i use the kalk slurry method. add a pre determined amount to some fresh RO water a few times a week and dump it into my sump. keeps my dkh at 9 and my calcium in the mid 400s. i noly have a 30 gallon tank, so i dose purple up to raise my calcium. no need for any reactors on such a small tank IMO.
lets Talk Kalkwasser how & why??
- Thread starter Hendersonracing
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StrategicReef
New member
I have it down to the control of my finger tips with 3 litermeter pumps, 1 dosing kalk the other 2 dosing 2 part.. all I have to do is make more saturated lime water and add it to the bucket that doser is drawing from. It's probably less "potent" that way but that's it for now. Later maybe I will raise the draw tube and add a small power head on the bottom that runs 1 minute every few hours (easy to do on a digital timer). That will kind of stir and keep the bucket very potent. If it dose right after it stired, it draw a little bit more powder out but that's OK as it's just going to the beginning of the sump and it has plenty of area to dissipate.
The question is how would you divide the demand between the 2 part and the kalk, say I am adding about 10ppm of CA and (equivalent Alk) per day via the 2 part. and 5 ppm via Kalk.. (not enough to cause high PH problems yet). Using the reef calculator is easy to figure out how much to add..
As for benefit, it is supposed to reduce some phosphate on the spot but I don't know why but the whole tank looks better whenever I get back to dosing kalk.. more coraline and SPS grow faster.
The question is how would you divide the demand between the 2 part and the kalk, say I am adding about 10ppm of CA and (equivalent Alk) per day via the 2 part. and 5 ppm via Kalk.. (not enough to cause high PH problems yet). Using the reef calculator is easy to figure out how much to add..
As for benefit, it is supposed to reduce some phosphate on the spot but I don't know why but the whole tank looks better whenever I get back to dosing kalk.. more coraline and SPS grow faster.
Kip, have you done that experiment? Randy's Kalk article showed that not to be the case because the crust and the lid to the container basically kept the CO2 out.
I have ran 400 gallons of limewater through my AquaLifter and only needed to clean it once (just run it for a few hours in vinegar. The tubing itself has clogged up more than the pump.
I have ran 400 gallons of limewater through my AquaLifter and only needed to clean it once (just run it for a few hours in vinegar. The tubing itself has clogged up more than the pump.
Kip
New member
i never dripped using large amounts or a wide open container... i just played with a half-gallon to see if what i thought (and what others had told me) was true. i never saw a definite layer of CaCO3 on top of the water. but i did see it on the container walls and bottom. regardless, when the CaCO3 forms... the Ca and OH are then bound and useless and you see the pH fall as you'd expect. doesnt mean the whole kalk solution is useless, just not as potent. (and pH fall is upper 11s-12ish down to upper 9s-10ish)
i havent messed with a gravity kalk drip in about 4 years (been using k-reactors on my various systems)
i havent messed with a gravity kalk drip in about 4 years (been using k-reactors on my various systems)
How do you guys drip the kalkwasser?
I just set up my reactor a week ago with a IV tubing infusion set through gravity feed (which is suprisingly precise by the way). My problem is that if I submerge the output in the sump water at a high flow area, the efficiency is much better (my pH stays at 8.2-8.4). However, CaCO3 invariably deposited inside the outflow tubing and clogged it off after 24hrs. If I keep the outflow out of the sump water and drip it down (still in a high flow area), there will be a sheet of CaCO2 precipitation on the water surface, and the efficiency is much worse (pH 7.9-8.1).
Thanks for your help.
I just set up my reactor a week ago with a IV tubing infusion set through gravity feed (which is suprisingly precise by the way). My problem is that if I submerge the output in the sump water at a high flow area, the efficiency is much better (my pH stays at 8.2-8.4). However, CaCO3 invariably deposited inside the outflow tubing and clogged it off after 24hrs. If I keep the outflow out of the sump water and drip it down (still in a high flow area), there will be a sheet of CaCO2 precipitation on the water surface, and the efficiency is much worse (pH 7.9-8.1).
Thanks for your help.
Do you mean the water inside the Kalkwasser chamber? Yes, it stayed the same. It is a sealed unit, and the drip is restricted by the device on the IV tubing set. I don't think that a siphon is possible. Plus I monitored the water level in the sump and in the RO water container. They didn't rise/fall any faster when I submerged the outflow
RokleM
Premium Member
No, I mean your comment about the pH being higher when the output is under water. I'm wondering if it's high because it's actually pulling more kalkwater via siphon that doesn't happen when the tube is above water. It's possible that the buildup is so heavy that you're loosing that much pH, but it's hard to tell.
My hypothesis is that when the outflow is underneath water, all of the hydroxide ions react with the excess hydrogen ions from my Ca reactor to raise pH. When the outflow is out of the water, the hydrogen ions in the drip react with free CO2 in the ambient air to form CaCO3 first; therefore reduce its effiency and form more CaCO3 precipitations at the water surface.
OranguTang
NULL
Lets say I have a 60g tank. I evap about a gal a day...not 100% sure. My dKh is 7, pH 8, Ca 440. How would you dose Kalk in the rights proportions? Just mix 5 tsp. into a 5 gal waterjug and top off with that?
