Kalk Dosing

[Newsalth2o]

Has anyone experienced Kalk actually having the opposite of the desired effect? What I mean is it actually lowers alk, ca and pH instead of raising them.

 

[danfeig]

Has anyone experienced Kalk actually having the opposite of the desired effect? What I mean is it actually lowers alk, ca and pH instead of raising them.

No. Mine certainly helps with my Alk and PH. How are you dosing? I use a Kalk Stirrer that my auto top-off goes through.

Here's a great article on it: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/

 

[Newsalth2o]

http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/breefcase/kalkwasser.html

I ran across this and have been struggling with low pH,ca and alk. I'm going to stop dosing for a while and see what happens. It refers to using vinegar when you mix as Brent had suggested to me.

 

[danfeig]

How have you been adding the Kalk to your tank and how often have you been dosing your system with Ca, Alk, Magnesium etc?

 

[aquaph8]

You should definitely have an increase. Kalk has a PH over 12 and even dosed in small amounts should give you a boost. Are you dosing anything else at the same time?

 

[Newsalth2o]

Not dosing anything but Kalk constantly. My kalk is on an IV type drip from a 5 gallon container. What the article syas is

"So, too rapid addition of Kalk may actually cause the Calcium and Alkalinity in your tank to go DOWN instead of UP (a bad thing), like this:
Ca++ + 2(HCO3-) + Ca++ + 2(OH-) <==> 2 CaCO3 + 2 H2O"

Since I'm an electrician not a chemist that doesn't make much sense to me. To Dan's question I have been dosing manually the main three but not with any regularity or with any drastic results. I'm due for a water change this weekend and I'm going to start mixing 1 tsp kalk wiht 15ml vinegar to make my batches. I do not put any of the kalk solids in my make-up container. I mix in a 2l bottle and then let settle and only take the top clears into my storage container.

The second piece from the article is that the kalk should consume CO2 to produce a balance of free Calcium ions and free Bicarbonate ions there by allowing the pH to increase and the CA and ALK to increase. So now I'm really confused any chemist out there shed some light on this for me?

 

[jjk_reef00]

Post this in the reef chemistry forum.

 

[aquaph8]

I gotta assume its pretty much the same idea as if you were to add too much alk supplement in a small area or to add the calcium and alk part at the same time, it precipitates out and causes a snow effect in your sump. Are you getting anything like that?

 

[Newsalth2o]

No the liquid is clear and does not change in the sump.