Kalk Dosing

[jordan9095]

I've done some research and reading but just want to make sure I'm on the right track. I have a 25g AIO tank. Started off dosing around 200 mL per day but haven't seen any noticeable change in alk/cal drops. I'm slowly starting to increase the dose. How many mL/day is ideal for a tank my size?

Thanks

 

[jordan9095]

Bump any advice is welcome

 

[TheGreatWave]

It sounds like you are at the level to maintain your current number, ie consumption.

I'll admit I don't use "ml", I just have been adjusting my dose in teaspoons in my ATO based off previous empirical measurements.

Kalkwasser dosage is based off the amount your corals consume in basically.

If a tank is new with basically no coral, few frags I wouldn't expect the parameters to change much if at all between my 2 week water change intervals.

If I notice Alk start to drop, I will start off with a 1/2 teaspoon per gallon in my top off, then increase as the reef grows bigger.

Myself I should get my consumption translated into a tangible number, because even my dosage changes a little. If I'm evaporating more water in the winter then I may add a little less kalk to compensate. lol all I know is to get another jar when it's empty.

Also of note Kalk is not good for adjusting levels for various reasons in particular a pH swing. It's safer to bring your parameters in line with whatever is suggested for that specific parameter (baking soda etc.) or water changes.

Use the kalk to maintain your level, kinda drifting above and below your desired range by a small amount. Used in this fashion kalk has the added benefit of a slight pH boost, or effective buffer which is viewed as a desirable thing these days.

So I guess if you are adding 200ml of water saturated at 2 teaspoons a gallon, I would not expect much of a change unless the tank was really small etc. I'm assuming you evaporate more then 200ml a day? Which would mean it would take about 18 days to get 2 teaspoons of kalk into your tank. When I was running a 22 gallon system I was adding 1-2 teaspoons to the one gallon top off jug every 2-4 days for comparison. (Gallon is 3700 ml)

 

[D E N I N O]

The ideal amount depends on stocking levels and finding out the correct dosing amount needs a little experimentation. The easiest way to work it out is to stop dosing completely for 5 days (enough days to give a noticeable drop), measure the before and after to work out how much alk/calcium dropped and then go from there.

There is a calculator here:

• http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Put your tank volume in, select saturated lime water as the chemical and put your before and after values into the current/desired field.

Divide the given dosing amount by the number of days you tested over, this is how much you have to dose to maintain current alk/calcium demands each day.

You can then use the same calculator to work out how much to dose to get to your desired parameters which should match the values you have from freshly mixed salt.

Once your there and you are dosing your daily amount it should remain stable until alk/calcium demands increase (by adding new coral, coralline algae, baby snails, general growth).

 

[jordan9095]

It sounds like you are at the level to maintain your current number, ie consumption.

I'll admit I don't use "ml", I just have been adjusting my dose in teaspoons in my ATO based off previous empirical measurements.

Kalkwasser dosage is based off the amount your corals consume in basically.

If a tank is new with basically no coral, few frags I wouldn't expect the parameters to change much if at all between my 2 week water change intervals.

If I notice Alk start to drop, I will start off with a 1/2 teaspoon per gallon in my top off, then increase as the reef grows bigger.

Myself I should get my consumption translated into a tangible number, because even my dosage changes a little. If I'm evaporating more water in the winter then I may add a little less kalk to compensate. lol all I know is to get another jar when it's empty.

Also of note Kalk is not good for adjusting levels for various reasons in particular a pH swing. It's safer to bring your parameters in line with whatever is suggested for that specific parameter (baking soda etc.) or water changes.

Use the kalk to maintain your level, kinda drifting above and below your desired range by a small amount. Used in this fashion kalk has the added benefit of a slight pH boost, or effective buffer which is viewed as a desirable thing these days.

So I guess if you are adding 200ml of water saturated at 2 teaspoons a gallon, I would not expect much of a change unless the tank was really small etc. I'm assuming you evaporate more then 200ml a day? Which would mean it would take about 18 days to get 2 teaspoons of kalk into your tank. When I was running a 22 gallon system I was adding 1-2 teaspoons to the one gallon top off jug every 2-4 days for comparison. (Gallon is 3700 ml)

Thanks for the advice. I could've phrased my issue a little better. When dosing the 200 mL per day, I still don't see any noticable change in the regular drop in Alk or CA, meaning that it drops about the same if I was not dosing. My tank is about 15 months old and I do have a lot of corals. I recently started keeping track of Alk & CA a few months back. Tested Magnesium a few times and that seems to be pretty stable at ~1300. Alk was initially really low so it was tough to get it back to where it needs to be. I did not use kalk to make any major adjustments. CA also needed some boosting.

My alk swings are not really that consistent and it has been dropping less lately so it is hard for me to nail down the daily drop. I think it may be from the corals using more when I first started raising the alk since the tank was so deprived. The increases you see in the charts are from myself adding superbuffer or calcium.

Not sure how much I evaporate but it is likely a lot more, especially now in the summer. I guess I'm right in thinking that I will need way more but just wanted some reassurance. Probably should've figured out my daily dose before buying the 1500 mL dosing container. Seems like that will only last a day or so.