question about dosing kalkwasser?

njfish77 · 11/06/2009, 05:32 PM

How do you properly dose kalk? Im thinking of using the ESV brand because i've used there 2 part before which was really good. I have a 56 gallon which is going to be mostly dominated with SPS. Would using kalk be more efficient than the 2 part dose? Im testing all cal. , alk., and mag. levels with salifert test kits. What are the benefits of dosing kalk? I have a 56 gallon tank.

hbuelta · 11/06/2009, 05:57 PM

Hi,

Kalk is a good way for maintaining alkalinity and calcium levels, but the problem with kalk is that it's pH is REALLY high (about 12), so the biggest challenge is not disturbing too much the tank pH as kalk is added... So :

- Dose kalk slowly, very slowly ( if you have a top-off system you can use it in series with the kalk stirrer and then top-off with kalk )
- As pH usually drops at night ( due to the release of CO2 by algae respiration ) it's a good idea to restrict kalk dosing to nighttime so it counters the pH nightly drop. (here you can optimize topping-off with kalk but ONLY at night time ( using for example a timer in top-off system)
- The safest and most trouble-free system is to control/monitor the tank pH (electronically) and then let the system control the kalk dosing .... (expensive...;-) )

Anyway, when dosing kalk, specially at the beginning WATCH CAREFULLY pH LEVELS

The main benefits of kalk ( to my understanding ) is that kalk is cheap ( compared to other solutions for the same goals of alkalinity/calcium), kalk is 'naturally' balanced and kalk favour the precipitation of Phosphate, thus helping maintaining your phosphate levels low.

Hope this helps !!!!

njfish77 · 11/06/2009, 06:19 PM

Ty for the info. Anyone have any pictures of there dosing systems or can anyone give me an idea on how to set one up the most cost efficient and space efficient way?

bohlke · 11/06/2009, 10:08 PM

I just set mine up, I pump air into a drip doser with an aqualifter. I am targeting 1G per day and I have a 6G drip doser so I think its pretty safe. So far so good.

cubsare1 · 11/07/2009, 08:11 AM

I just set one up using this method, very cheap and easy: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/skip/agu/kalkdripper.htm

Paco · 11/07/2009, 08:24 AM

I dose 1.5 tsp of kalkwasser mixed with half a gallon of water and 40 ml of vinegar. I mix this up and dump it right in. I do this every morning into approximately 150 gallons total water. I determined the necessary amount of Kalk by observing the tank over time. Tank pH rises about .2 or .25. I never have high pH. I always have low pH so this is never an issue. YMMV.

Playa-1 · 11/07/2009, 09:08 AM

I mix 30 gallons of Kalk at a time in a brute container. I use a dosing pump plugged into a controller to deliver measured amounts of Kalk periodically through-out the night. This replaces most of my evaporation. The controller and dosing pump will also top-off the sump when the water level gets low. The controller constantly monitors the pH levels and will kill the power to the dosing pump if the pH gets out of whack. Once the pH level is back to normal the controller will restore the power to the pump. It's more of a safe-guard and rarely comes into play, but it's nice not having to worry about the pH spike.

njfish77 · 11/07/2009, 03:59 PM

Im going to set up a system like the one cubsare1 has posted. I dont have much money to spend on an expensive system. It says The general rule of thumb in mixing kalkwasser is one teaspoon of kalk powder per gallon of water, this is correct? Im going to buy a ph probe to moniter the ph to watch for spikes. Im using a gallon jug filled with r/o and 1 teaspoon of kalk powder and letting it drip into the system slowly for top off. Anything im missing or any ill effects i should watch out for by doing this way. My tank evaporates a gallon a day so i would be putting a gallon of r/o with a teaspoon of kalk in everyday.

Sk8r · 11/07/2009, 04:07 PM

Mine is dirt simple. Piece of eggcrate jammed into a bucket (30gallon Brute) that is my topoff bucket. Inexpensive dual float switch (autotopoff.com) wired to a maxijet 1200 sitting on that eggcrate shelf in the bucket. I dump in a pound of Mrs Wages Pickling lime every month or so, (you have to manually 'set' your alk-cal-mg levels in your tank by hand-dosing the appropriate chemicals: kalk only holds it at a good level: not a good way to ARRIVE at a good level.) It will 'hold' until your mg runs low, then plummet, and you redose mg, set your levels again, and add more kalk. Never mind the white soup at the bottom: by the nature of water and calcium, water only holds so much cal at a time, so you CANNOT oversaturate your water (unless you also dose vinegar). No need for a reactor, or a fancy dosing system, just enough room for a topoff bucket, and a means to keep the intake of the pump out of the white soup---you do not stir it but once, because it's that 'saturation' thing. Once dissolved it stays dissolved. Period. If you have a topoff accident, you can fix your tank ph with ordinary bar sodawater, but don't overdo it---the system self-corrects very fast. I've had a few accidents, never lost a speciman.

ludnix · 11/07/2009, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Mine is dirt simple. Piece of eggcrate jammed into a bucket (30gallon Brute) that is my topoff bucket. Inexpensive dual float switch (autotopoff.com) wired to a maxijet 1200 sitting on that eggcrate shelf in the bucket. I dump in a pound of Mrs Wages Pickling lime every month or so, (you have to manually 'set' your alk-cal-mg levels in your tank by hand-dosing the appropriate chemicals: kalk only holds it at a good level: not a good way to ARRIVE at a good level.) It will 'hold' until your mg runs low, then plummet, and you redose mg, set your levels again, and add more kalk. Never mind the white soup at the bottom: by the nature of water and calcium, water only holds so much cal at a time, so you CANNOT oversaturate your water (unless you also dose vinegar). No need for a reactor, or a fancy dosing system, just enough room for a topoff bucket, and a means to keep the intake of the pump out of the white soup---you do not stir it but once, because it's that 'saturation' thing. Once dissolved it stays dissolved. Period. If you have a topoff accident, you can fix your tank ph with ordinary bar sodawater, but don't overdo it---the system self-corrects very fast. I've had a few accidents, never lost a speciman.

I agree with everything sk8r said, dosing kalkwasser can be really simple and there is no need for kalk stirrirs or expensive reactors. Just setup a system that lets you dose the saturated water and keep the kalkwasser mud away from the pump and you're good to go.

njfish77 · 11/07/2009, 06:43 PM

Thanks for all the help. I made a doser out of a 1 gallon vinegar bottle with some old r/o parts.

11/06/2009, 05:32 PM	#1
njfish77 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bergen County, NJ Posts: 584	question about dosing kalkwasser? How do you properly dose kalk? Im thinking of using the ESV brand because i've used there 2 part before which was really good. I have a 56 gallon which is going to be mostly dominated with SPS. Would using kalk be more efficient than the 2 part dose? Im testing all cal. , alk., and mag. levels with salifert test kits. What are the benefits of dosing kalk? I have a 56 gallon tank.

11/06/2009, 10:08 PM	#4
bohlke PBITAWA Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: at the super sweet NRC lounge Posts: 1,253	I just set mine up, I pump air into a drip doser with an aqualifter. I am targeting 1G per day and I have a 6G drip doser so I think its pretty safe. So far so good. __________________ There is a very fine line between a hobby and mental illness. ... (Dave Barry) Check out my reef tank upgrade project by clicking on the red house. Current Tank Info: 120G mixed reef

11/07/2009, 08:24 AM	#6
Paco Move Don Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 1,210	I dose 1.5 tsp of kalkwasser mixed with half a gallon of water and 40 ml of vinegar. I mix this up and dump it right in. I do this every morning into approximately 150 gallons total water. I determined the necessary amount of Kalk by observing the tank over time. Tank pH rises about .2 or .25. I never have high pH. I always have low pH so this is never an issue. YMMV. __________________ Fish are nitrate factories. Remove them and watch your nitrates come down. Current Tank Info: 120 mixed reef

11/07/2009, 04:07 PM	#9
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	Mine is dirt simple. Piece of eggcrate jammed into a bucket (30gallon Brute) that is my topoff bucket. Inexpensive dual float switch (autotopoff.com) wired to a maxijet 1200 sitting on that eggcrate shelf in the bucket. I dump in a pound of Mrs Wages Pickling lime every month or so, (you have to manually 'set' your alk-cal-mg levels in your tank by hand-dosing the appropriate chemicals: kalk only holds it at a good level: not a good way to ARRIVE at a good level.) It will 'hold' until your mg runs low, then plummet, and you redose mg, set your levels again, and add more kalk. Never mind the white soup at the bottom: by the nature of water and calcium, water only holds so much cal at a time, so you CANNOT oversaturate your water (unless you also dose vinegar). No need for a reactor, or a fancy dosing system, just enough room for a topoff bucket, and a means to keep the intake of the pump out of the white soup---you do not stir it but once, because it's that 'saturation' thing. Once dissolved it stays dissolved. Period. If you have a topoff accident, you can fix your tank ph with ordinary bar sodawater, but don't overdo it---the system self-corrects very fast. I've had a few accidents, never lost a speciman. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

11/06/2009, 05:57 PM	#2
hbuelta Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Barcelona, Spain Posts: 14	Hi, Kalk is a good way for maintaining alkalinity and calcium levels, but the problem with kalk is that it's pH is REALLY high (about 12), so the biggest challenge is not disturbing too much the tank pH as kalk is added... So : - Dose kalk slowly, very slowly ( if you have a top-off system you can use it in series with the kalk stirrer and then top-off with kalk ) - As pH usually drops at night ( due to the release of CO2 by algae respiration ) it's a good idea to restrict kalk dosing to nighttime so it counters the pH nightly drop. (here you can optimize topping-off with kalk but ONLY at night time ( using for example a timer in top-off system) - The safest and most trouble-free system is to control/monitor the tank pH (electronically) and then let the system control the kalk dosing .... (expensive...;-) ) Anyway, when dosing kalk, specially at the beginning WATCH CAREFULLY pH LEVELS The main benefits of kalk ( to my understanding ) is that kalk is cheap ( compared to other solutions for the same goals of alkalinity/calcium), kalk is 'naturally' balanced and kalk favour the precipitation of Phosphate, thus helping maintaining your phosphate levels low. Hope this helps !!!!

11/06/2009, 06:19 PM	#3
njfish77 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bergen County, NJ Posts: 584	Ty for the info. Anyone have any pictures of there dosing systems or can anyone give me an idea on how to set one up the most cost efficient and space efficient way?

11/07/2009, 08:11 AM	#5
cubsare1 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: menasha Posts: 507	I just set one up using this method, very cheap and easy: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/skip/agu/kalkdripper.htm

11/07/2009, 09:08 AM	#7
Playa-1 Moved On Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Laguna Niguel, CA Posts: 7,497	I mix 30 gallons of Kalk at a time in a brute container. I use a dosing pump plugged into a controller to deliver measured amounts of Kalk periodically through-out the night. This replaces most of my evaporation. The controller and dosing pump will also top-off the sump when the water level gets low. The controller constantly monitors the pH levels and will kill the power to the dosing pump if the pH gets out of whack. Once the pH level is back to normal the controller will restore the power to the pump. It's more of a safe-guard and rarely comes into play, but it's nice not having to worry about the pH spike.

11/07/2009, 03:59 PM	#8
njfish77 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bergen County, NJ Posts: 584	Im going to set up a system like the one cubsare1 has posted. I dont have much money to spend on an expensive system. It says The general rule of thumb in mixing kalkwasser is one teaspoon of kalk powder per gallon of water, this is correct? Im going to buy a ph probe to moniter the ph to watch for spikes. Im using a gallon jug filled with r/o and 1 teaspoon of kalk powder and letting it drip into the system slowly for top off. Anything im missing or any ill effects i should watch out for by doing this way. My tank evaporates a gallon a day so i would be putting a gallon of r/o with a teaspoon of kalk in everyday.

11/07/2009, 06:43 PM	#11
njfish77 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bergen County, NJ Posts: 584	Thanks for all the help. I made a doser out of a 1 gallon vinegar bottle with some old r/o parts.