Limewater

[Mattl22]

It's a great way to keep levels balanced in my opinion

 

[Macropora]

Calcium reactor for years and past several months added kalkwasser for top off/evaporation. Noticed nice growth spurts on sps shortly adding kalk. Phosphates also a bit lower as well.

 

[edd]

Calcium reactor for years and past several months added kalkwasser for top off/evaporation. Noticed nice growth spurts on sps shortly adding kalk. Phosphates also a bit lower as well.

do you run both?

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

Is there a way that you can use kalkwasser daily? With out using it as a Ato or dripping it and just dosing it manually but having a 5G batch ready for everyday dosing?

 

[fishman1069]

Is there a way that you can use kalkwasser daily? With out using it as a Ato or dripping it and just dosing it manually but having a 5G batch ready for everyday dosing?

Yeah, if you sit home all day and watch your evaporation, them you can add a little every couple of hours
You don't want to add too much Kalk in one shot. That is why most people use it in their ato or drip it

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

Yeah, if you sit home all day and watch your evaporation, them you can add a little every couple of hours
You don't want to add too much Kalk in one shot. That is why most people use it in their ato or drip it

Okay and how can you determent how much dripping need to fall with in an 1 hour or minutes or seconds? I'm asking cause I'm thinks of doing a DIY kalkwasser dripper I was reading an article about last night.

 

[Macropora]

do you run both?

Yep, running both.

 

[Macropora]

Okay and how can you determent how much dripping need to fall with in an 1 hour or minutes or seconds? I'm asking cause I'm thinks of doing a DIY kalkwasser dripper I was reading an article about last night.

See how much evaporates at different times during the year. Summer would have more evaporation also you can get more evaporation with a fan cooling the surface of the tank if you wanted. The dripper usually gets caked up with kalkwasser which prevents it from dripping, so keep an eye on it. Or you can use a doser and program it to turn on after the lights go off to keep the ph up.

 

[jay1513]

Question for people that uses Kalk in their ATO - Do u have a powerhead on a timer to occasionally stir the Kalk inside your ATO reservoir?

 

[Macropora]

Question for people that uses Kalk in their ATO - Do u have a powerhead on a timer to occasionally stir the Kalk inside your ATO reservoir?

I just stir it up with a powerhead when I add more Kalk and RO water to the ATO reservoir.

 

[charliethetuna88]

How much donu figure ur adding a day macropora .I've trtied to use in in my ato once for a few weeks and my alk just kept rising ..how much are u adding per gallon of ro water

 

[charliethetuna88]

I run a cal rwactor and would love to het my ph higher in my tank

 

[Macropora]

How much donu figure ur adding a day macropora .I've trtied to use in in my ato once for a few weeks and my alk just kept rising ..how much are u adding per gallon of ro water

I use half the recommended dosage when adding kalk to a gallon of top off water. Get about 2 gallons of evaporation in the winter and 3 - 4 gallons during the summer when the fans are blowing. I lowered the CO2 bubble count in my Calcium Reactor because I noticed the phosphates were higher when the effluent drip coming from the reactor had higher CA and Alk readings which caused more of the hair algae to grow in one of my 3 reef tanks. HTH.

 

[charliethetuna88]

I hear you I think the problem I had was I never lowered my bubble count on my cal reactor I have a new calcium reactor now it is the vertex rg6 duo which has a gfo chamber as the last chamber to take out any leaching phosphate. I wasn't going to use it I was just going to fill it with more media but I think now I will use it for leaking phos

 

[Macropora]

I hear you I think the problem I had was I never lowered my bubble count on my cal reactor I have a new calcium reactor now it is the vertex rg6 duo which has a gfo chamber as the last chamber to take out any leaching phosphate. I wasn't going to use it I was just going to fill it with more media but I think now I will use it for leaking phos

Good luck with the Vertex calcium reactor. Looks like it's well made. I've been using an MTC Pro Cal for over 10 years now with a custom ordered Iwaki 20 RLT. I had Jeff at MTC build me a taller mixing chamber and the smaller chamber stayed the same height.

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

Would a 1G container of kalkwasser do me good for 1-2 weeks? Since I evaporate about 1-2 gallons daily. Also if I start using kalkwasser that's the only thing I will be dosing in order to improve my corals growth? No need to dose alk and mag?

 

[Macropora]

Kalk brings up the alk and ca, so you still need to supplement mg seperately. You're talking about dosing 1 gallon of mixed kalk once a week? Trying using less kalk and spread the drip throughout the week so you keep the parameters consistent. Test your levels more often and adjust the drip accordingly.

 

[charliethetuna88]

I use the MtC many Cal right now. It's a great calcium reactor but for my new setup I need a larger 1

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

Kalk brings up the alk and ca, so you still need to supplement mg seperately. You're talking about dosing 1 gallon of mixed kalk once a week? Trying using less kalk and spread the drip throughout the week so you keep the parameters consistent. Test your levels more often and adjust the drip accordingly.

Yes I meant using 1G of kalkwasser while dripping it so it can last me 1-2 week.

 

[Macropora]

Yes I meant using 1G of kalkwasser while dripping it so it can last me 1-2 week.

When I had a 50 gallon tank, I would use 2 gallons of Kalk for the week because I had alot of SPS and clams in the tank. You're gonna have to find the right balance and it depends on what you have growing in your reef. Kalk precipitates when it reacts to oxygen so only, mix what you need and use it. Some reefers leave the sediment (calcium dust at the bottom of the 1 gallon container) and just mix that with fresh RO water before dripping. Start off slow, check the alk and ca so that it doesn't sky rocket overnight.