Kalkwasser

jtvaughn · Mar 21, 2018

Hello everyone, I tell you dosing kalk has some of the best advantages when it comes to one product that adds equal amounts of Ca2, ALK, and increases PH. I mix a half teaspoon per gallon of RO water daily because I have had an ATO issue years ago when too much Kalk entered my tank. I like using it but man the daily routine of mixing this stuff gets old quick.

Tahoe61 · Mar 22, 2018

How much do you mix at a time and how long do you let it sit?
What ATO are you using?

:-)

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 22, 2018

jtvaughn said:
Hello everyone, I tell you dosing kalk has some of the best advantages when it comes to one product that adds equal amounts of Ca2, ALK, and increases PH. I mix a half teaspoon per gallon of RO water daily because I have had an ATO issue years ago when too much Kalk entered my tank. I like using it but man the daily routine of mixing this stuff gets old quick.

I like limewater/kalkwasser too. It's all I used for 20 years. But it does have some limitations. Most notably:

1. The max amount you can dose in a day based on evaporation rates,
2. A slight tendency to deliver slightly more calcium than alk, relative to the demand, so using a lower calcium mix like normal IO is a good plan.
3. If you base the daily dose on evaporation only, then alk may change day to day based on evaporation rates. You can use a timed dosing pump to eliminate this issue

FWIW, you can get the same pH effect with one of the newer DIY two part recipes:

New DIY Two Part Recipes with Higher pH Boost
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-diy-two-part-recipes-with-higher-ph-boost.344500/

Second New DIY Two Part Recipe with Higher pH Boost
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/second-new-diy-two-part-recipe-with-higher-ph-boost.357080/