Kalkwasser cannot expose to CO2 ?

boxerzz · 08/16/2009, 08:49 AM

Anyone heard of this ? So if the kalk mixture is exposed to air it cannot be sotred for more than 2 days ?

Sisterlimonpot · 08/16/2009, 11:10 AM

Where did you hear/read that. I'm curious to the reasoning behind this as well.

MichaelLitoris · 08/16/2009, 03:35 PM

It's got to be funny though.

der_wille_zur_macht · 08/16/2009, 03:43 PM

Contact with excessive CO2 can cause carbonic acid to form in water. In the case of kalk, this causes calcium carbonate to precipitate, which weakens the solution - the precipitate won't dissolve back into solution.

Note that 99% of commercial kalk reactors use a totally sealed enclosure that's not open to the atmosphere. There are various reasons for this, but this is one of them.

If you were to run an air pump in freshly mixed kalk, you would certainly see this happen. On the other extreme, assuming the air in your house isn't terribly high in CO2, it's probably OK for kalk solution to have limited air exposure. To minimize the impact, don't agitate or aerate it, and if you are going to store it for a long period of time (more than a day or so), do so in a closed container that's filled with solution, i.e. one that has no air space in it.

08/16/2009, 08:49 AM	#1
boxerzz Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 606	Kalkwasser cannot expose to CO2 ? Anyone heard of this ? So if the kalk mixture is exposed to air it cannot be sotred for more than 2 days ?

08/16/2009, 11:10 AM	#2
Sisterlimonpot R.C. Fraternity President Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Litchfeild Park AZ Posts: 11,490 Blog Entries: 2	Where did you hear/read that. I'm curious to the reasoning behind this as well. __________________ Jimmy MASVC President Dishes are done man! Current Tank Info: 300 in progress

08/16/2009, 03:35 PM	#3
MichaelLitoris Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 53	It's got to be funny though. __________________ 100 gal (48x24x20) bare bottom with 250 pounds of live rock, 33 gal refugium and sump combo 2 x 250w XM halides, 2 x 54w T5 actinics, ASM G-3 skimmer

08/16/2009, 03:43 PM	#4
der_wille_zur_macht Team RC Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NY Posts: 17,749	Contact with excessive CO2 can cause carbonic acid to form in water. In the case of kalk, this causes calcium carbonate to precipitate, which weakens the solution - the precipitate won't dissolve back into solution. Note that 99% of commercial kalk reactors use a totally sealed enclosure that's not open to the atmosphere. There are various reasons for this, but this is one of them. If you were to run an air pump in freshly mixed kalk, you would certainly see this happen. On the other extreme, assuming the air in your house isn't terribly high in CO2, it's probably OK for kalk solution to have limited air exposure. To minimize the impact, don't agitate or aerate it, and if you are going to store it for a long period of time (more than a day or so), do so in a closed container that's filled with solution, i.e. one that has no air space in it. __________________ Inconveniencing marine life since 1992 "It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)