Kalkwasser questions.

[Solarfall]

Alright so I've decided to try doing kalk top-offs because my calcium supplementing doesn't seem to keep up. There are spots of coralline that are starting to bleach and my calc is down to like 360 on a regular basis.

1. I've heard that kalk drops your magnesium. Is this true and does it mean I'll also have to get a mag supplement?

2. What's the best brand to get?

3. Is there any real danger in using it to top-off manually rather than having an ATO?

4. Need to know anything that is neccesary to dosing kalk.

Thanks, guys.

 

[ccCapt]

When calcification occurs, calcium, alk and magnesium are used in this ratio: aprox 1 meg/l alk - 18 ppm calcium - 2 ppm magnesium. So............

1- It's not that kalk really drops mag, althought it may precipitate a slight amount, it's more on the lines of if you need to dose calcium and alk, which kalk provides, you also need to dose mag, which kalk doesn't provide.
2- When I was dripping kalk, I used Mrs Wages Pickling Lime
3- The danger in adding alot of kalk at once is it has a real high pH, around 12 if I recall, and dosing alot at once can raise the pH in your tank too much.
4- Best way is to set up a drip system...like an IV bag thing.

Here's a few good articles to read.
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Chemistry and the Aquarium