Mix Baking Soda, Cal and Mag together?

[sen5241b]

I'm going to dose from my ATO water and yes I know some have suggested it’s a bad idea because evaporation rates can very a lot. If I do it that way, could I put Baking Soda, Kent Turbo Cal and Kent Mag all together in the water assuming I do not add so much that it causes precipitation?

 

[Piratefish]

Why don't you raise the levels to where you want them and dose Kalk to keep them there? Have you looked at Bulk reef supply? they have some good vids on dosing.

 

[Brian_G]

Why don't you raise the levels to where you want them and dose Kalk to keep them there? Have you looked at Bulk reef supply? they have some good vids on dosing.

The only thing is that kalk doesnt add mag, in fact it depletes it, and it would need a mixing pump to keep it mixed all the time because kalk settles out super fast.

now thats a heck of a run on sentence. :)

 

[Ogaawd]

The only thing is that kalk doesnt add mag, in fact it depletes it, and it would need a mixing pump to keep it mixed all the time because kalk settles out super fast.

now thats a heck of a run on sentence. :)

Brian? Im not so sure about it settling out fast, once the Kalk has saturated, the water should be clear and stable except for C02 taking it out? if the water is cloudy its got undissolved kalk floating in it , thats why some people add vinegar to up the concentration, with a kalk reactor there isn't much choice because your adding new water all the time?

 

[Brian_G]

I used a kalk reactor up until I got my new house and now I'm just dosing daily. you need to make the mixture more concentrated the more you grow your tank out. That's going to make it cloudier and going to need a pump. If you jist mix it enough to saturation point then I doubt that would even be close to maintaing the cal and all levels wwithout adding more water than what has evaporated.

 

[ccCapt]

Kalk is saturated at aprox 2 tablespoons per gallon of fresh water. if you add more, it doesn't make the solution any stronger, the kalk just won't dissolve and the water will stay cloudy.

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Piratefish]

The only thing is that kalk doesnt add mag, in fact it depletes it, and it would need a mixing pump to keep it mixed all the time because kalk settles out super fast.

now thats a heck of a run on sentence. :)

Brian I am dripping the clear Kalk like cc said. Sorry should have been more clear. You are right about Kalk using Mag.

 

[Brian_G]

Kalk is saturated at aprox 2 tablespoons per gallon of fresh water. if you add more, it doesn't make the solution any stronger, the kalk just won't dissolve and the water will stay cloudy.

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

so youre saying that if you are using kalk and and the cloudy water dips into the tank, its not doing any better than dripping the solution with only 2 tbsp per gallon?

 

[Ogaawd]

so youre saying that if you are using kalk and and the cloudy water dips into the tank, its not doing any better than dripping the solution with only 2 tbsp per gallon?

not really, it will dissolve into the watercolumn but you arn't really regulating the dose, also any heavy metals like copper, or other impurities will be going in the tank instead of the sludge pile at the bottom of the container, I am also convinced it get attracted very quickly to heaters and hot impellered pumps causing them to jam up

 

[ccCapt]

so youre saying that if you are using kalk and and the cloudy water dips into the tank, its not doing any better than dripping the solution with only 2 tbsp per gallon?

What I'm saying is read the article. ;)
From it.....
"Dosing milky limewater, to get more lime into the aquarium than is available in clear, settled limewater. A drawback is the delivery of impurities in or on the solid particles, and the possibility that some solids may interact with organisms before they dissolve."

"One interesting aspect of limewater is its ability to self purify before being added to the aquarium. This happens in several ways, but all relate to the fact that most aquarists dissolve it and then let any undissolved solids settle out. Few, if any, of these solids are then dosed to the aquarium. It turns out that these solids can contain many of the impurities that came to the limewater, either in the solid lime, or in the water itself. In a recent article I showed experimentally and theoretically how this process works for a variety of metals, including copper, nickel, and cadmium."

"Another important consideration for limewater is the upper limit of the amount that can be added to an aquarium. This limitation exists simply because both the amount of water that can be added to an aquarium each day (to replace evaporation), and the amount of solid lime that can be dissolved in that water, are finite. Using lime slurries eliminates this concern, but brings its own issues that were discussed above."