Kalk question

[808jaymakoa]

I started dosing kalk in my reef tank 5 days ago to bring calcium up in a more stable manner.

I am adding 4 tsp to my ATO pictured below

My water params 6 days ago before adding kalk was as follows
Ph 8.1-8.3
Salinity 1.025
Alk 10
Cal 380
Mag 1350
I checked params just now and it's not what I was hoping for
Ph 8.23 (lights have been off for 5 hours)
Salinity 1.025
Alk 13
Calcium 380

Why is my calcium not increasing at all. I noticed that in the last 5 days that ph has been incredibly stable. It swings half as much as it did. And alk is obviously to high right now. I have not done a water change since I started dosing kalk but did a 10% change the day before. My salt has a calcium of 413ppm. Any help would be appreciated so I can start buying a bunch of sps.

 

[808jaymakoa]

and I noticed this as well. As I'm new to dosing kalk I'm unaware of what this solid material is on top of the surface of my return baffle in my sump

 

[HumanMachine]

As far as my knowledge on Kalk goes, it doesn't so much add as Maintains the proper balance of already existing numbers. I believe you're going to need to get your levels in order before you use Kalk to properly maintain your current levels.

As far as fixing your calcium issues, I default to this page for my own problems

Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

 

[HumanMachine]

Also, this digs into more of the science of Kalk. I know it's quite a read, but it's made me better at managing my chemistry.

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[NanaReefer]

Seem's to me that your numbers were fine before you started dosing. So why did you start?

 

[808jaymakoa]

Seem's to me that your numbers were fine before you started dosing. So why did you start?

Because I wanted to bring my calcium ppm up a little bit. I didn't want it to be on the verge of being to low. Sometimes I can mess with my tank everyday and check params everyday and can adjust things without worrying but sometimes I'm so busy with work and I won't get to spend time on the tank for a couple days and I worry when my params are that close to be low because I don't know what's been depleted. So I started dosing kalk.

 

[backpack]

Looks great. I realy love not manualy dosing everyday and have been using a kalk dripper like you are for a few months. Only advice I have is clean the orifice that the solution is dispensed from every once in a while.

 

[SteelerMike]

You can't effectively use Kalk as a way to increase levels (calcium or alkalinity) but rather to keep it stable. The reason is that saturated Kalk water has a very high PH and the amount of Kalk it would take to raise your levels would cause a large spike in PH and be bad for your tank. You want to get your alk and calcium to your desired levels, then using kalk will help keep them stable. You can either purchase calcium supplements or make your own. I don't have the link but Randy Farley has some DIY recipes that work well and are cheap alternatives to the store bought ones. GL!

 

[mcarroll]

Your alk is nowhere near as high as it's testing, due to Ca being so low.

Get some calcium chloride and something separate for alkalinity.

Calculate your total dose needed to get numbers back to correct, but only dose 1/4 or 1/3 of it. Then retest, repeat until the numbers are at least in the ballpark before you add the final dose.

-Matt