# Kalkwasser



## Lilphil26 (Sep 15, 2015)

Just curious how many of you dose Kalkwasser whether it be in your top off or with a dosing pump. My last system utilized a calcium reactor which I made myself and bought the media and co2 components. I was thinking this time i would try limewater mixed into my top off as it appears easy from the YouTube videos I've seen. What are the pros and cons? 

Thanks guys


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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

Kalk in the ato works great so long as you have a consistent evaporation rate. At some point your system may need more calcium and alk than kalk can provide then you supplement with 2 part. 
My method was as follows: 
I would mix 10 teaspoons of kalk into a 5 gallon bucket, stir it up and then let it be. Kalk will dissolve at 2 teaspoons per gallon, anything undisolved will sink to the bottom. 2 teaspoons a gallon is the saturation point you can increase that by adding vinegar but let's keep it simple for now. 
I set my pump line about 3 inches from the bottom of the bucket so not to suck up any of the crap at the bottom of the bucket. I used a Tom's Aqua lifter but you need to keep and eye on it as kalk can clog it up. Better to use a proper perestallic pump. 
You can do quite a bit of harm by adding too much kalk too fast so I found out the safe ratio of kalk water that my system could handle in one dose, I don't remember but let's say it was around 100 ml. I timed how long it took the aqua lifter to fill 100ml and set my apex to not allow more time than it takes to deliver 100ml. So when my ATO kicked in the aqua lifter would pump only up to 100ml. If that wasn't enough water to match the evaporation it would just wait an hour and repete until the ATO turned off. Having that redundancy gave me a piece of mind. I also set my apex to shut it down if he PH got too big hand send me an email... 
if you don't have an apex you can still do it but check how sensitive you ATO is and make sure that you have enough volume to handle the PH spike that comes with the delivery of the limewater. 
Make sense? 
Some people use a kalk stirrer or reactor but after much research I found that a standing saturated bucket was the easiest and safest way to go as I always know exactly how much kalk is being dosed.

I have a calcium reactor now but if I didn't I would still be using Kalk. It worked very well for me. 

One more thing, you can not use kalk to adjust your levels. Set the levels you want with 2 part and use the kalk to keep them there.


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## Lilphil26 (Sep 15, 2015)

Thanks Fesso for the info. Sounds good to me


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

I dose kalk using a dosing pump. For me I want to know exactly how much i am pumping into the tank daily. Also, with a smaller dosing container - you end up mixing a fresher batch regularly and you can clean the un-dissolved residue at the bottom regularly. I just don't like the idea of putting stuff into my ATO container - want that to be just pure water.

The kalk will get your calcium levels up but depending on whats going on in your tank (especially CO2 levels) it may cause alk to drop. I find that if i don't dose some alk (baking soda) my alk levels will start to drop. As you increase SPS livestock (or keep clams) your Calcium consumption will increase so you may have to adjust the volume of kalk you are dosing. 

Because I'm doing both kalk and alk - i need a dosing pump to make sure they are on separate schedules (and don't participate out). I generally dose kalk after midnight to offset the ph drop at night (don't think that really matters much) and alk in the afternoon.


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## Lilphil26 (Sep 15, 2015)

Thanks for the info. This is the place to ask so here goes.... What is precipate out when talking about elements? Do they chunk up or something? I have heard it before but unsure what it truly is.


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

Lilphil26 said:


> Thanks for the info. This is the place to ask so here goes.... What is precipate out when talking about elements? Do they chunk up or something? I have heard it before but unsure what it truly is.


When you dose kalk - Ca(OH)2 it dissolves into calcium ions (Ca+) and peroxide ions and the calcium is used by coral to form calcium carbonate skeletons (CaCO3). When you dose alk it also dissolves and release carbonate ions (CO3-). Normal saltwater, at 500pm of calcium and alk 3.5 meg/L (~10dkH) we are talking about 5% calcium and 0.035% of carbonate ions so they rarely bond to form calcium carbonate. When you dose both together - then you are significantly raise the percentage of both in the same "space" so they will form calcium carbonate - which is a white powder particle - or precipitate. The initial reaction looks like a milky cloud and the particles settle on the surface of rockwork, substrate etc... - it looks like you sprinkled icing sugar on everything.


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## FrankS (Dec 11, 2013)

Noy when using a dosing pump (assuming you have your levels) how do you determine the amount of Kalk to dose.


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

FrankS said:


> Noy when using a dosing pump (assuming you have your levels) how do you determine the amount of Kalk to dose.


really depends on your depletion rate (how much calcium is used by your corals). Adding 4 L (1 gallon*) of a saturated kalkwasser solution to 150 L (40 gallons*) will raise calcium by 24 mg/L (~24ppm) [from Seachem]. If you don't currently dose - you can measure depletion by taking calcium measurements on successive days.

Just keep in mind kalk will increase ph and change your alk levels so slow and steady is key.

If you system is still getting balanced and your calcium is still way off target - the best bet is to use 2 part (Calcium chloride) of get your levels up to where you want and use kalk for maintenance.

A larger system with lots of SPS will probably need some calcium chloride supplementation.


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