Kalkwasser

[Gooseman]

I just bought a new kalkwasser to help with alk and calcium. Does anyone have any experience with these that could give any tips or ideas about the best way to set it up and maintain it. The LFS gives you an idea but i thought you guys may have other ideas and better hands on than they do.

 

[ccCapt]

First, what are your current calcium, alk and magnesium levels? Kalk is used to maintain ca and alk levels, not actually raise them. If your mag is low, you won't be able to raise the calcium or alk and keep it there. You want to use calcium chloride to get the ca around 420ppm and sodium carbonate/sodium bicorbonate to get alk around 8 dKH. Once you are at those levels, monitor them and see how much your tank uses everyday. Once you know how much is used everyday, you can work on figuring out how much dosing is needed. Usually kalk is mixed with RO water and used to top off.

 

[Gooseman]

Ok ... i will just hold off on getting it online till i have everything tested and know where i am then.

 

[Bifferwine]

I mix mine into the fresh top off water, and my ATO drips it into my tank gradually. You don't want to add too much at once.

 

[yote]

I've been slack about dosing kalk here lately.But I was just mixing it in my top off water,then adding it to the top off bucket.There my ATO could take care of the rest.

 

[Ithaca9]

Try this link. It answered all questions I had about Kalkwasser. I have been following the directions on here- mixing in dil. acetic acid to dissolve, then using a slow drip (I have a 46 gal tank).

https://www.livingreefs.com/forums/water-chemistry/538-what-is-kalwasser-and-how-to-dose-it.html

 

[Gooseman]

Well i took a sample of my water into the LFS since they test water for free ... they told me that the Magnesium is fine but the ALK is 8 and CAL is 340ish. So maybe tomorrow i will try to get things set up and test every other day for about a week or so till things settle where i want them.

 

[ccCapt]

Alk is slightly low, but the ca needs to come up quite a bit. Just remember, if you only use Kalk, it will affect both alk and ca. You should use seperate products to get your levels up, then dose kalk to keep them there.
What salt do you use? With those levels my guess is IO or 1 of the bad batches of RC with the low ca.

 

[Gooseman]

I was using coralife salt mix but, i switched to premium red sea salt last time i bought salt.

 

[fatman]

I do not wish to cause confusion, but I do also not wish for you to be confused by what already has been written. Kalkwasser will raise your calcium levels, and it will help to maintain your alkalinity. It will not significantly raise your alkalinity. At this point a few questions are in order. What do you have in your tank in the way of stoney corals and live rock? Do you have less or more coraline algae on your rock now in relation to when it was put in tank? Do you do regular partial water changes? And very important is what is your pH at mid light cycle? If you have not been doing partial water changes then you need to start. If your pH is low then it will have to be adjusted. With a low dKH it is very possible your pH is also low. Unless you wish a lot of coraline or are growing stoney corals you do not need a high calcium level. However a higher alkalinity is pretty much a must as your at the very bottom border of OK for alkalinity. That is not very good. It will definitely mean large pH swings at night after your lights go out. But, your pH must be adjusted first to make sure you do not have an ionic imbalance. Avoid calcium chloride at this point as you are very susceptible to an ionic imbalance possibly, depending on your pH and how it responds to adjustment if needed. There is a reason for a low alkalinity and a low calcium, usually it is one or the other not both. You however have not supplied enough information yet. Hold off on Kalkwasser at this time.

 

[Gooseman]

Hers is a list of all my corals ... Giant Cup Mushroom, 3 RBTA's, Green Mushrooms, Candy Coral, Toad Stools, Frogspawn, Green Star Polyps, Ricordia Mushrooms, Green Fungi Plate & several Zoa's. I have 150lbs of Lalo/Tonga LR and the amount of coralline algae is about doubled since i put the rock into my tank. My PH seems to hold steady at 7.8 doesn't really drop off to much. I do 5-10G water changes every week and have done so since cycling period. My dKH had been holding at 10 while is was dosing with Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium. It says that it is suppose to raise calcium & maintain magnesium. Once i ran out of that everything started to drop off. So instead of doing a lifetime of dosing i wanted to look into a kalkwasser to supplement. I have not introduced a kalkwasser at this time ... yet. Still doing research on it.

 

[fatman]

Your only significant calcium use is by your coraline. Coraline can use significantly large amounts of calcium when it is available. Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium is a product I have not really wanted to try. It goes against what nearly all other manafacturers areproducing and experts are recommending. It is supposed to build and maintain calcium and then is also is suppose to supply magnesium and stronium. Tanks do reef tank inhabitants do not utilize these elements in equal proportions normally. That is why most manafacturers supply two part preparations. One for calcium and one for alkalinity. I like most Seachem products but I would not recommend the use of Reef Advantage or Reef Complete. I would recommend you check your pH at mid light cycle before doing any supplementation, as wellI do not recommend the use of calcium chloride until you have a full undertanding of the chemistry of calcium and calcium buffers in sea water. There are good charts but the chemical equations often shown in many write ups are, to say the least , not much help to non chemistry people. Adjust, or try to adjust your pH as needed. If that is not needed or successful start kalkwasser. Stop other calcium supplements. Your coraline might fade a little, but you need to make sure just where your tank is pH wise first and then buffer wise, then finally deal with raising your alkalinity if you so desire.