Calcium and Kalk questions

[zachslow]

i've owned SW tanks for years but always manually dealt with all of my chemistry levels.

I'm about to buy a new bigger tank that has has a used kalk reactor and Calcium Reactor:

Precision Marine Kalk reactor with Aquamedic Dosing Pump
Knop Calcium Reactor C Package- 10 gallon Co2 tank, reactor
I'll also be using a Neptune Aquacontroller III to control PH.

I've read a fair amount of info online about both of these devises, but it's still not fully clear to me why i need both. I think I get how the calcium reactor works, but still not clear on the kalk part. Does the kalk water just go into my top off? How concentrate does it need to be?

Can someone help me out here? I'm transferring over everything to this new tank in a week, and i don't want to kill my current coral stock. Thanks!

-z

 

[HighlandReefer]

zachslow,

The previous owner obviously had a well stocked tank of coral if he needed both a calcium reactor and a kalk reactor to keep up with the alkalinity demand. Whether you will even need these devises or perhaps one or the other will depend on what you put in your tank (how many demanding corals and clams). Many hobbyists are able to just use kalk in their top-off water and keep there alkalinity level to where they want it. When using reactors and/or kalk in your top-off caution needs to be used to make sure you have the proper checks and balances to prevent a kalk overdose. Kalk will increase your pH way too much if an accident occurs. I recommend a good quality dosing pump to administer the doses, which can be adjusted down to deliver just a little more kalk mix then you want per day. Timers can malfunction as well as controllers. If an overdose of kalk occurs you can wipe out your system which has happened many times unfortunately.

I would recommend that you read Randy's articles regarding this subject and then ask away with future questions:

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

The Relationship Between Alkalinity and pH.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/chem.htm

 

[zachslow]

wow--complex stuff!

i'm going to reread all of these articles and will ask specific questions once i feel i have a better grasp on it.

thanks so much for the response, highlandreefer!

if anyone has anymore suggest reading, please feel free to pass it on.

-z

 

[tmz]

I use a caclium ractor and dose kalk from a still resevoir with a liter meter 3 dosing pump as top off. .Continuous kalk use can lead to chronic high ph( 8.4 or 8.5 or more) not necessarily a bad thing but on th edge for a precipitation event. The effluent from kalk is about 12.4ph.

A calcium reactor produces low ph effluent ( usually 6.6 or .7).Many who use only calcium reactors have chronically low ph( 7.8 or.9). using both balances things out and enables ph in the 8.2 - 8.4 range. using both also alllows you to provide more calcium and alkalinity than either method alone.

 

[torr55555]

:rollface: