Kalk dosing

[yunitor1]

Hello reefers,

Anyone have experience with Kalk dosing? Apparently is using to keep stable Ca, Ak, Mg and keep or rise pH. But my pH is very stable. The meter (Milwaukee MC122) always shows 8.3 (the lowest I saw 8.1) The question is if I start dosing Kalk+2 will my pH rise too much?

[R0B]

To me I would ask why do you need to raise your PH? The ocean has been growing corals for millions of years and its PH is 8.1 . Sounds like you tank is stable, and stability is the key thing we are aiming for. Sounds like you are doing an awesome job already.

That said I read sometime back on reef2reef that adding 1% of tank volume with saturated Kalkwasser will increase PH by approx 0.5, (1.25% for 0.7).

Have you checked if your PH is limited by co2 first before you play with lime water?



Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

[yunitor1]

Unfortunately my parameters are not stable how I would like. Only pH reading is stable but Kh, Ca and Mg are jumping up and down. For the moment I’m dosing manually and really unhappy with result. Dosing Kalk is one of the option to stabilise the parameters. Regarding the pH I don’t want to rase it, otherwise I’m worry that is not goes too high.
How to check CO2 level?


Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

[R0B]

Kalk will certainly help you supplement calcium and alkalinity for sure and is valid part of a reef keepers arsenal of tools. Kalk does have a naturally high PH so one way is to dose this in reverse cycle to your lights, similar to how you would run a refugium light sequence. As your ph naturally fluctuates during the day, add the kalk when the ph is lower (at night) to avoid any ph shock. If you decide to run Kalk via your ATO you can do what Mike Paletta does and only use your ATO at night. Personally I would not recommend that but rather use a kalk stirrer and dose in the evening. (Although who am I vs the great Mr Paletta). By dosing you can control better and keep in balance adding the right amount of calcium and Alk thus limiting the risk of overdosing (which can happen in kalk+ATO applications).

A really great alternative to Kalkwasser is Carbocalcium by Tropic Marin. It won't impact your PH (nor salinity) and is highly concentrated so a little goes a long way (i.e. Kalk you need approx 5.5ltr of saturated solution to add 1g of calcium, carbocalcium can add this with just 25ml of solution). Note Magnesium and trace elements would still need to be supplemented separately. (If you have a small tank Tropic Marin's 'All for Reef' is another great alternative)

As your are dosing manually I would recommend purchasing a doser as you can spread out the dosing across the whole day to avoid shocks.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium.7/ this article is great for understanding all things PH in your reef tank and will help you if you feel your PH is too high (or too low).

Regarding co2 limiting ph. I would simply run your skimmer air hose from an external source and see if your ph goes up. Although I see your worry is more about PH increase so maybe a little co2 is helping you. My bad for reading your post late at night haha.

Good luck. Hope this helps.



Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

[Harlequinmania]

Dosing kalk to supplement CA and kh is great for a small tank or tank with little corals , however depending on the demand you might need to supplement it with 2 part or run a CR ect..

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

[yunitor1]

10 hours ago, R0B said:

Kalk will certainly help you supplement calcium and alkalinity for sure and is valid part of a reef keepers arsenal of tools. Kalk does have a naturally high PH so one way is to dose this in reverse cycle to your lights, similar to how you would run a refugium light sequence. As your ph naturally fluctuates during the day, add the kalk when the ph is lower (at night) to avoid any ph shock. If you decide to run Kalk via your ATO you can do what Mike Paletta does and only use your ATO at night. Personally I would not recommend that but rather use a kalk stirrer and dose in the evening. (Although who am I vs the great Mr Paletta). By dosing you can control better and keep in balance adding the right amount of calcium and Alk thus limiting the risk of overdosing (which can happen in kalk+ATO applications).

A really great alternative to Kalkwasser is Carbocalcium by Tropic Marin. It won't impact your PH (nor salinity) and is highly concentrated so a little goes a long way (i.e. Kalk you need approx 5.5ltr of saturated solution to add 1g of calcium, carbocalcium can add this with just 25ml of solution). Note Magnesium and trace elements would still need to be supplemented separately. (If you have a small tank Tropic Marin's 'All for Reef' is another great alternative)

As your are dosing manually I would recommend purchasing a doser as you can spread out the dosing across the whole day to avoid shocks.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium.7/ this article is great for understanding all things PH in your reef tank and will help you if you feel your PH is too high (or too low).

Regarding co2 limiting ph. I would simply run your skimmer air hose from an external source and see if your ph goes up. Although I see your worry is more about PH increase so maybe a little co2 is helping you. My bad for reading your post late at night haha.

Good luck. Hope this helps.



Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

As I mention in my first post my pH quite stable and quite high 8.3 and I don’t looking to increase it. Really I want to stabilise alkalinity and calcium because my alkalinity is always goes to 7.5 and Ca otherwise jumps over 1500. Manual dosing I did until now with powder supplements but for Kalk I have dosing reactor and will set small amount of solution during whole day. I just didn’t Desiderio the right quantity yet. I think start with small amounts and than depends on the test results. 

I got Kalk+2 and will use it for the moment but Carbocalcium might be a good option as well. Thanks for advice

[yunitor1]

9 hours ago, he said:

Dosing kalk to supplement CA and kh is great for a small tank or tank with little corals , however depending on the demand you might need to supplement it with 2 part or run a CR ect..

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app
 

My tanks is quite big. Together with sump is 600L. I saw 5ft tank very loaded with SPS in one store supported by Kalk only

[justareefer]

Good read.

Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app