dosing kalk....

[Skeptic9962]

was told kalk is a good way to bounce PH up and also good source of calcium...have a bottle of it and was wondering how to dose....was told to take a bottle the same size as the kalk bottle pour half into the empty bottle and then fill it the rest of the way up with RO water shake and let settle for a day then go into the middle of the liquid part and grab 20cc's and squirt that straght into tank....is that a good way to do it or....dont know much about it.

thanks

 

[DonW]

Your way off. First thing to understand is kalk is a ca and alk additive. So you need to understand your tanks water parameters. Now for dosing, there again you have been misinformed. Rodi water will hold about two tbls of kalk per gallon. So if you take a gallon of rodi water throw in two spoons of kalk and stir it, once it settles it is then added to the tank. Do this quickly and you will nuke your tank. The kalk water must be added slowly, dripped into a high flow area well away from any pumps.
Take some time and learn about chemistry before adding anything except salt and water to your tank.

Don

 

[Skeptic9962]

wow yeah kinda frustrating was trusting what a LFS owner had said would work cause my ph and calc was a bit lower then it should be...would you suggest just not even using it at all? or go by what the bottle says basically and drip it into the tank slow?

tank tested out today at:

PH 7.9
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10
calc 390
alk 3.5
salinity 1.024
temp 79-80

i dose aragaMilk about once a week and C-Balance 2 times a week seems to be doing fine that way just dont know if kalk is worth it cause ive heard that its best to stick with an all in one like C-balance and then aragamilk for calcium mainly. any suggestions? or is that perfect and just toss the kalk lol

 

[DonW]

Is you alk really 3.5ppm? Stay away from aragamilk.

Don

 

[Skeptic9962]

no its 3.5 mEq/L test kit says for reef stay between 3.5-4.5 and its right at 3.5

what do you suggest instead of aragamilk?

 

[DonW]

no its 3.5 mEq/L test kit says for reef stay between 3.5-4.5 and its right at 3.5

what do you suggest instead of aragamilk?

Some sort of Ca Chloride powded product or just use the C balance that your already using.

Don

 

[returnofsid]

Look at 2 of the links in my signature. One is for 2 great DIY recipes for making your own Ca and Alk supplements. The other link is for a good reef calculator to use for determining how much supplement to add.

A word of warning though. There's some changes going on in the way DOW pellets and DOW flakes are being made which will change the recipe. I'm not sure when those changes go into effect but there's a good link on this forum about it.

Don will steer you straight when it comes to reef chemistry!! He's helped me, and a lot of others on here, tremendously.

 

[Reeferdude]

wow yeah kinda frustrating was trusting what a LFS owner had said would work

If I'm not mistaken that LFS owner has been dosing that same way for many many years. It may not be the recommended, the preferred, or the absolute "best" way to do it but it works. I would be asking "why"? Why does it work for him to dose that way? Not necessarily that it's wrong to do so simply because it's not recommended or preferred. Over the years you'll determine on your own what works and what doesn't. There is a wide range of acceptable variables that will constitute sauces in this hobby and many ways to apply the same knowledge and principles to your particular system, and since people form an opinion based on many different factors (especially on the internet) some experience and some hearsay, take everyone's opinion for what it is an "opinion".

 

[DonW]

If I'm not mistaken that LFS owner has been dosing that same way for many many years. It may not be the recommended, the preferred, or the absolute "best" way to do it but it works. I would be asking "why"? Why does it work for him to dose that way? Not necessarily that it's wrong to do so simply because it's not recommended or preferred. Over the years you'll determine on your own what works and what doesn't. There is a wide range of acceptable variables that will constitute sauces in this hobby and many ways to apply the same knowledge and principles to your particular system, and since people form an opinion based on many different factors (especially on the internet) some experience and some hearsay, take everyone's opinion for what it is an "opinion".

Its not even possible for it to work. If I follow exactly what was in the origonal post It will accomplish nothing.
Rodi water will only hold so much kalk before its saturated. 20cc of saturated kalk water mixture will not change anything unless of course the tank is a 2 gallon pico.

Don

 

[jezzeaepi]

I wouldn't consider science an opinion =P

 

[Skeptic9962]

allright yea he said he has done that for years and its worked fine in the past. but who knows.....owell. so with C-balance for a 29 gal. stocked fairly full of LPS, and softies how much is recomended to dose ive been dosing 1/2 a cap of A and B 2 days a week for the last 2 months...was wondering if thats enough or should i be dosing a bit more on that so Calcium comes up a bit?

 

[jezzeaepi]

Its not that it wont created kalk water, it will. Its just that such a small amount of kalk water isn't going to do anything. Im probably putting close to a gallon of kalk into my tank every day to replace evaporation(dosed very slowly over 14 hours... all at once would kill everything fyi). I only have a 38G tank. People with larger tanks are probably going through multiple galons of kalk a day. So, like Don said, unless you have a 2 Gallon pico its not going to do anything measurable.

 

[jezzeaepi]

No one can tell you the exact dosage for your tank. Its something that must be determined through some measuring. Youll need Alk and Calc test kits from SALIFERT. They are the only ones that are going to tell you with precisely what your levels are. Other brands are good for telling you "about" where you are, but for determinning calc/alk additions you need to know exactly what your usage is. Heres how to do it:

Take reading day 1 of both calc/alk
Do not add anything for 3 days(If you had lots of sps id say 1 or 2 days).
Take reading day 4 of both calc/alk at the same time you did on the first day.
Then, go to this site: http://reef.diesyst.com/
You enter your volume, your current alk/calc levels, your target alk/calc levels, and then what product you want to use.
The site will spit out a graph and show you how much fluid you need to add. Since this was a 3 day run , divide the numbers the site gave you by 3, and thats your daily usage.
Important to note:The calcium part of your 2 part solution can be adeed all at once. The alkalinity part must be added very slowly. You probably dont have a ph probe, but if you did, would see how quickly adding just a tiny amount of alkalinity fluid will spike your ph. For examply, adding about 5ml to my 38G all at once would cause the PH to rise by .15 or .2 almost immediatley. Your corals hate this. What I do is slowly drip, by hand, a 3-4ML of it in a high flow place, then walk away for a bit. Come back drip some more, slowly, etc untill youve dosed it all.


Alright so let me know if any of that makes any sense. =P

Peace

 

[DonW]

allright yea he said he has done that for years and its worked fine in the past. but who knows.....owell. so with C-balance for a 29 gal. stocked fairly full of LPS, and softies how much is recomended to dose ive been dosing 1/2 a cap of A and B 2 days a week for the last 2 months...was wondering if thats enough or should i be dosing a bit more on that so Calcium comes up a bit?

Honestly if all your dosing is that tiny bit, I really doubt you need to be dosing anything at all. Weekly water changes is plenty until your demand get higher. Save the additive until you actually need it.

Don

 

[Rod Buehler]

It sounds like the LFS is doing Mr Calfo's "kalk slurry" If you google kalk slurry there will be a number of hits

 

[Reeferdude]

allright yea he said he has done that for years and its worked fine in the past. but who knows.....owell. so with C-balance for a 29 gal. stocked fairly full of LPS, and softies how much is recomended to dose ive been dosing 1/2 a cap of A and B 2 days a week for the last 2 months...was wondering if thats enough or should i be dosing a bit more on that so Calcium comes up a bit?

Every tank is different. You might want to use Calcium Chloride to bump it up if it's low then maintain it with the Kalk and C-Balance. I've been using C-Balance for many years and like it...It'll be a balancing act until you figure out what works for your system...Keep those pics coming of that rimless, you got me thinking "new tank" when I seen yours sitting there...

 

[Reeferdude]

It sounds like the LFS is doing Mr Calfo's "kalk slurry" If you google kalk slurry there will be a number of hits

Been around for a long time no doubt. You guys don't even want to know how I dose my Kalk. I'd be shunned. Never lost a single life or nuked my tanks either...

 

[DonW]

It sounds like the LFS is doing Mr Calfo's "kalk slurry" If you google kalk slurry there will be a number of hits

The slurry or balling method does not use settled lime water as stated in the origonal post.

Don

 

[Rod Buehler]

correct, I guess I should pay better attention