Should I switch from AFR to Kalk?

[ajremington68]

Tank is doing good I would say it is about 10 months old and I am about out of AFR and I have another jug of it I can throw on and keep going. But everyone hypes up Kalkwasser and how it is the key to growth and is basically roids for an aquarium. I bought Mrs.Wages Kalkwasser dry powder stuff like 2-3 months ago and want to try it, but my tank is doing okay. If it ain't broke what am I trying to fix. But what if my tank does way better with the Kalk? The only thing about the kalk is I will have to refresh it a lot more often with only being able to make a certain amount of concentration. Aswell as I will have to tune it in and it will cause a swing because I have no clue how much to dose. I do have an apex system so it shouldn't take long to observe but Im just not sure. What would you do?

Also tank is 55g with 20g sump and mixed reef with just starting to get into SPS. Also dosing about 10ml of AFR with a slightly elevated concentration compared to what they recommend.

 

[TX_REEF]

I'm of the school of "if it aint broke don't fix it"! If your reef is happy, I'd carry on as is

 

[DDenny]

If AFR is keeping your numbers where you want them why change. I do soda ash because I need the pH boost or I would probably do AFR as well. I don’t believe that AFR will increase the pH but correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[ajremington68]

If AFR is keeping your numbers where you want them why change. I do soda ash because I need the pH boost or I would probably do AFR as well. I don’t believe that AFR will increase the pH but correct me if I’m wrong.

Not sure but I don’t have a very accurate way to ready ph currently, need to replace apex probe to get a more spot on reading being j couldn’t calibrate it even. But maybe once I replace that if it’s low I would consider

 

[monfilsi]

I have been considering the same thing. I have been using AFR for the past 2 years, but would like the PH boost from Kalk. My PH is always ~8.0.

The only thing holding me back is that tank is running really well right now, so I'm trying not to mess with it.

 

[GARRIGA]

Tried kalk in the 90s clueless to what it actually did and probably why I didn’t see any benefit. Tried it again lately but my room co2 so high that my alkalinity shot up 5 dkh and my pH only moved 0.3.

Going to go with AFR and seek other remedies to fix my co2 since it’s considerably more potent and I doubt I have the evaporation to make kalk my one solution.

Why not just supplement with kalk since AFR provides trace and mag and see how that goes. Still going to need more trace and mag for kalk added but that’s less of an issue then dealing with vinegar or slurries to increase potency. Seeking ease my approach

 

[mrpontiac80]

I have been using AFR for about 2 years. I’m currently up to 75 ml per day. I recently decided to try kalkwasser also. According to Randy Farley AFR is about 53x more potent as saturated limewater. I am looking to keep using AFR but I do not want to increase it anymore as things mature.

So what Ive done is keep dosing AFR and added a doser for kalk. I am starting off with very tiny baby steps. I am currently dosing 500 ml of kalk spread out in doses 2x per hr. Every so often I will bump it up and see what happens.

 

[ajremington68]

So my tank is doing good, but it could be doing better maybe??? My AFR is about out but I have one more pre made jug, thag wt my current 10mL a day will last about a year. But my tank has went from 9.0dkh to 8.6dkh so instead ip upping my AFR I figured perfect time to use my new Neptune dos that has been collecting dust on my controlled wall. So I mixed 1 gallon of rodi and 1.5 teaspoons of miss viks or something lime water mixture (kalk). That I bought and have wanted to just try. I am using a cleaned milk jug and tighten then cap and drilled out just a hole barely big enough for dosing line to keep it air tight to keep it potent I hope??? And I’m doing a 5mL currently from 9pm to 9am (while my lights are off) hoping to see a smidge of a ph boost or my charts are different on the apex showing it’s doing something. Also hope it boost my alk ever so slightly back to 9dkh so I can slowly up it. From what others dose I don’t think it’s enough at all but rather do a little than a lot and not spike my alkalinity and just play with it.

Just need to see if it’s really the coral roids everyone says it is. And also I love experimenting not my corals tho. And I don’t plan to change much so this is perfect time to test it for a month or two and observe the corals.