Integrating Kalkwasser with Three-Part?

[nickkohrn]

I have been dosing ESV B-Ionic in my SPS grow-out system. Recently, I purchased the 4g buckets of ESV B-Ionic, which will probably last me 1.5 - 2 years—the price of the 4g buckets is better when compared to smaller packages.

In my garage, I came across a large bucket (~22lbs.) of BRS calcium hydroxide that I forgot I had received from a friend that transitioned to a calcium reactor. I tried selling it locally, and I can’t even get $25 for it, so I am considering integrating it into my current system, but I am not sure how I should do that.

Do you have any recommendations or suggestions regarding the integration of kalkwasser into a system that’s currently supported by three-part?

Below, you can see the bucket of calcium hydroxide on the bottom, which is almost full, and the buckets of alkalinity and calcium above.

 

[FranklinDattein]

It is quite simple and I do use 2-part in combination with Kalkwasser, mostly to help raise pH at night and also to precipitate a bit of phosphate.

You need to know the daily consumption and decide what percentage will be replenished by each one of the 2 methods.

Let's say your daily consumption is 0.5dkh and you want to replace 50% of the existing 2-part daily dose, with Kalk. Go to Kalk Contribution Calculator, find out how much kalk is required to add 0.25dKh/day.
Then you cut the current 2-part by 50% and start dosing the amount of Kalk determined by the calculator.

You probably want to dose Kalk during the night, to raise pH. In this case, it is ideal to monitor pH throughout the night, to make sure is not raising too much (or too little) and adjust the percentages accordingly..

 

[nickkohrn]

I’ll have to experiment a little with pH because I use a carbon dioxide scrubber, which I forgot to mention, and it keeps my pH around 8.2-8.3, even at night.