kalkwasser?? calcium reactor??

If your gonna dose in a small system and want to drip Kalk without the cost, you can do it this way. I have a 16g system, I dose 28oz every three days. I mix 1/4 tsp of Kalk into 32 oz of DI water.. most use RO or Ro/DI. Let it sit at least 2 hours. Take an airline tube and an air valve. Insert it into the bottle stopping about and inch or two from the bottom. This way precipate won't go into the tube. With the tube in the container, cup the opening and blow into the opening creating a siphon. Ajust the air valve, so that a drop a sec comes out. This does will take up to 4-6 hours to disperse into the tank. You don't want to top off all at one time, or your PH will skyrocket and crash your tank. I dose a few hours after lights out, because the PH naturally drops at night.

 

What is your PH at currently? You need to test your magnesium as well. Calcium won't stay up unless MG is up too. My MG is at 1380 right now, and my CA is at 440. Usually it's about 3x MG to 1x CA. KH needs to be tested as well. Once all my levels were good, my PH balanced out with no need to dose anything to raise it.

Get yourself a test kit for Magnesium (I have Red Sea, lots of folks like Salifert). Get a test kit for KH as well. I see you have anemones in your sig - careful and make sure your water params are good, otherwise the poor guys will die and could crash your tank.

 

Third one across from left on second row. Might help understand how some people do it.

Reef Videos

 

Excellent video Otty - this will save some money

 

Kills me how people think that Kent and Red Sea creates this stuff so they can put a hefty $$$$ on it. They are earth elements and can be bought in a store. It's just that you have to mix them and they don't come in a pretty container with colorful pictures on it. :-/

 

Screw colorful pictures, lol. Less money on dosing, more money on corals ;D I need to make some CA, now I just need to find myself a bag of dow flakes.

 

Or equipment! ;D

 

If you can't find the Dow Flake you can buy from bulk reef supply. Still pretty inexpensive and no pictures. Bulk Reef Supply - Bulk Reef Supply
I've been using this for several months. I started out with Ocean's Blend that the LFS recommended but they want $40!!. $12 + shipping at bulk reef supply. I also read you can use the calcum chloride ice melt salt but I'm not sure how pure it is.

 

I agree, and the bulk stuff dissolves better than the Kent stuff.

 

I use a good ole 1.25 gal ice cream bucket I fill w/ RO and a tsp of Ca(OH)2 and let stand overnight. I then drip that into the tank. I also use a two part, like the one shown but I use the pH increasing version as my pH is around 8.1.

As far as Dow and Mag flakes are concerned, I fought nail and tooth against them as they changed their formulas a while back and no longer are as pure as Randy Holmes Farely tested. Many people still use them even with the elevated Br levels, I went back and forth on it and after talking w/ Randy I decided to try it. I do frequent enough and large enough changes that it SHOULD dilute the bromide enough. Problem is no one knows what its toxicity level is or what to look for as far as side effects.
A few years back when Dowflakes WERE safe, Kents Turbo Ca and others tested high for Lithium and other toxic heavy metals... ironic if you ask me that something meant for the hobby has impurities that are toxic and an ice melt was relatively pure!
Last I heard BRS still has low Br Dowflakes but not sure, I also do not know what they plan on using once its out.
I do not know what anhydrous CaCl2 they use... or Mg for that matter.

It all boils down to how comfortable you are using something that is potentially toxic, but hey that goes for stuff that is MEANT for the industry including salt mixes!!

To answer your original question, kalk is the SAFEST Ca supplement known! It can be done easily and safely, but if the tank has a huge Ca demand it might not keep up.
As far as Ca reactors go, still to this day the best tank I have ever seen relies on a simple 2 part, no reactors or what have you. It is a 180, SPS dominate beast!

Happy reefing!