Kalkwasser, best invetion ever!!!ª

[ruppertb]

My Nitrates and Phos are a little high, about 20 on the nitrate, but that doesnt seem to be a problem with my zoa/lps dominated tank
I keep my alk at about 9-10, dose pro alk buffer one a week (i think thats what its called)
Ph stays about 8.2 and calcium is about 420, sometimes lower, right b4 I do my bi monthly water changes. It seems to drop about 10 ppm per week.

 

[Lt Nos]

Does Kalk cause a drop in Mag levels given the spike in cal and alk?

 

[subielover]

Does Kalk cause a drop in Mag levels given the spike in cal and alk?

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[efrain torres]

only use kalk in my tank and use h2o salt for water change and mantain mg very easy

 

[Boboreef]

I used to dose kalkwasser when my tank was mix reef.. And I used ivy bag ( get the one that have large opening on the top ) and I hang it on the wall.. The drip is same with second on the wall clock. Works wonder..

 

[Harry_Y]

The two easiest ways are:

1. Throw Kalk (Pickling Lime) in your Top Off water

or Better

2. Get something like the two little fishes Kalk reactor and put it in line with your top off line

Unless you really have a high demand system, Kalk is the way to go.

Easy and really hard to screw it up

 

[phil519]

I use a PM kalkreactor. Our club had a group buy on them a few years back and I picked one up then. Works great and I have it inline with my Tunze Oz. The PM reactor has a little silver dollar sized plug in the top which you uncork every once in a while to conveniently add more kalk without having to take apart the whole thing. MG is replenished via water changes and every once in a while some kent tech M (which on a separate subject was savior to me against bryopsis).

 

[Troylee]

I use a PM kalkreactor. Our club had a group buy on them a few years back and I picked one up then. Works great and I have it inline with my Tunze Oz. The PM reactor has a little silver dollar sized plug in the top which you uncork every once in a while to conveniently add more kalk without having to take apart the whole thing. MG is replenished via water changes and every once in a while some kent tech M (which on a separate subject was savior to me against bryopsis).

use brightwells kalk+2 it comes buffered with mag and strotium.... designed for people like me who haven't changed there water in over 6 months lol.....

 

[phil519]

use brightwells kalk+2 it comes buffered with mag and strotium.... designed for people like me who haven't changed there water in over 6 months lol.....

thanks...Good to know...i just still have this big tub of kalk...which i'll use up first before trying brightwells.

 

[Henry C]

Kalkawasser works excellent. I drip mine around a drop every 20 seconds or so. I run it 24/7 from a 5 gal food grade bucket. When I make it I let it sit overnight before I use or at least until its settled. When using it this will help keep your calcium and alkalinity in balance. Then you just have to add whatever compound you need to bring up your level. Def. lowers the amount of 2 part you need to add. It also works good for killing aiptasia anenomes by making a paste and covering the anenome completely with it.

 

[stanlalee]

I use it fully saturated in my ATO which replaces half a gallon daily in my 30g (open top + two halides). Maintains my calcium and alk completely for the most part. With ATO alot of what percentage it can maintain is dependent on how much you are evaporating. I used the reef calculator and a half gallon of saturated lime a day equalled the amount of two part I was dosing. being fully saturated I max out its ability to maintain ca and alk but I like the idea of being dosed in small amounts throughout the day opposed to the manual one time daily 2 part dosing I was doing not to mention it is WAY cheaper. Depending on the salt I am using at the time I may occasionally have to add a small amount of carbonate buffer or calcium chloride but very little. I have probably 85% sps.

 

[mjplumber]

Thinking about using Kalk, Is anyone using a ph controller to dose your kalk mix? I was thinking about setting up a 2nd Ato to use with kalk @ night and was wondering how some of You guys are controlling the ph in your tank from going to high or is that not an issue?

 

[Murfman]

Thinking about using Kalk, Is anyone using a ph controller to dose your kalk mix? I was thinking about setting up a 2nd Ato to use with kalk @ night and was wondering how some of You guys are controlling the ph in your tank from going to high or is that not an issue?

I haven't seen an issue with pH while dosing Kalk. I use a pH meter to monitor but not to control it. Mine drops to 8.1 at night and goes to 8.3 during the day.

 

[Troylee]

my ph runs 8.2 at night and 8.3 to 8.4 during the day.... i am replacing about 6 gal of water daily with my ato and it's packed with kalk lol.... granted i have a sps tank so it's very demanding but i have found the kalk to work way better than dosing daily by hand.....

 

[VelasCorals]

I just installed my TLF Kalk reactor yesterday. I'm tracking the data and will be posting a write up with the results that I received.

 

[Troylee]

^^^^ sounds good please keep us updated... i was gonna buy a deltec a friend of mine has but can't get myself to do it since topping off with kalk alone is getting the job done... if someone can convince me a reactor works better and show me why im all for it!!!! right now it's one of theose things if its not broke don't fix it...

 

[Maximus]

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/54471-took-my-calcium-reactor-offline.html :wink:

 

[mjplumber]

Does the kalk also help with mg levels or do you still have to dose?

 

[Maximus]

You still have to dose mg in addition to the kalk.

 

[redtop03]

I made a drip system for my pickling lime (kalkwasser) out of a 5g salt bucket...I've been having some trouble keeping my PH above 7.8 at night time also,this has already helped that

after seeing the positive effect on my PH,it was also increasing during the day with the continuous drip,I was a little concerned with that....so

I've redesigned it...I now have my bucket sitting beside my sump and have an aqualifter pump connected with my fuge light to dose at night time only.....

I'm using an air valve to control the drip rate....I'm already seeing new growth on my orange cap and the color is improving greatly.....

I added the air stone on the intake end figuring it might help to filter out some of the particles,it's raised up from the bottom of the bucket so that only the top 4 gallons are used to help keep the particles out of the drip line and out of the tank....

I also added the check valve to the output end to keep the lime water from draining back into the bucket,it helps the pump to restart dosing more quickly after a power down but it restarts just fine without it,just takes longer for the lime water to reach the output....

I mix 2 tablespoons of Mrs. Wagers in the 5g bucket,it usually takes about a week to use up 4g,I pour out the last gallon because of the particles and mix a new bucket full,I'll dose it for a week and skip a week...I don't have much calcium demand but with my method,it's holding my Ca steady and my Ph is stable as well

kalk is the best thing that's ever happened to my tank