Dosing with Kalkwasser

Jfountain179 · 04/10/2007, 07:51 AM

Having trouble understanding the dosing levels. Is Kalkwasser Mix a daily additive with fresh water top offs or do you add it to the tank everyother day. Please explain how to add this Mix. Thanks

Sugar Magnolia · 04/10/2007, 08:09 AM

Daily additive. 2 tsp per gallon of RO/DI, mix well and let settle. I just slowly pour mine into a high flow area.

frank2926 · 04/10/2007, 08:11 AM

you need to check your levels to figure out how much your tank is using. It will depend on your bio load. Try using it every other day. If that is maintaining your alk and calcium then thats your timetable. Adjust your use accordingly.

seapug · 04/10/2007, 08:18 AM

The dosing rate is based on how fast your tank uses it. First buy a reef test kit and see if you actually need it before you start dosing it. Depending on what you have in your tank and what salt mix you use, you may not need it at all. I have some extremely vigorously growing SPS corals in my tank and use Reef Crystals salt mix. My calcium stays over 500 all the time and it's the Alkalinity that gets depleted so the only additive I use is baking soda-- which is much easier to dose than Kalk.

megan · 04/10/2007, 08:39 AM

seapug

Is that "regular" baking soda?

seapug · 04/10/2007, 11:57 AM

Yep, plain old Arm & Hammer. 3 teaspoons will raise 50 gallons 2.8 dkh and won't make your ph go out of control. Whenever my dkh goes below 7 I add 3 teaspoons to 1/2 gallon of topoff water and pour it in the sump. No "dosing system" required and has done wonders for my corraline algae growth. For disbelievers and those with a general interest in this, the technique is a outlined in the Reef Aquarium Vol. 4 (purple cover) in the section on correcting calcium and alkalinity imbalances. They reprinted it from this website:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

frank2926 · 04/10/2007, 01:35 PM

This will help

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

04/10/2007, 07:51 AM	#1
Jfountain179 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Lincoln Park, New Jersey Posts: 86	Dosing with Kalkwasser Having trouble understanding the dosing levels. Is Kalkwasser Mix a daily additive with fresh water top offs or do you add it to the tank everyother day. Please explain how to add this Mix. Thanks __________________ Justin Current Tank Info: AQ70 filter, 3 powerheads, Deltec MCE300, PC+MH combo

04/10/2007, 08:09 AM	#2
Sugar Magnolia Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Northern VA Posts: 17,691	Daily additive. 2 tsp per gallon of RO/DI, mix well and let settle. I just slowly pour mine into a high flow area. __________________ Adrienne The only thing to fear is fear itself....and spiders.

04/10/2007, 08:18 AM	#4
seapug Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: 4980 ft. Posts: 7,954 Blog Entries: 1	The dosing rate is based on how fast your tank uses it. First buy a reef test kit and see if you actually need it before you start dosing it. Depending on what you have in your tank and what salt mix you use, you may not need it at all. I have some extremely vigorously growing SPS corals in my tank and use Reef Crystals salt mix. My calcium stays over 500 all the time and it's the Alkalinity that gets depleted so the only additive I use is baking soda-- which is much easier to dose than Kalk. __________________ insert clever saying here. Current Tank Info: 200 gallon custom Marineland DD peninsular tank. LPS dominated mixed reef. Previous 90 gallon mixed reef TOTM April 2009.

04/10/2007, 11:57 AM	#6
seapug Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: 4980 ft. Posts: 7,954 Blog Entries: 1	Yep, plain old Arm & Hammer. 3 teaspoons will raise 50 gallons 2.8 dkh and won't make your ph go out of control. Whenever my dkh goes below 7 I add 3 teaspoons to 1/2 gallon of topoff water and pour it in the sump. No "dosing system" required and has done wonders for my corraline algae growth. For disbelievers and those with a general interest in this, the technique is a outlined in the Reef Aquarium Vol. 4 (purple cover) in the section on correcting calcium and alkalinity imbalances. They reprinted it from this website: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm __________________ insert clever saying here. Current Tank Info: 200 gallon custom Marineland DD peninsular tank. LPS dominated mixed reef. Previous 90 gallon mixed reef TOTM April 2009. Last edited by seapug; 04/10/2007 at 12:07 PM.

04/10/2007, 08:11 AM	#3
frank2926 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: phila Posts: 1,645	you need to check your levels to figure out how much your tank is using. It will depend on your bio load. Try using it every other day. If that is maintaining your alk and calcium then thats your timetable. Adjust your use accordingly.

04/10/2007, 08:39 AM	#5
megan Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: PA Posts: 94	seapug Is that "regular" baking soda?

04/10/2007, 01:35 PM	#7
frank2926 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: phila Posts: 1,645	This will help http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html