Pickling Lime. Does it do the job??

Pretty much..

I am not so diligent with my measuring, and I use it in my TO container, which is triggered by a reef fanatic ATO, and pumped with a TOM aqualifter.

Even with my precise (cooking - not baking)measurements, I have had no issues, and it makes my corals grow pretty well, even before I added my calcium reactor. I still will use pickling lime as a TO water, since if you use a ca reactor and a kalk addition, your chemistry will be spot on. Merely using a CA reactor does not quite get the chemisty perfect, I think the kalkwasser adds alkalinity, that the ca reactor does not.

For all the guys in our local club that use pickling lime either as a 2( 3) part, or with a ca reactor, it would be very hard to argue that the food grade Mrs wages is less quality than the overpriced "reef" stuff. The results are pretty fantastic, and IIRC Doc frag uses Mrs wages as well, and he is a member of our local group. You have all seen pics of his tank.

 

Not speaking on Mrs Wages or any one particular brand in specific, its just a matter of always being cautious. Food grade is going to be a much more reliable source then any kind of industrial application, but you can still see an amount of contamination.

 

I like sticking with stuff labeled for use in reefs personally as long as it's not prohibitively expensive. BRS has it for $2-3 a lb which isn't much more expensive than Mrs Wages I don't think, depending where you get it and how much you buy probably. Reasonable alternative anyway.

Bulk Reef Supply - Bulk Reef Supply

 

ObTan - I would agree there are differences between industrial and nuclear grade chemicals, but by the time it's considered food grade it's going to be pretty clean. If you're worried about 0.0001% contamination you should investigate all the trace elements in natural sea water - there's hardly an elemental compound that exists in nature not found in the oceans - even copper which most of us would agree is very toxic to invertebrates is found at much higher concentrations in natural sea water than in most of our tanks.

 

For me it was more the worry over the acceptable levels of heavy metal and lead. The consensus is that Mrs Wages seems to be safe for reef use and I would imagine if tested out it was far lower then what the maximum levels to pass are. It is just the worry that the high end of acceptable levels for food grade is right on the border of what you see of an industrial chemical. While I have no doubt that Mrs Wage is a perfectly viable solution going out and pulling anything off the store shelves-especially when you don't know what else is in it, seems like a dangerous gamble for a very low cost savings. You also need to pay attention to the source of the lime as things like magnesium concentration can vary wildly depending.

 

Thanks horkn for the shout out....
IF anyone is concerned about ole Ms Wages then please go read Heavy Metal Toxicity of Salt Mixes By Dr. Shimek, yes the article is old but it point out how much NASTIES are in many of the salt mixes we use!! THESE ARE THE BASIS OF OUR REEFS!!! Look into IO or RC they are littered with tramp impurities, google lithium toxicity or cadmium toxicity.... Heck for that matter look into some of the REEF GRADE chemicals people are using.. Randy Holmes-Farley did an article about the impurities of CaCl2 most of which are made by companies such as Kent that are labled for Reef tanks!!
Oh, what about essential element blends? Do you think Cobalt is really a non toxic element that we should all be adding? Iodine? He** I use road salt as my two part!!

madlarkin and screwtape what makes you think BRS' kalk is any purer than wages?
BRS probably has just about as many impurities in there bulk elements than anyone else.

Happy reefing!!!

 

BRS bulk kalk is listed as "high purity" which is 100% high purity MARKETING. There's no legal or standard definition of "high purity"

"high purity" is at best a relative term to compare against another sample of a known purity. 75% would be much higher purity than say 5% pure, and still be unsuitable for most of us.

What do you want to bet BRS buys their kalk from the same source as Wages, and sells it for more because it has the word "reef" on it? I couldn't begin to make a comprehensive list of things that are commonly available industrial materials that are marketed to niche trades as something more than they are for 1000% or more mark up. In the Aquarium trade I can think of a few: RO/DI equipment, carbon, foam, filter socks, air and water pumps, lighting equipment, acrylic goods, chemicals, plumbing goods like LocLine and vinyl tube...

just because it costs more doesn't make it better.

If you don't believe that then I have a $20,000 MH ballast that is of "ultra high" quality you might be interested in

-Doug

 

p.s. "reagent" grade Calcium Hydride CaH2 (anhydrous) is $48 for 50g from Strem, and is listed as 95% pure, the remainder impurity as Ca(HO)2 so i doubt anyone here is buying reagent grade Calcium Hydroxide.

 

I use reagent grade Ca(HO)2 in my rum and cokes. LOL