH does not rise in the cup (or rises very little) when aerating with indoor air, then that air likely contains excess CO2, and more aeration with that same air will not solve the low pH problem (although aeration with fresher air should). Be careful implementing this test if the outside aeration test results in a large temperature change (more than 5°C or 10°F), because such changes alone impact pH measurements.

 

[jose hernandez]

alk is 8.1 but have not tested in a couple of days will test once i get home

 

[sayurasem]

Assuming your tank is 200 gallons (average evaporation is 1% water volume), and average alkalinity consumption is 0.5 -1.0 dkh per day. You can start dosing 3,320ml up to 6,640ml of kalkwasser during lights out evenly (dusk to dawn)

Use this calculator if you know your water volume and tank’s daily alkalinity consumption. http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[Doctorgori]

That's the conundrum. Displacing what you take out is the key.

Mix to saturation and set your doser to dose up to your daily amount not exceeding what you evaporate.

At the same time monitoring your alk and calcium up take so that you don't skyrocket those parameters.

saved me some typing …thanks