Oh, where to begin.
To start with, kalk is limewater. The same as pickling lime, kalkwasser, limewater, etc....
This is absolutley incorrect. Your prescription of using reef buffer will spike alk just the same as kalk if there is an accidental overdose. The amount of alk spike is merely dependant on the amount of reef buffer you have in your ATO resivoir.
The original post concerned itself with PH not alkalinity. My point was how much you gonna raise your PH if 5 gallons of limewater dumps into a 40 gallon tank all at once ??? Its gonna be off the charts and kill everything. A teaspoon of pickling lime in a 5 gallon bucket of RO will raise the PH of that 5 gallons off the color chart.
The same can't be said for reef buffer, tablespoons of that won't raise the PH higher than 8.3 My only comment about alk was as a byproduct of the buffer it will raise your alk by 1.4 How much more will "tablespoons" of buffer raise alk, I don't know but its not gonna raise the PH by more than 8.3 and who's gonna completely disregard the directions and dump tablespoons of buffer into their ATO ???
Adding seachem reef buffer to the ATO is a means of only alk supplementation. Kalk is a balanced dose of alk and ca therefore there is no further need for ca supplementation as your recipe would require.
I'm not sure what type of ATO system you use, but using seachem buffer in your ATO is really no less risky than adding kalk to your ATO.
Completely untrue, the buffer won't raise your PH higher than 8.3, the same can't be said for limewater. And if by some chance you get your alk up too high because the ATO completely dumps into it, it is gonna be easier and safer to lower it than if your PH is off the charts. The fish can survive in high alk long enough for the reefer to lower it - and it probably won't skyrocket all the sudden anyways via your ATO - but fish sure aren't gonna survive a PH burn and if somehow they do they won't survive it for long.
(That is, unless your ATO is a regimen of once daily dumping in your full days worth of top off at one time. Even in that case, the alk spike that the seachem reef buffer will cause will be as detrimental as dosing the kalk saturated top off water).
No, your missing it....you make up a recipe of buffer based upon the amount of tank water. 1 teaspoon is good for 40 gallons, 3 teaspoons for 120, etc....and under that specific formula you are not gonna raise your alk by more than 1.4 if the entire mixture was dumped into that amount of water all at once. Since its in your ATO if its all at once alk won't raise higher than 1.4 dkh and PH won't go higher than 8.3
What is the formula for limewater to consistantly keep your PH at 8.3 ?? How 'bout raising your alk by 1.4 ??? The stuff is too strong, an 1/8th of a teaspoon of pickling lime in 5 gallons of water will raise PH off the charts - I know I tried limewater in my ATO. I ended up emptying an 8 gallon reservoir and with the mix I had left in a 5 gallon bucket I was dumping a 12 ounce cup of the stuff back into my ATO reservoir of 8 gallons and the PH was still too high. I may be wrong but I don't think the effects of dumping 8 gallons of Seachem "buffered" top off water of even a strong mix of say, 1 tablespoon of buffer per gallon of water, will raise the alk to such high levels that its gonna crash your tank.
Your claim that seachem reef buffer won't spike pH like kalk may be true, however, the overdose of FW as well as the alk spike will likely be as detrimental or more detrimental than the effects than the pH spike from the kalk.
I disagree.... especially about the freshwater scenario, fish can take the drop in salinity its the raising of it too quick that's harmful.
Seachem reef buffer is far more expensive than kalk and you would also have to pay for a ca supplement if your just dosing reef buffer. Kalk is very cheap.
Yeah in the long run you're gonna pay more because its not as strong but how much is your livestock worth ?? The simplest way is to drip dose kalk, you're gonna get a slow drip and you don't have to worry about a tank crash - but that's not what the OP's question was about.
The reaction that kalk has with co2 in the tank is very beneficial in maintaining a proper pH. Seachem reef buffer is just a well marketed alk supplement and not a replacement or equivalent of what kalk can do.
Are you're confusing "Reef Builder" with Reef Buffer ?? They may be 6 of one / half dozen of another but one is marketed as a supplement while the other is considered a buffer. Again, I'm not sure how the discussion turned to raising alk when the OP was asking about PH ???
BTW, seachem reef buffer is only slightly different from simple baking soda. The marketing claim of containing mag, sr, and borate salts may be true, but the amounts that they would add is of such minor significance that it's all but exactly the same as dosing baking soda.
Dosing seachem reef buffer in your ATO in replacement of kalk dosing, to prevent a pH spike as a safety precaution during an accidental overdose, is a very poor choice.
Maybe so, but to keep your PH in check only, like the OP asked about, is best utilized through a buffer if you want to use your ATO rather than some sort of drip method....
Jeremy
