kalk and stabilization.. A bit confussed

Chris Adams · Feb 19, 2015

kalk and dosing other additives. Sorry figured you may need some details

I have an Innovative 38gl mixed reef and it is a year old. These last couple months I have worked on stability of numbers after having some issues with how a couple corals looked(meteor shower would turn white then come back after couple weeks back to back weeks WC) and finding out a couple test kits out of whack!! So with all new test kits ..red sea and hannah checkers and finally getting my apex online I started to dial things in.

My tank will drop 1dkh alk and up to 20ppm cal a day and my PH was generally on the low side. So I started dosing Seachem reef buffer to help with what I though was low PH mid 7 at night to maybe 8 during day (yes I know don't chase #'s.. sometimes I am a slow learner). The buffer also helped to stabilize my ALK. For Calcium I was dosing 1 tsp Kent Turbo to try to keep stable.

I tested prior to adding kalk
ALK at 10.83
cal 440

I did not dose the day or night I added the kalk

I added a two little fishies kalk reactor and tied into the ATO. I put in 2 tsp to start. Seems to be working as I would see a .04 spike in a 15 to 20 minute span with top off(is that too much of a jump). Tank ranged from 8.07 to 8.25 for the day.

ALK dropped 1dkh to 9.8 where Cal only dropped 5ppm.

Now after doing some further reading and looking at others level(successful tanks) people are keeping much lower alk levels which are more in range with NSW. So I guess I should allow mine to drop

Now I may be a computer engineer but I am not scientist or chemist. Also with all the miss information out there things are so convoluted.

So say I allow my alk and cal to drop and continue kalk at current levels.

Once I reach say alk of 7 or 8 dkh I should add more kalk to stabilize the # correct? This is assuming that ALK does continue to drop

If I add more kalk I assume my PH jump will be more significant.. when should I be concerned?

How big and quick of a jump is dangerous?

Or should I dose the seachem reef buffer?

Thanks

Chris

Chris Adams · Feb 19, 2015

If I am all jacked up in my thinking just tell me.

For those who use kalk do you also have to dose calcium and alk for minor adjustments or do WC take care of it?

I do 5gl a week WC on my tank

CoralFragZ · Feb 19, 2015

I am not sure of the buffer but Kalk is perfectly balanced alk and ca. What most people do is gravity drip or put it in a stirrer and dose via top off which is what I have done. The goal is to have your tanks parameters stable and subsequently drip or dose via ato to stabilize. When you use Kalk I like to check my MG once a week and adjust.

Chris Adams · Feb 19, 2015

Thanks for the response. I am somewhat coming to the realization my efforts to stabilize my alk and cal were a little to ambitious as I have been running alk at high 9 up to high 10 dkh. After reading through some of Randy's information and others info I realize I should probably allow my alk to drop and shoot for maintaining 7 - 8 range.

My cal had dropped from 435 to 410 in last 24 hours so I am dosing 1/2 tsp turbo calcium tonight so it does not drop any further.

So is there an issue with me running kalk and dosing calcium until I can figure out the correct amount of kalk to keep things balanced around.

7 -8 dkh
420 cal

I tend to be an over tester so will definitely keep my eye on MG which runs 1500 in my tank.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 20, 2015

There should be no need to keep dosing calcium along with the limewater, unless you are somehow otherwise adding alkalinity (such as tap water) or water changes with a low calcium, mix are bringing it down.

Int he long run, limewater will boost calcium relative to alkalinity.

Chris Adams · Feb 20, 2015

literally just started kalk the other day. So stopping dosing other additives. With every top off the ph spike .03 .04 range. However the alk and cal are dropping still.

So I guess I will just run the kalk(stop other dosing). So I should be able to wait to see where the tank ends up when utilizing 2 tsp kalk. If calc and alk keep dropping and start to get toward 7dkh and calcium below 380 I up the kalk.

The kalk is already doing a better job of stabilizing my PH low of 8.0 high 8.18 yesterday.

I will run my alk and cal test again today to see where things are

Thanks Randy.

Chris Adams · Feb 20, 2015

PS generally I check cal, mag, alk, sg on my WC as I have run into bad batch before.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 20, 2015

That all sounds like a fine plan.

Chris Adams · Feb 20, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That all sounds like a fine plan.

Thanks Randy.
Just want things to go as smooth as possible for the wife when I am out of town so I have a week and half to dial in the kalk.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 20, 2015

:thumb:

Happy Reefing.

Chris Adams · Feb 21, 2015

Ok so yesterday tests
ALK 10.08 down .72 in 24 hours
CAL 425 up 15ppm (I had dosed the previous night before we had engaged in this thread).
PH 8.0 - 8.17 (slight drop in hi end vs previous day)

Based on discussion yesterday I did not dose my buffer or cal.
Just going with

This morning

PH low 7.87 (so .3 drop over night). These huge drops is what got me dosing my buffer originally and 8.0 range used to be the high meaning I would drop 7.7 or lower occasionally.

So anyways my question is should I be concerned about the .3 drops at night?

I know today my tank will struggle to reach 8.+

Will test my Cal and Alk later today.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 21, 2015

You should not be concerned with a 0.3 pH unit drop, only how low the bottom of the drop gets. If it is pH 7.8 or higher, then that is adequate (IMO).

Chris Adams · Feb 21, 2015

Once again Randy a big thank you!!

Cal 415 down 10ppm from yesterday
ALK 9.632 down .448
Mag 1500
PH 8.05

Holding steady

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 21, 2015

That looks good to me!

Happy Reefing.

Chris Adams · Feb 22, 2015

PH low 7.86 high so far 8.07
Cal 400 down 15ppm
ALK 8.96 down .672

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2015

That sounds reasonable.

If that trend keeps going down, and you are replacing all evaporated water with limewater, then you may need to use something else as well, such as a two part.

Chris Adams · Feb 23, 2015

thanks Randy

Will be interesting to see what alk and cal #'s are today.

PG low last night 7.74

Can I increase the Kalk amount in the reactor to try to level things off? I was thinking of increasing by a tsp...

What 2 part is most widely used would you say?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2015

Chris Adams said:
thanks Randy

Will be interesting to see what alk and cal #'s are today.

PG low last night 7.74

Can I increase the Kalk amount in the reactor to try to level things off? I was thinking of increasing by a tsp...

What 2 part is most widely used would you say?

This is a stirring reactor or a settled reservoir for the limewater?

I do not know which commercial one is most popular, but I'd probably pick B-ionic. For a non commercial one, my DIY (such as BRS sells ingredients for) is a very popular way to go.

Chris Adams · Feb 23, 2015

Yes it is the Two little fishies kalk stirrer/reactor 300.
All top off run through the reactor no other means of top off.

Utilizing Seachem reef kalk.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2015

In a stirred reactor, changing the volume of solids shouldn't matter much as there should always be a big excess of calcium hydroxide solid.

Is that not the case?