10g/ Kalk+

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

Basically, im running a softie only tank in a 10g. Im thinking about running Kalk+ in my ATO. Is this dumb, is this good? Would it cause an overdose since i get pretty decent evap during the week?

What do i need to know? Im dumb when it comes to this, ive never done it before.

PeterC99 · Jul 18, 2021

Very difficult to answer your question without knowing your evaporation rate, Alk demand, and pH levels (this is what you need to know).

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

PeterC99 said:
Very difficult to answer your question without knowing your evaporation rate, Alk demand, and pH levels (this is what you need to know).

ok, didn't know where to start.

pH: 8.1
Evap: approx 1 liter every 4-5 days
Alk demand: from when i do a water change, which is biweekly. I go from 8.0 mixing with Tropic Marin Pro Reef to around 7. so 1dKH drop within two week span, but the tank is light with coral for the moment.

PeterC99 · Jul 18, 2021

Musovski said:
ok, didn't know where to start.

pH: 8.1
Evap: approx 1 liter every 4-5 days
Alk demand: from when i do a water change, which is biweekly. I go from 8.0 mixing with Tropic Marin Pro Reef to around 7. so 1dKH drop within two week span, but the tank is light with coral for the moment.

Now we are getting somewhere!

You have to start slowly and carefully. Kalk can crash your aquarium if you add too much. I would recommend adding 1/8 the recommended amount of Kalk to your ATO RODI water, let ATO Kalk mix settle per instructions, and then turn ATO back on. Follow directions exactly (except for how much to start with.). Daily monitor Alk & pH. Ideally you want your Alk to stay at a consistent 8 dKh over those 2 weeks. You can Slowly adjust up your Kalk addition to ATO to Get to that 8 dKh.

Note - Kalk clogs up ATO pumps and if your ATO accidentally gets stuck on, could overdose your aquarium. I use Kalk but add through a separate doser controlled by my Neptune Apex.

Kalk is strong stuff and you must be very careful with it.

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

I also run chemipure blue nano packets if that means anything. not sure if that messes with chemistry too much

PeterC99 · Jul 18, 2021

Musovski said:
I also run chemipure blue nano packets if that means anything. not sure if that messes with chemistry too much

Don’t think that would impact Kalk but I don’t know for sure. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

PeterC99 said:
Now we are getting somewhere!

You have to start slowly and carefully. Kalk can crash your aquarium if you add too much. I would recommend adding 1/8 the recommended amount of Kalk to your ATO RODI water, let ATO Kalk mix settle per instructions, and then turn ATO back on. Follow directions exactly (except for how much to start with.). Daily monitor Alk & pH. Ideally you want your Alk to stay at a consistent 8 dKh over those 2 weeks. You can Slowly adjust up your Kalk addition to ATO to Get to that 8 dKh.

Note - Kalk clogs up ATO pumps and if your ATO accidentally gets stuck on, could overdose your aquarium. I use Kalk but add through a separate doser controlled by my Neptune Apex.

Kalk is strong stuff and you must be very careful with it.

ok. sounds good so far. Im actually really nervous tbh.

Should i run a tiny powerhead in my ato with the kalk+ to keep it moving and not settle to the bottom?

would you recommend upping my dKH? I used to run my old tank through triton method and kept it pretty high, somewhere around 12.1-12.3 dKH.

PeterC99 · Jul 18, 2021

Musovski said:
ok. sounds good so far. Im actually really nervous tbh.

Should i run a tiny powerhead in my ato with the kalk+ to keep it moving and not settle to the bottom?

would you recommend upping my dKH? I used to run my old tank through triton method and kept it pretty high, somewhere around 12.1-12.3 dKH.

Good, that nervousness will help to ensure that you start very slowly with a milder Kalk mix.

My understanding is that you don’t really need to keep mixing the Kalk. It saturates the water to a certain level and stays pretty consistent in the ATO. Best if you can keep ATO as airtight as possible because air impacts Kalk’s potency.

For now, I would shoot for a consistent 8 dKh between water changes and get your aquarium used to that level. Once you get that level consistent for a few weeks, then you can start to bring up

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

PeterC99 said:
Good, that nervousness will help to ensure that you start very slowly with a milder Kalk mix.

My understanding is that you don’t really need to keep mixing the Kalk. It saturates the water to a certain level and stays pretty consistent in the ATO. Best if you can keep ATO as airtight as possible because air impacts Kalk’s potency.

For now, I would shoot for a consistent 8 dKh between water changes and get your aquarium used to that level. Once you get that level consistent for a few weeks, then you can start to bring up

Awesome, thank you. Youve been really helpful. I appreciate ya!

PeterC99 · Jul 18, 2021

Musovski said:
Awesome, thank you. Youve been really helpful. I appreciate ya!

Good luck! Start slowly and soon you will be seeing the great benefits of Kalk!

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

PeterC99 said:
Good luck! Start slowly and soon you will be seeing the great benefits of Kalk!

Actually question! What are some of the better Kalk+ products? or are they all the same?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 18, 2021

If by kalk+ you mean the brightwell product, kalk+2, don't be fooled by their misleading claims about magnesium. It will do nothing useful to supplement magnesium, and contains almost none.

It actually has less magnesium than food grade calcium hydroxide (both by Brightwell's own claims and confirmed by BRS testing), and what little is in it is useless since it cannot dissolve into the high pH of limewater.

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If by kalk+ you mean the brightwell product, kalk+2, don't be fooled by their misleading claims about magnesium. It will do nothing useful to supplement magnesium, and contains almost none.

It actually has less magnesium than food grade calcium hydroxide (both by Brightwell's own claims and confirmed by BRS testing), and what little is in it is useless since it cannot dissolve into the high pH of limewater.

That's exactly what i was going to order; Brightwell Kalk+2 . Is there another product i should look at?

Musovski · Jul 18, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If by kalk+ you mean the brightwell product, kalk+2, don't be fooled by their misleading claims about magnesium. It will do nothing useful to supplement magnesium, and contains almost none.

It actually has less magnesium than food grade calcium hydroxide (both by Brightwell's own claims and confirmed by BRS testing), and what little is in it is useless since it cannot dissolve into the high pH of limewater.

what i did notice is that my Mg doesn't really move, its stays around the 1320 mark.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 19, 2021

Musovski said:
That's exactly what i was going to order; Brightwell Kalk+2 . Is there another product i should look at?

There's really not anything that comes usefully precombined with calcium hydroxide (kalkasser mix) that I have seen.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 19, 2021

Musovski said:
what i did notice is that my Mg doesn't really move, its stays around the 1320 mark.

Magnesium moves super slowly, even when none is dosed. At the max, it depletes at about 1/10th the rate of calcium depletion, often slower than that.

So its decline is often unnoticed for a substantial period, and water changes may keep it up since many mixes start above NSW levels.

Musovski · Jul 19, 2021

Ok. So. Basically this is my new habit for the tank;
-50% Water change bi weekly using tropic Marin pro reef salt
-ATO with brightwell Kalk+2
-monthly change of Chemipure Blue

Maintaining:
Alk: 8dKH
pH: 8.1

so with the water change it’ll replace diminished major elements and trace elements.

with kalk+2 it’ll maintain calc level, alk and pH?

I hope I’m getting this right

is there anything else I should consider when it comes to water chemistry?

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Magnesium moves super slowly, even when none is dosed. At the max, it depletes at about 1/10th the rate of calcium depletion, often slower than that.

So its decline is often unnoticed for a substantial period, and water changes may keep it up since many mixes start above NSW levels.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 19, 2021

That's a lot of water change.

Why so much?

Musovski · Jul 19, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That's a lot of water change.

Why so much?

im having trouble bringing down nitrate/ currently sitting at 80... RO/DI. Until i get it down to 20, i may need to keep persistent with the 50%. Feels like whatever i do, its hard to bring it down. Removed the sand bed, went from 160 to 80.

Edit: i tested my ro/di water, tests at 0 nitrate.