Kalwasser dosage amount

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 22, 2023

Hello. I just got my doser and want to start dosing kalkwasser. My daily evaporation fluctuates between around . 30 gallons all the way up to 1 gallon. One gal is very rare.
I figured if I dosed about .20-.25 I should be safe as not to over fill the tank and mess with the salinity.
The calculator says that’s 800 and some ml. That seems like a lot.
Am I using the right formula to figure this out?
Thank you

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 22, 2023

Well, the volume is accurate, but whether you need that much is a different question.

Do you know anything about all demand in the tank?
Want water volume is the tank?

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 22, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Well, the volume is accurate, but whether you need that much is a different question.

Do you know anything about all demand in the tank?
Want water volume is the tank?

The tank volume is 164 gal. I’m guessing around 145 with displacement. I’m losing about .5 dkh per day. I’ve just been hand dosing sodium bicarbonate.
Mainly I’m trying to use it for a ph boost. My ph drops to 7.9 after lights out and goes up to 8 with lights on. My ph was higher before I started dosing sodium bicarbonate for alk. I did read that it does lower ph.

FUNGI · Nov 22, 2023

If raising ph is your only concern, run skimmer air intake line to outside if you can. I had same issue with PH as you do......I'm in the 8.1 range now

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 22, 2023

FUNGI said:
If raising ph is your only concern, run skimmer air intake line to outside if you can. I had same issue with PH as you do......I'm in the 8.1 range now

I don’t have that option unfortunately. It’s not just for the ph it’s also to keep things stable. And just trying to move forward in the hobby. Im sure I could dose 2 part but kalk is a lot cheaper.
Eventually I will have to dose 2 part anyway if things go well but for right now it’s the cheaper alternative for the demand I have.

FUNGI · Nov 22, 2023

Reefdiculous22 said:
I don’t have that option unfortunately. It’s not just for the ph it’s also to keep things stable. And just trying to move forward in the hobby. Im sure I could dose 2 part but kalk is a lot cheaper.
Eventually I will have to dose 2 part anyway if things go well but for right now it’s the cheaper alternative for the demand I have.

other option is scrubber.....but yes, kalk is cheaper.....

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 22, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Well, the volume is accurate, but whether you need that much is a different question.

Do you know anything about all demand in the tank?
Want water volume is the tank?

I dosed 1 tsp per gallon to 5 gallons. I set the doser to 150 ml over a 13 hour period,while my lights are off. I’m gonna see where that gets me.

Lionfish hunter · Nov 22, 2023

Reefdiculous22 said:
The tank volume is 164 gal. I’m guessing around 145 with displacement. I’m losing about .5 dkh per day. I’ve just been hand dosing sodium bicarbonate.
Mainly I’m trying to use it for a ph boost. My ph drops to 7.9 after lights out and goes up to 8 with lights on. My ph was higher before I started dosing sodium bicarbonate for alk. I did read that it does lower ph.

You can easily add .25 gallons to your tank a day with a daily .5 dkh drop. You could add quite a bit more even, if you had more evaporation.

you are likely looking at less than .1 ph boost with that amount. I dose 5500 milliliters a day to a 235 gallon. I don’t remember exactly how much it boosted my ph, but it was not more than .2, probably less.

You may see different results than I do depending on the co2 in your house and water.

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 24, 2023

Lionfish hunter said:
You can easily add .25 gallons to your tank a day with a daily .5 dkh drop. You could add quite a bit more even, if you had more evaporation.

you are likely looking at less than .1 ph boost with that amount. I dose 5500 milliliters a day to a 235 gallon. I don’t remember exactly how much it boosted my ph, but it was not more than .2, probably less.

You may see different results than I do depending on the co2 in your house and water.

Thanks for the response. I’ve dosed 2 nights in a row now but haven’t seen a boost in the ph. It’s actually staying at 7.9 now. I tested alk last night and I still needed to dose 100 ml of sodium bicarbonate. I was @7.6 dkh. I try to keep it at around the 8.2 mark. I don’t know if I made the solution to weak or if I didn’t mix it properly?
Any thoughts?

Any insight on that?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 24, 2023

Reefdiculous22 said:
Thanks for the response. I’ve dosed 2 nights in a row now but haven’t seen a boost in the ph. It’s actually staying at 7.9 now. I tested alk last night and I still needed to dose 100 ml of sodium bicarbonate. I was @7.6 dkh. I try to keep it at around the 8.2 mark. I don’t know if I made the solution to weak or if I didn’t mix it properly?
Any thoughts?

Any insight on that?

Many people cannot dose enough limewater (kalkwasser) to keep up with alk demand, and the less you add, the smaller will be the pH boost.

exnisstech · Nov 24, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Many people cannot dose enough limewater (kalkwasser) to keep up with alk demand, and the less you add, the smaller will be the pH boost.

As expected Randy is correct. Based on my limited experience I receive no boost in pH dosing kalk. I dose 7200ml daily in one tank. I use fully saturated kalk (2 tsp per gal) stored in a 30g brute. My alk is rock solid at 8.0 to 8.1 but pH does not increase. I also dose 2part in 2 other systems that don't get kalk. IMO 2 part is easier to dial in but I think kalk is easier to dose as you only need a single doser. The issue with using kalk is that it depends on your evaporation rate and alk consumption. If consumption is too high and / or evap rate too low is just will not work on its own. It took me several weeks to finally dial in the amount of kalk needed. The tank I run kalk in is a mixed reef about 220g total .

pH seems to be the new thing the last few months and many people are getting caught up chasing it. I have a tank that ran 7.9 for years and did perfectly fine. I didn't even know what the pH was as I was 6-7 years into the hobby before I even bothered to test pH and still only test rarely, usually when something just doesn't look right but pH is always the same. JMO

Lionfish hunter · Nov 24, 2023

exnisstech said:
As expected Randy is correct. Based on my limited experience I receive no boost in pH dosing kalk. I dose 7200ml daily in one tank. I use fully saturated kalk (2 tsp per gal) stored in a 30g brute. My alk is rock solid at 8.0 to 8.1 but pH does not increase. I also dose 2part in 2 other systems that don't get kalk. IMO 2 part is easier to dial in but I think kalk is easier to dose as you only need a single doser. The issue with using kalk is that it depends on your evaporation rate and alk consumption. If consumption is too high and / or evap rate too low is just will not work on its own. It took me several weeks to finally dial in the amount of kalk needed. The tank I run kalk in is a mixed reef about 220g total .

pH seems to be the new thing the last few months and many people are getting caught up chasing it. I have a tank that ran 7.9 for years and did perfectly fine. I didn't even know what the pH was as I was 6-7 years into the hobby before I even bothered to test pH and still only test rarely, usually when something just doesn't look right but pH is always the same. JMO

You should be getting some ph boost dosing 2 gallons of kalk a day compared to dosing a different non ph boosting alk/ cal supplement. Might not be noticeable if you switched from a very high ph 2 part. But kalk has such a high ph, 2 gallons has to raise the ph some.

miyags · Nov 24, 2023

Need more info...Is your tank full of hard coral, or just a few frags? Some people use 1/2 teaspoon per gal and drip or dose. Others use full saturation per gallon and drip or dose.

exnisstech · Nov 24, 2023

Lionfish hunter said:
You should be getting some ph boost dosing 2 gallons of kalk a day compared to dosing a different non ph boosting alk/ cal supplement. Might not be noticeable if you switched from a very high ph 2 part. But kalk has such a high ph, 2 gallons has to raise the ph some.

I'm sure it's not noticeable using my methods. I don't monitor, only test once in a while. When I test the tank that gets kalk it has pH identical to another tank 8ft away that gets a small amount 2part.

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 24, 2023

miyags said:
Need more info...Is your tank full of hard coral, or just a few frags? Some people use 1/2 teaspoon per gal and drip or dose. Others use full saturation per gallon and drip or dose.

I have 2 monti frags ( 1 growing well) the other I just got
1 chalice frag
1 torch (4heads)
3 acan/ Micromussa frags 3 to four 4 heads
4 bta (had 1 but it reproduced)
5 rhodactis (1 that reproduced)
Zoa colony 50 or so polyps
2 zoa frags 1 -4 polyp and one about 12 polyps
1 blastomussa merletti frag
I cespitularia colony
1 Indonesian hammer (single head with baby branch)
1 cyphastrea frag (almost covered the frag now)
1 Duncan 2 main polyps with 4 new growth
1 trumpet 2 polyp currently splitting (will have 4 when done)

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 24, 2023

exnisstech said:
As expected Randy is correct. Based on my limited experience I receive no boost in pH dosing kalk. I dose 7200ml daily in one tank. I use fully saturated kalk (2 tsp per gal) stored in a 30g brute. My alk is rock solid at 8.0 to 8.1 but pH does not increase. I also dose 2part in 2 other systems that don't get kalk. IMO 2 part is easier to dial in but I think kalk is easier to dose as you only need a single doser. The issue with using kalk is that it depends on your evaporation rate and alk consumption. If consumption is too high and / or evap rate too low is just will not work on its own. It took me several weeks to finally dial in the amount of kalk needed. The tank I run kalk in is a mixed reef about 220g total .

pH seems to be the new thing the last few months and many people are getting caught up chasing it. I have a tank that ran 7.9 for years and did perfectly fine. I didn't even know what the pH was as I was 6-7 years into the hobby before I even bothered to test pH and still only test rarely, usually when something just doesn't look right but pH is always the same. JMO

The crazy part is, I had no issues with it until I started to get into dosing. Before I just did my weekly water changes and my ph was 8.3 at peak. I started trying to keep everything stable and now I’m @8.0 at peak.
I read an article that 7.9 and below supposedly starts to cause problems with yellow tangs. As mine has been having some issues. Also supposedly the corals have better growth and nutrient consumption at 8.3. Idk
Right now [email protected] at peak and 7.9 with lights out. It did drop to 7.7 the other night though. Im
Just trying to go to the next level and keep things as steady as I can. Thought I would give kalk a try as I don’t have a lot of corals. Thought it might be a good way to ease into it with dosing and everyone swears by it. lol

exnisstech · Nov 25, 2023

I see your in SD, any chance you had some windows open when your pH was higher?
Fresh air will definately help increase pH by lowering Co2 levels. I have a tank in our bedroom that was dropping to 7.9 overnight. I added an airline to the skimmer and ran it to the attic and now pH is 8.2-8.3 in the morning.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 25, 2023

Reefdiculous22 said:
The crazy part is, I had no issues with it until I started to get into dosing. Before I just did my weekly water changes and my ph was 8.3 at peak. I started trying to keep everything stable and now I’m @8.0 at peak.
I read an article that 7.9 and below supposedly starts to cause problems with yellow tangs. As mine has been having some issues. Also supposedly the corals have better growth and nutrient consumption at 8.3. Idk
Right now [email protected] at peak and 7.9 with lights out. It did drop to 7.7 the other night though. Im
Just trying to go to the next level and keep things as steady as I can. Thought I would give kalk a try as I don’t have a lot of corals. Thought it might be a good way to ease into it with dosing and everyone swears by it. lol

I do not believe there is evidence that pH below 7.9 causes yellow tang problems.

Low pH does stress hard corals, however.

Reefdiculous22 · Nov 25, 2023

exnisstech said:
I see your in SD, any chance you had some windows open when your pH was higher?
Fresh air will definately help increase pH by lowering Co2 levels. I have a tank in our bedroom that was dropping to 7.9 overnight. I added an airline to the skimmer and ran it to the attic and now pH is 8.2-8.3 in the morning.

No. It was few months ago and I was running the a.c. The ph didn’t start dropping until I started adding the sodium bicarbonate. Which was probably 2 months ago now. Somewhere around there. I did start opening the window and it would get up to 8.1. Now it’s to cold to have the windows open . It’s staying at a stable 7.9 and 8.0. I might try using 2 tsp of kalk to see if that does anything. If not I’m not gonna worry about it. If I ever decide to get some sps I might fret it a little more. I just probably won’t get as good of growth on the lps, but they seem to be doing fine.