Kalkwasser Dosing

angus34081 · May 19, 2020

Should I wait until my tank has fully cycled before I start with it or do it from the beginning?

harley32907 · May 19, 2020

IMO, I would wait

sawdonkey · May 19, 2020

If you’re not cycled, you likely don’t need it because nothing is using up your alk and cal, but coraline algae will use it up as it starts to grow.

You absolutely need a alkalinity test so you know where you’re at. If you mix your kalk solution too strong, alkalinity will go up. If your evaporation rate increases, your alkalinity will go up. This is why you need to test you alkalinity each time before you make a new batch of kalk solution. If your tank alkalinity went up since your last batch, mix it up a little weaker and visa Versa

I’m always surprised when people say that kalk couldn’t keep up with demand. I ran it out of my ATO for years with a tank full of SPS and it did the job.

It’s easy and nearly free compared to the alternatives. Here’s my old tank grown purely on Kalk:

angus34081 · May 19, 2020

sawdonkey said:
If you’re not cycled, you likely don’t need it because nothing is using up your alk and cal, but coraline algae will use it up as it starts to grow.

You absolutely need a alkalinity test so you know where you’re at. If you mix your kalk solution too strong, alkalinity will go up. If your evaporation rate increases, your alkalinity will go up. This is why you need to test you alkalinity each time before you make a new batch of kalk solution. If your tank alkalinity went up since your last batch, mix it up a little weaker and visa Versa

I’m always surprised when people say that kalk couldn’t keep up with demand. I ran it out of my ATO for years with a tank full of SPS and it did the job.

It’s easy and nearly free compared to the alternatives. Here’s my old tank grown purely on Kalk:

That’s the goal right there

ReeferPat · May 19, 2020

sawdonkey said:
If you’re not cycled, you likely don’t need it because nothing is using up your alk and cal, but coraline algae will use it up as it starts to grow.

You absolutely need a alkalinity test so you know where you’re at. If you mix your kalk solution too strong, alkalinity will go up. If your evaporation rate increases, your alkalinity will go up. This is why you need to test you alkalinity each time before you make a new batch of kalk solution. If your tank alkalinity went up since your last batch, mix it up a little weaker and visa Versa

I’m always surprised when people say that kalk couldn’t keep up with demand. I ran it out of my ATO for years with a tank full of SPS and it did the job.

It’s easy and nearly free compared to the alternatives. Here’s my old tank grown purely on Kalk:

I agree, I’m not using anywhere near the saturation point for kalkwasser and it seems so much easier and cheaper than the alternatives. ATO with kalkwasser was easily my best addition to the tank so far.

sawdonkey · May 20, 2020

Full disclosure....I use a calcium reactor on my current tank, mostly to see if I would get better growth or color. I’m not really seeing a difference and the up front cost of a cal RX is literally about 100X the investment of a simple bag of pickling lime.

Wtyson254 · May 20, 2020

I like using a dosing pump on my DIY Kalk reactor (Kamoer x1, $59.99) as I find that I can control the dosing much better.

GSnake · May 21, 2020

that's nice saw, only on kalk alone? myself I got a doser to dose cal from red sea cause it contains strontium too, not solely relying on kalk. on top of that I manually dose traces every week. are you doing anything for trace? or water changes

ReeferPat · May 21, 2020

sawdonkey said:
Full disclosure....I use a calcium reactor on my current tank, mostly to see if I would get better growth or color. I’m not really seeing a difference and the up front cost of a cal RX is literally about 100X the investment of a simple bag of pickling lime.

Ironically, I just got ICP results and I’m low on strontium. Will be dosing manually in addition to kalkwasser.

somekindabonita · Jul 2, 2020

GSnake said:
I elevated my pump off the bottom of my ATO 5 gallon bucket so it doesn't come into contact with settled sediment,

every few weeks I refill it with water, throw in some fresh kalk and stir it up. and then clean the bucket out every month or so. works like a charm

How do you have your pump supported off the bottom?