Need help with kalk please

Hey guys,

I currently don't dose anything and just do water changes to keep my parameters in check. The water changes aren't cutting it any more so I want to try kalk. I've done a lot of reading on it. I'm thinking of using kalk, ro and vinegar. Any thoughts on this?

I also read that you need to have your parameters balanced before you start.

Is 340 pmm Ca and 5-6 dkh balanced?

 

bump

 

your cal and dkh is low. i would buffer them up to a good level than start using the kalk. i use kalk threw my ato water. it keeps my cal and ph stable

 

Thanks. The kalk wont buffer them up?
If you use it through your ato, is all your top off water lime? How do you not overdose? How do you know how much to drip over how much time?

 

First kalk is more risky than other ca/alk supplements. Adding too much and/or too fast can do bad things. In order of decreasing severity 1) kill everything in your tank 2) cause precipitation, which can be counter productive and actually lower your ca and alk, instead of raise it. And 3) cause minor precipitation, which can clog your pumps and damage your equipment.

Vinegar is a carbon source. It will cause proliferation of bacteria, which will consume N and P, but the bacteria and especially bacterial byproducts need to be removed with a very effective skimmer. Also, the bacteria will consume oxygen, so you need the skimmer to add more O2 to the water.

Vinegar dosing is more risky than kalk, if you don't know what your doing, you have a very good chance of killing your livestock.


Balanced ca alk is somewhat unimportant, what's important is that ca and alk are high enough to maintain the demands of your livestock. 340 pmm Ca and 5-6 dkh is way too low. Aim for 380-450 ppm ca and 7-11 dkh alkalinity.

Kalk is not a good way to raise it though, kalk is best for maintaining levels once raised. I would recommend a 2-part solution to raise the ca and alk to the desired levels. Also, you may want to consider using 2-part to maintain the levels. From your questions, it appears you are new to this and 2-part is a lot safer than kalk. If you go with kalk read this and then ask more questions: What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Don't dose kalk without understanding exactly what your doing.

As for vinegar, I would strongly recommend skipping that for now. Worry about your ca and alk first. At some point when you understand the hobby better, and understand carbon dosing better, then think about whether or not it would be beneficial. For now, it's almost certainly more trouble than it's worth.

 

I use a two part to raise the Calc and Alk levels. Then kalk is used to maintain Calc and Alk levels.

I would avoid using the vinegar for now. Saturated kalkwasser will probably be strong enough for needs without the vinegar added.

Here is an article about kalk that may help:
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime

 

well there's consistency of opinion it appears. Even for article choices ;D

 

Ok thanks guys.
I will give that a read. Kalk or purple up are my only choices for dosing, other than a calcium reactor. That's all I have available here. To ship down the 2 part would cost about US$60/month. A bit too much.
I want to go forward with the kalk dosing but I want to make sure I know exactly what I'm doing.
The only thing I'm really not getting is dosage because from what I'm reading ppl just use it for top off, so their dose depends on evap, which would vary. How is there no overdose?

 

Oh I forgot to add, I was going to use the vinegar to lower the pH change I would have. Is this more risky than just using lime?

 

Vinegar is very risky and it will not significantly lower the pH of lime. I recommend not using it. Purple up is not an effective ca supplement, it will not maintain ca and alk like 2-part of kalk will. Also, you don't know exactly what is in purple up, I've learned better than to add unknown substances, in unknown quantities to a reef tank.