How Much Kalkwasser

[Guest JasonD]

Before I started using kalkwasser as topoff, my calcium was 300ppm and the dkH was 8.0. I first made kalkwasser at a concentration of 1/8 teaspoon per gallon and the Ca went to 340ppm and the dKH to 8.5. I've since slowly raised the kalk concentration to 1 teaspoon per gallon trying to raise both the Ca and dKH. Both levels have remained unchanged at the higher levels.

 

I use Salifert kits, and I read on RC that they are having problems with their kits. Should my Ca and dKH have gone up by now, or is this normal? What concentration are others using in their kalk mix?

 

BTW, coraline is growing all over the tank -- the back is almost covered after only 3 months or so. My 2 month old hammer coral is growing nicely, so I don't think the levels are to low.

[fry_school101]

My understanding is that kalk will only take your numbers up so high on its own and you will have to boost it with some additive to get your numbers up as high as you like. I'm dosing kalk and had the same thing happen. I had some kents calcium lying around so I added that until my numbers were good.

 

As far as the lime goes. Only so much of it can be absorbed by the water so you can add as much as you like and it will only be able to absorb the same amount. The extra will just sit there until it can be used when you add more water. The exception to this is you can get a little more in by adding vinegar to drop your ph. There is an article on RC that explains it in much more detail but hopefully this helps.

 

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

 

Here's a link to it. . .

[dandy7200]

Saturated kalkwasser is 2 teaspoons / gallon.

 

Saturated kalkwasser has a calcium content of 800ppm and 100dkh.

 

Does suck about the Salifert kits, I have several brand new ones sitting in a box that will likely just collect dust from now on. I just ordered some Lamotte kits and will review them after I use them for a little bit.

[fry_school101]

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

 

This one explains the problem you are having.

 

There is another one that is fantastic which goes through dosing methods, but I can't find it right now.

[flowerseller]

Before I started using kalkwasser as topoff, my calcium was 300ppm and the dkH was 8.0. I first made kalkwasser at a concentration of 1/8 teaspoon per gallon and the Ca went to 340ppm and the dKH to 8.5. I've since slowly raised the kalk concentration to 1 teaspoon per gallon trying to raise both the Ca and dKH. Both levels have remained unchanged at the higher levels.

 

I use Salifert kits, and I read on RC that they are having problems with their kits. Should my Ca and dKH have gone up by now, or is this normal? What concentration are others using in their kalk mix?

 

BTW, coraline is growing all over the tank -- the back is almost covered after only 3 months or so. My 2 month old hammer coral is growing nicely, so I don't think the levels are to low.

 

Water exchanges.

I would do water exchanges.

Use pre made, pre mixed salt water at an SG of 1.026.

Don't try to buffer the pH to your range and for gosh sakes don't add anything else to it.

Just good ole premixed saltwater exchanged over the course of a few days to = 25+ % of your tanks volume.

Keep up with your Kalk for ALL evaporation.

 

You're right about not seeing any difference between 1/8 tsp and a full tsp but you're better off with cloudy solution than clear because it will be diluted into your larger tank water volume if added slowly but steadily.

You will never get more than about an 1/8tsp to fully disolve into a gallon of water but you can get more to very temporarily stay supended as a cloudy mixture for a very short period of time. (less than a few short hours and it will be on the bottom) Don't worry, what remains is still saturated and very potent as a clear liquid and for most, the desired part to add.

Having said that, even that, will degrade to a low potency in a few days if left unstired and un replenished.

Enter Kalk reactors.

 

One thing I think newer users don't quite equait is that KALK is not a crystal type product like say calcium chloride is. You could get more volume of chloride to remain in sloution than you could a powdery substance like lime by volume. Lime is heavier therefore it falls out of solution in high concentrations in containers much faster than crystal type additives.

 

HTH

[bbyatv]

Another way that you can raise the calcium levels in the tank with saturated Kalk is by adding more of it. This can be accomplished by adding a fan over you sump and increasing your evaporation rate leaving more volume to be repleished with Kalk saturated water.

 

I easily keep my alk (3.2 meq/L) and calc (420 ppm) levels where I want them with just kalk but I also evaporate about 1.7% of my tanks water volume per day.

 

Bruce

 

Before I started using kalkwasser as topoff, my calcium was 300ppm and the dkH was 8.0. I first made kalkwasser at a concentration of 1/8 teaspoon per gallon and the Ca went to 340ppm and the dKH to 8.5. I've since slowly raised the kalk concentration to 1 teaspoon per gallon trying to raise both the Ca and dKH. Both levels have remained unchanged at the higher levels.

 

I use Salifert kits, and I read on RC that they are having problems with their kits. Should my Ca and dKH have gone up by now, or is this normal? What concentration are others using in their kalk mix?

 

BTW, coraline is growing all over the tank -- the back is almost covered after only 3 months or so. My 2 month old hammer coral is growing nicely, so I don't think the levels are to low.

[dandy7200]

A simple test (I think I was to vague in my first post) is to test the "saturated" kalkwasser. If it reads anything less than 800ppm calcium then it is not "saturated" kalkwasser. You can test the alk too but it becomes rather expensive to do so when you are plunging 5 full syringes of solution into the vial

[jamesbuf]

Now thats some good reading. Thanks to Chip, Dan, and Bruce for the knowledge. Making me want to finally setup my kalk reactor.

[davelin315]

My understanding is that kalk will only take your numbers up so high on its own and you will have to boost it with some additive to get your numbers up as high as you like. I'm dosing kalk and had the same thing happen. I had some kents calcium lying around so I added that until my numbers were good.

 

As far as the lime goes. Only so much of it can be absorbed by the water so you can add as much as you like and it will only be able to absorb the same amount. The extra will just sit there until it can be used when you add more water. The exception to this is you can get a little more in by adding vinegar to drop your ph. There is an article on RC that explains it in much more detail but hopefully this helps.

 

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

 

Here's a link to it. . .

 

From what I understand vinegar adds some phosphates to your system so has pros and cons.