Kalk, Alk and Ca Doseing

[ShellSea]

I will spare you all the last three week testing results and history of efforts generated correcting a alk dose pump malfunction that emptied my 30 day supply container in one night last month. All livestock fine for the most part. slight bleaching on half of a 14 inch diameter birdnest but all else fine.

My question for now is, can kalk dosing, (100 ml once per hour, 24/7 in total 150 gallon system) replenish calcium without replenishing alkalinity?

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I will spare you all the last three week testing results and history of efforts generated correcting a alk dose pump malfunction that emptied my 30 day supply container in one night last month. All livestock fine for the most part. slight bleaching on half of a 14 inch diameter birdnest but all else fine.

My question for now is, can kalk dosing, (100 ml once per hour, 24/7 in total 150 gallon system) replenish calcium without replenishing alkalinity?

Thank you for your thoughts.

Definitely not. It adds exactly 2.8 dKH of alkalinity for each 20 ppm of calcium.

 

[ShellSea]

OK thanks Randy. I will continue to play with dosing schedules for awhile. I may need to get back with other questions. Taking the variance factor of test kits into consideration and everything else it still seems my Ca consumption in the tank is far less than the alk. I was not sure if my new kalk schedule was a contributing factor. I also lost a 10 year old huge Derasa clam with the alk overdose I forgot to mention, not sure if it was a combination of age and overdose or not, so he used to pull a lot of the Ca I'm sure but now a month later I still have Ca stable but alk dropping. Stay tuned.