Thanks Mike, and this is better because it is a balanced dosage of calcium and alk buffer all at once?Sure thing...
"Kalk" or kalkwasser mix is simply calcium hydroxide in a powder form. You can buy it from any online marine aquarium store, and most LFS's carry it (although more expensive usually). Dosing is fairly simple, most mix it to max saturation (2 tsp per gallon dosing water...that's water going into the tank, mind you, not aquarium gallons...) let the slurry settle, and then drip the clear liquid into the tank using a doser. As for dosers, it doesn't have to be anything fancy, I made mine out of a rubbermaid juice container (the kind with a screw on lid), some airline, a plastic airline nipple and a plastic t-valve. I start the drip in the morning before I go to work, when the pH of the tank is lowest, as the pH of saturated kalkwasser is around 12. I replace all evaporated water in my tank with kalkwasser, or about 1 gallon a day in my 55. Still, this does not keep up with my Ca/alk demand, it slowly falls, as does Mg. So I periodically use a magnesium suppliment, calcium chloride and baking soda to adjust these levels back to where they need to be. If you decide to use kalk, you'll just have to play with dosage and concentration to figure out how much your tank needs.
MikeS
Dosing Calcium Chloride
- Thread starter PickledFish
- Start date
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Well, like just about everything else in this hobby, it has pros and cons. The pros are it does go into the system in balance between calcium and bicarbonate alkalinity (so if you don't have an existing imbalance in the tank, it won't cause one), when dripped it doesn't cause huge pH or ionic swings in the tank, it's easy to use and it's pretty cheap...you can even use pickling lime as kalk mix. Another pro is that it appears to help phosphates precipitate back into suspention, allowing them to be removed by skimming, carbon, water changes, ect....
The Con's are it can be a bit messy...it's more fine than talcum powder and tends to get all over everything when mixing :lol: it's a daily thing unless you get an auto top-off setup, but these can be pricy to aquire or build, and they like to fail when you are on vacation...:lol: I've seen many a thread where auto kalk dosers have failed and flooded the tank with kalk, causing big problems...another con is that it tends to drive down Mg faster than many other suppliments. Also, you can only add as much as your tank evaporation rate will allow, so often kalk alone will not totally meet the needs of a high Ca/Alk demand in the tank long term and must be supplimented with things like calcium chloride and a bicarbonate source.
On the whole, I've found it to be the best method for my particular setup...others with even higher Ca demands tend to go with things like Ca reactors and such....it all depends on your individual tank...
MikeS
