# kalkwasser do I need it?



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

I been thinking about dosing Kalk but I'm not sure if I even need it. I like to keep things simple so I don't currently run any reactors or dose any chemicals. My routine is 10% water change once a month and thats what I been doing for 2 years now. A few months back maybe 6 I had a heater failure and all my chaeto died, I didnt' think anything of it and never bothered to get more. 

Around a 1.5 months ago I decided to test my nitrates because whenever I frag hammers or duncans a few of the heads don't make it (I don't use coral dips and I tend to leave it high on top instead of on the bottom), also my brain coral is not doing so great but that could be shadowing from other corals. My nitrates were around 80ppm and I been doing 10% water change once a week, I got it down to 20ppm - 40ppm I can't tell (API). I decided to get a reef master kit after having been in the reef hobby for 2 years for the first time lol becauase I was interested in my calcium levels. 

I recently upgraded my lights from a diy gu10 led which grew softies and LPS great, I decided on one of those chinese black boxes. Now I haven't added any fish or corals in a year only recently I added 2 sps frags, a metalic gsp frag and replenished my chaeto. I tested my calcium and it was I think either 440ppm or 450ppm, my KH was 8. I haven't done a water change in about 2 weeks. I heard kalk dosing is bad for macro algae? I'm not sure if thats true or not.

It's a 45g tall with a 30g sump, it has a vertex in100 skimmer. So my question is with my current coral stock is 10% water changes once or twice a month enough or should I got the kalk route?


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## wchen9 (Jan 23, 2014)

Nope, your calcium and alkalinity are fine at those levels.

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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

wchen9 said:


> Nope, your calcium and alkalinity are fine at those levels.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


Great thanks one less thing to do every month.


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## Moh (Apr 3, 2017)

At the moment u don't need to add calcium and alk however if you add more Stoney corals you will need to dose.. you may also want to get your No3 down as low as possible since it affects Stoney coral growth and u may also want to test for phosphate.


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

Moh said:


> At the moment u don't need to add calcium and alk however if you add more Stoney corals you will need to dose.. you may also want to get your No3 down as low as possible since it affects Stoney coral growth and u may also want to test for phosphate.


I did a recent water change, After the water change 10% I tested the next day and the day after that the alk remained at 8 but the cal went to 380 . Would using kalk now raise my cal or will it just maintain it at 380 I did the cal test a few times just to make sure and its the same. My phosphates are under .2 and my nitrates are starting to go down maybe around 20ppm or so.

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## Moh (Apr 3, 2017)

that depends on the calcium requirements of your tank and the amount of kalk you add( since kalk is added in the make-up water for evaporation) and the only way of knowing this is to add kalk to the make-up water and test your calcium on a daily babsis to determine what effect its having


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## Rookie2013 (Jan 17, 2013)

With your current Cal and Alk levels you dont need to however as mentioned above once you start adding SPS and Clams etc and if your Waterchange are not enough to replenish than you will need to start dosing. You can either go with a 2 Part, Calcium reactor or a Kalkwasser or a hybrid. I am dosing Kalkwasser inconjuction with my 2 part. I have measured my vapourization rate and mix kalkwasser in a seperate 20G tank and dose it using dosing pump over the period of 24hrs runny my ATO out of my rodi as a seperate unit.This gives me a piece of mind and redundancy. But thts a whole different story when it comes to answering "HOW\ TO DOSE" lol...To keep it simple check your parameters and if u think WC are not enough than you may take on Kalkwasser or any other means of supplements...Good Luck...


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