Kalkwasser advice

[Dive Cowboy]

Hi there. New to the hobby and still learning so bear with me. I have a mixed reef tank and my ph is a little lower than I'd like, averaging 7.97. My cal is 383 and my alk is 9.64. I dose both daily with a pump. I keep reading that kalkwasser will increase ph, but does it increase it more than separately dosing cal and alk? And if so, should I use it instead of cal and alk? Temporarily? Forever? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[ti_lavender]

I’d think of kalkwasser as a way to add alkalinity and calcium to your tank. Its benefit is cost and pH boost. So depending on consumption of alk and calcium in your tank you might only have to use kalk. Others have to make adjustments with other supplements to get the correct levels of alkalinity and calcium they want.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

In this case, since you presumably aren’t looking to raise alkalinity, it’s not the way to go to try to raise pH. Your pH is fine, but if you want it higher, I’d look for other ways.

 

[KStatefan]

I dose both daily with a pump. I keep reading that kalkwasser will increase ph, but does it increase it more than separately dosing cal and alk? And if so, should I use it instead of cal and alk? Temporarily? Forever? Any advice is appreciated.

What are you dosing now?

 

[Dive Cowboy]

What are you dosing now?

Cal, alk, magnesium. I don't have a lot of coral yet so they're all under 10 ml./day. Very stable though.

 

[Dive Cowboy]

In this case, since you presumably aren’t looking to raise alkalinity, it’s not the way to go to try to raise pH. Your pH is fine, but if you want it higher, I’d look for other ways.

I was thinking that maybe I would stop dosing alk, and trade it out for kw. After talking to my LFS though, sounds like a co2 scrubber might be the best bet, so you're right.

 

[piranhaman00]

What alk supplement ? If you are dosing something like NaHCO3 then switching to lime will work

 

[Dive Cowboy]

What alk supplement ? If you are dosing something like NaHCO3 then switching to lime will work

It's the Fritz RPM alkalinity

 

[Salty2021]

Just stay with basic alk supplement. And some water changes and your good..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you switch the alk part of that two part for sodium hydroxide, you’ll get the same pH boost as using kalkwasser.

That said, kalkwasser is a fine choice. I used it for 20 years.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Be careful dosing Alk, you don’t want it to get higher, it’s good where it’s at if your corals start to look ticked off it will most likely be from Alk being to high, be careful, where are you dose it as well I know most people will pour it right in their tank in front of the powerhead but that could actually be dangerous, are used to do that all the time, and when I put a frag rack inside my tank, the powerhead blew the Alk right across the tank and it went right into my frag rack and I lost a couple SPS frag’s from doing that, now I dump it right into my overflow box and let it run right through the sump now, CO2 scrubbers are a good option. You could get the BRS one for a little over $35, I think the best thing for your tank is to be able to keep your Alk stable, if you could do that it would pretty much keep your whole system stable because that’s where you’re going to get most of your swings, you’re not gonna get those kind of swings from calcium and magnesium