RonnieBlack
Active Member
Just checking how you guys dose? I personally use pickling lime, its awesome and its cheap. chill about 1 cup of water (fresh water) 1/16th of a tsp for every 100 gallons, make a slurry and dump it right in the tank.
Kalk dosing
- Thread starter RonnieBlack
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JMSKI333
Valuable Member
I use Kalkwasser from BRS. I mix 8 tsp per 5 gallon bucket of r/o water. I dose about 1 gallon of kalk water per day throughout the night with a 50ml/m BRS Doser timed through my Apex.
Time settings on Apex (when my PH is at it's lowest)
If Time 11:00 to 11:13 Then ON
If Time 01:00 to 01:13 Then ON
If Time 03:00 to 03:13 Then ON
If Time 05:00 to 05:13 Then ON
If Time 07:00 to 07:13 Then ON
If Time 09:00 to 09:13 Then ON
Time settings on Apex (when my PH is at it's lowest)
If Time 11:00 to 11:13 Then ON
If Time 01:00 to 01:13 Then ON
If Time 03:00 to 03:13 Then ON
If Time 05:00 to 05:13 Then ON
If Time 07:00 to 07:13 Then ON
If Time 09:00 to 09:13 Then ON
LPSGUY
Active Member
JMS, that seems like a lot of kalk at once. I guess its working but wondering if it would be better to dose smaller amounts more often? Reason I ask is I'm about to switch to kalk saw you have about same water volume as me. How long have you been doing it this way?
JMSKI333
Valuable Member
LPS guy,
It's not all at once. Its over the course of about 10 hours. I have been doing this for about 2-3 years with pretty decent coral success.
You saying this makes me consider dialing it back a bit. What do you think the ill effects might be if I was over dosing? From what I understand, if I was overdosing, wouldn't the calcium carbonate precipitate out of the water? I mean, where else might it go besides the coral skeleton or precipitation? I always thought that you start at about 1 tsp/g in your top off water and go from there.
My parameters stay pretty constant with Alk being in the range of about 8-9dkh and Calc at 420-450ppm.
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JMSKI333
Valuable Member
I feel you on that. I would do the same but adding kalk raises your PH. If you have a PH probe on your tank then you would notice that during the peak of your photo period, your PH is the highest. It is also the lowest in the early morning all thanks to yours corals.
For my tank, my PH will get up to 8.3 during the day and sometimes as low as 8.0 during the night. I dose the Kalk during the lowest period of my PH swing to help close the gap from PH high to PH low. If I added kalk during the peak of my photo period, then it may raise my PH to dangerous levels. I would imagine the same would apply to your aquarium.
I hope that information helps you when you are setting up your Kalk Doser.
