kalkwaser

[Guest tgallo]

has anyone tried this yet, tonite i mixed one gallon of kalk with 36 ml of vinager and im starting to dose with a litermeter, i hope all is well in the morning.

[Aquariareview]

It works well... I have been doing it for 10 years.

[michaelg]

Yeah- I have been doing it for a long time.  One key aspect though is thorough mixing- with or without vinegar.  Might want to check your pH on the solution if you are worried about how much vinegar you are using.

 

Michael

[quazi]

I mix the kalk with the vinegar, then add that solution to the RO/DI water.  That way the full chemical reaction you are looking for when using vinegar is realized.

 

Incidently, this has worked great with my system.  

[Larry Grenier]

I've been doing it recently but in small quantities.  Anyone see any disadvantage with mixing-up a large batch like tgallo does and dosing it over a long period of time?  

 

Tony, between this and your Calc-reactor (I think you're running one), any pH problems?

[Guest phillipw]

What does the vinager do, is it for PH control?

[michaelg]

Increases the solubility of Ca(OH)2

Get more of the good stuff to dissolve.  Only partially related to pH- you need the Carbon parts from the acid.

 

Bingman's articles on Aquarium frontiers explain it in detail.

[dfladermaus]

The biggest problem with mixing large quantites of it is the exposure to air.  As CO2 mixes with the Kalk from the air you get precipitation of the calcium out of solution.  You want to make the vessel you are storing/dosing kalk from as air tight as possible.  I actually had an airtight dosing chamber made for me from Precision Marine.  It works like a charm.  I also add vinegar when I refuel the kalk reactor.

[Guest tgallo]

so far so good with the kalk spiked recipe.  i was using b ionic 2 part solution wich works great my ph would drop no lower then 8.25 and peak at 8.35 butnow im trying to find a cheaper solution. now without the b ionic and just my ca reactor , wich isent idielly dialed in properly just yet( working on it) my ph drops to 8.0 and peaks at 8.25 much larger swing.  ill keep my eye on the ph meter and see where it peaks tonite with the kalk vinager solution, im taking it slow only dosing about 90 ml a day for now thru the liter meter, ca level is at 390 and dkh at 8, mg at 1290 temp 79 and sg 1.026.

[Larry Grenier]

Paul,

 

I was just reading that Randy-Holmes Farley mixes-up large batches of Limewater for weeks at a time in a 44 gallon barrel with a loose fitting top and a litremeter feeding his sump.  He uses alot of powder in-case some is neutralized by exposure to Co2.

 

So there  :p

[Guest mbad]

Larry Grenier,

 

I wonder why Randy does not use vinegar, maybe b/c the acetic acid dissolves impurities in his low grade kalk powder (pickling lime) or the acetate build up from the vinegar causes rapid bacteria growth within the sand bed.  These bacteria secrete glycocalyx, a rock hard sugar-like substance, causing clumping.  This increased clumping outpaces the infauna’s  ability to naturally prevent normal clumping, which in turn leads DSB failure.

….just a guess.

 

 

Aquariareview,

 

Do you have a DSB?  Notice any clumping?

[Aquariareview]

I have a 7 in (southdown) deep sand bed in the tank. 3 in deep mud in a 30 long refuge, and 2 in deep mud in a 6 gal above tank refuge. Both of the refuge tanks have wall to wall macro. The sand bed is full of worms and the refuge tanks are full of small sand critters.

 

I have never noticed any clumping. I mix at a lower level of lime in all of my make up water. morning and eve. By adding at a higher dilution level and adding twice a day. there is less ph shock. also due to the large quanity of Macro, Co2 has been stripped from the system so I get very little precipitation.

[Guest snapper]

FWIW I built my own Nilsen reactor with a vinager infusion line.  I use a kent aqua doser mounted up above the reactor.  Vinager slowly drips into the reactor at the mixing pump suction.

 

Works pretty well