Dosing Kalk Question

[denverjon]

I've been reefing for around 12 years and currently have a 250g mixed reef. I would say my tank is doing good but not great due to the fact that rarely do I get good growth from my sps. In thinking back over the years, the one time I had crazy growth was when I was dosing kalk. Currently, I'm dosing two part using soda ash and calcium chloride from BRS. I've still got my kalk reactor and have been thinking about using it again via a dosing pump. The one issue I see is that I keep my ph pretty high, between 8.3-8.5 so I certainly don't need for my ph to get any higher. My alk is fairly stable at 9.9 and calcium 440. A couple questions...

-Are there benefits to running kalk that I'm not seeing with the two part?
-I know that soda ash raises the ph while sodium bicarbonate doesn't. If I was going to add kalk, would it make sense to switch to sodium bicarbonate?

As you can see, I'm not having trouble maintaining my parameters, I'm just trying to think of ways to get better growth. Thanks for the advice!

 

[ShadowReef]

Hi denverjon,

As far as I'm aware there are no additional benefits that you haven't mentioned. I went from kalk to 2 part and now to Triton and keeping my parameters the same it made no real difference. What I have seen help my sps grow is flow. I know lots of people can tell you that and it's not a breakthrough comment but I've seen big jumps in my acropora growth since I upped my flow rate and the randomness of the flow. Total flow (including return) is now about 75x

Hope that helps

 

[ShadowReef]

Oh and now being on triton, I have to ask, have you considered doing an icp test to see of any other elements might be slowing growth?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree with the above that the benefit is primarily higher pH and possibly phosphate reduction.

 

[denverjon]

Thanks for the responses. Since I've already got fairly high ph and low phosphates, I guess I'll just stay the course with two part. And it's been awhile since I've done an ICP test, that's a good idea.