Kalkwasser – Feeding Your Tank What It Desires

[cdness]

I think I will be going this route on my 125G tank when the build is done. Kalk stirrer will be used to avoid the pump replacement costs. Seems to be a bit mroe set and forget than dosing with 2 part. Also I am starting to use lots of 2 part so any savings there will be great.

Nice article and great job keeping on top of follow ups.

 

[btkrausen]

Yup, its MUCH cheaper than buying 2 part. It is sorta set and forget once you get it dialed in, but with anything, do your normal measuring to keep on top of it. Measuring calcium will also help you determine when its starting to deplete and you should add more.

FWIW, I cleaned out my kalk reactor every few months, and simply added kalk to it. You don't have to take out "old" kalk when you need to add more.

 

[mylifeismyown66]

Question: If the reactor just uses water from an ATO pulled through the reactor to dose your tank, how different is this from just using kalk in the ATO reservoir itself? Ive been dosing kalk just using it as my ATO water and wondering if a reactor would make a large difference.

 

[shred5]

One thing I need to warn people about is kalkwasser is not for tanks that run at a ph on the higher side, kalk has a very high ph . I have had several tanks that I could not use kalk on. Usually not a problem on larger tanks though. But before investing a a kalk stirrer people may want to see where their ph ends up. A stirrer is recommended for larger tanks, dripping is fine on smaller tanks.

Also on high ph tanks depending on how high you may only be able to add kalk at night when ph is lower. Another option depending on how high your ph is you may not be able to run as full top off and just run it intermittently, this may be an option for tanks that have high evaporation rates too.

A calcium reactor may be a better option on high ph tanks.

Just want people to know before they spend allot of money on a stirrer which are not cheap.

Dave Polzin

 

[shred5]

Question: If the reactor just uses water from an ATO pulled through the reactor to dose your tank, how different is this from just using kalk in the ATO reservoir itself? Ive been dosing kalk just using it as my ATO water and wondering if a reactor would make a large difference.

You can add it through your top off. A stirrer makes it automated and much easier. Just adding it in your top off you will need to mix up the kalkwasser before hand and added it to your top off water. If you poor the calcium hydroxide directly to your top off water you risk the calcium hydroxide being sucked up by the top off pump and going directly in the tank which would be bad. The other risk is kalkwasser is hard on the pumps and eventually they get all clogged up.

Basically with a stirrer it is just convenience and makes it so you do not continually have to mix up kalkwasser and decant the top portion. It also keeps the water at max saturation.

Dave Polzin

 

[mylifeismyown66]

Oh alright. Im not sure how much I personally would benefit from a stirrer then. I go through my 5 gallon bucket every 5 days or so. I dont mind mixing up a new batch every 5 days. Still havent had a pump issue, but I do keep it elevated in the bucket and a vinegar bath every now and again isnt a big deal. Thanks for the response.

 

[btkrausen]

To be clear, I don't have ANY pump issues since switching to BRS kalk. When using the Kent kalk my impeller would get eaten up after a few months of use. Since using BRS, I"ve gone a year or two on the same impeller and it still looks brand new.

The reason I like the pump style is that they are very easily, and cheaply, replaced if needed. Try buying the complete motor setup for a stirrer for $10 like you can buy a brand new Maxijet for the pump style.

 

[mylifeismyown66]

I started off with kent kalk and had no issues. Right now Im using two little fishies because it was given to me. Next I think I want to try the brightwell. From my understanding it also has trace elements and Mg in it so its more similar to dosing a 2 part like B-Ionic which I used to dose.

 

[btkrausen]

I started off with kent kalk and had no issues. Right now Im using two little fishies because it was given to me. Next I think I want to try the brightwell. From my understanding it also has trace elements and Mg in it so its more similar to dosing a 2 part like B-Ionic which I used to dose.

I never got to try the Brightwell, although I did buy a tub of it and still have it, unopened, downstairs. My thoughts were the same, try to knock out both Mg and Calcium in the same magical concoction

I'm fish-only for the time being, so I'm not dosing anything in the tank.

 

[Dowtish]

great info here, thanks everyone for their input.

 

[nova65ss]

First post here great write up thanks!

I currently struggle to keep my alk up it usually stays around 8 which I know is ok but hear around 10 is maybe better. With that said I use Seachem reef builder for raising carbonite alkalinity twice a week to keep around 9-10. Would using kalkwasser in effect keep my alk more stable and eliminate the need for to use the buffer? I currently keep my topoff water in a 3 gallon bucket and need to refill it once a week or maybe every 10 days. would adding kalk to the topoff be enough being I do not use that much topoff or would it maybe be a waste of time? This is for a 34 g Solona AIO tank. Thank you very much!

 

[skinz78]

Welcome to Reef2Reef

First post here great write up thanks!

I currently struggle to keep my alk up it usually stays around 8 which I know is ok but hear around 10 is maybe better. With that said I use Seachem reef builder for raising carbonite alkalinity twice a week to keep around 9-10. Would using kalkwasser in effect keep my alk more stable and eliminate the need for to use the buffer? I currently keep my topoff water in a 3 gallon bucket and need to refill it once a week or maybe every 10 days. would adding kalk to the topoff be enough being I do not use that much topoff or would it maybe be a waste of time? This is for a 34 g Solona AIO tank. Thank you very much!

 

[kuyatwo]

First post here great write up thanks!

I currently struggle to keep my alk up it usually stays around 8 which I know is ok but hear around 10 is maybe better. With that said I use Seachem reef builder for raising carbonite alkalinity twice a week to keep around 9-10. Would using kalkwasser in effect keep my alk more stable and eliminate the need for to use the buffer? I currently keep my topoff water in a 3 gallon bucket and need to refill it once a week or maybe every 10 days. would adding kalk to the topoff be enough being I do not use that much topoff or would it maybe be a waste of time? This is for a 34 g Solona AIO tank. Thank you very much!

With Kalk I still need to add alittle reef builder every other day to keep my alk at 9 dkh


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[nova65ss]

With Kalk I still need to add alittle reef builder every other day to keep my alk at 9 dkh


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so this confuses me a little I thought that was the point of the KW to keep it once you get it where you want it?

 

[Kbt]

so this confuses me a little I thought that was the point of the KW to keep it once you get it where you want it?

Not an expert, there's always links like this that's better: Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity

Ph, calcium, and alkalinity all do inter-relate, but it works the opposite as most people expect, repeated dosing with calcium will make it impossible for the calcium to precipitate and your calcium level may go down and PH go down also. Keeping all three in balance is the only way to keep calcium levels up. Most kalks don't include bicarbonate, and without kh buffers that keep your overall bicarbonate/carbonate hardness levels up, the calcium will hurt rather than help because it can't be used and may become toxic. Most new tanks have a dkh of 10 to 12. Time makes a mature tank lose those mineral levels and bicarb and strontium, magnesium, etc, supplements are the only way to get the alk and mineral level back up, most Lps and sps will die without them.

 

[rworegon]

I just started with kalk in my ATO. I use a 5gal water bottle as a reservoir. One question that was asked in this thread but never answered is do I need to clean out my reservoir each time I mix kalk and water? BTW the handle on the newer water bottles make it really easy to put the pump input hose at almost any depth you want to avoid sucking up the sludge at the bottm.

 

[mcarroll]

so this confuses me a little I thought that was the point of the KW to keep it once you get it where you want it?

You have it correct. Lime is a balanced additive, with correct amounts of calcium and alkalinity. Similar to a calcium reactor in this regard. If you have an imbalance and need to make corrections, two-part is what I'd use.

I just started with kalk in my ATO. I use a 5gal water bottle as a reservoir. One question that was asked in this thread but never answered is do I need to clean out my reservoir each time I mix kalk and water? BTW the handle on the newer water bottles make it really easy to put the pump input hose at almost any depth you want to avoid sucking up the sludge at the bottm.

The impurities are likely to be mostly magnesium...so not worth a lot of worry from a chemical standpoint. The leftover lime at the bottom isn't really a problem except that more powder in the bottom will always take more time to settle after stirring.

Clogging pumps is the main worry IMO, but not from the powder. To avoid this I'd recommend a reactor like the TLF Kalk 300 or Tunze 5074 that does not have a pump in the kalk stream. (Conventional designs typically have the pump in/attached to the reactor, often used to dose the solution as well.)

To understand the precipitation issue (and the use for vinegar with lime!), this article is a short and sweet read.

-Matt

 

[rworegon]

Clogging pumps is the main worry IMO, but not from the powder. To avoid this I'd recommend a reactor like the TLF Kalk 300 or Tunze 5074 that does not have a pump in the kalk stream. (Conventional designs typically have the pump in/attached to the reactor, often used to dose the solution as well.)

To understand the precipitation issue (and the use for vinegar with lime!), this article is a short and sweet read.

-Matt

Thanks for the link. I got a peristolic pump for the ATO exactly for the reason you stated above. I read a lot before doing this and heard about people having to replace pumps often. As stated in my previous post, I'm using a 5 gal "Sparklets" type water bottle for my reservior that has a handle on it. This allows me to thread the input line for the pump through the small neck and into the handle to control depth of the pump inlet.

Initial tests so far have shown a slight increase in PH, which isn't bad in my case as it was running somewhat low with all the windows closed up, was running 7.5 to 7.8, now running 7.9 to 8.2. This is only the first day so I will keep an eye on this. I have yet to determine if the 1tsp of kalk per gallon will be enough to maintain the alk in my tank. Alk seems to dissapear much faster than CA. Testing over the next week will tell that story.

 

[chefb_5]

awesome post!!

Ok I dose 2part from bulk can i still use my 2 part cal and alk? Since I have been dosing the alk and cal on the bulk 50ml pumps on my reefkeeper I have been keeping a steadyish level, but not where it needs to be will this help get it up to level? then once it does I will just have to back off the cal and alk level? Hope this makes sense! i will be adding the kalk to me ATO every week.