Thinking of getting into Kalkwasser, advice needed.

legrunt · Jul 20, 2020

Currently, 16 gallon nano, using about 9ml of Brightwell Alkalin8.3 per day on an auto dosing pump and dosing Calcion by hand so far.

It's got to the point where I notice I keep needing more and more out of the auto doser (when I started, it was about 5ml per day), so I was thinking of supplementing with Kalkwasser in my ATO.

A couple of questions.
Can I start slow? Meaning, instead of replacing all my ATO water with settled Kalkwasser, can I just do like, 1/2 settled kalk and 1/2 RODI? or even 1/4 kalk + 3/4 RODI and continue to supplement with Alkalin on the auto doser? Then when the demand grows again, instead of upping the auto doser, I increase the ratio of kalk to RODI?

Also, I notice I have to wash n scrub my ato reservoir every now and then, cos a bio film will form on the walls of my reservoir. Will addition of kalk reduce this biofilm buildup?

legrunt · Jul 21, 2020

Anyone?

DeniableArc · Jul 21, 2020

G’day I think it will create more guess work and variables. Have you got another dosing pump for calcium? When things balance out your calcium demand will be very close to alk. I am having good success with aquaforest component abc+ I am dosing all three in exact amounts every hour for 24 doses per day, this way I don’t have to dose anything else at all.

YankeeTankee · Jul 21, 2020

I'd keep up with your current methods of ca/alk dosing but slowly increase the amount of kalk you add to the ATO and see over time how much you can decrease your other methods by. By going slow we avoid shocks. Maybe start with 0.5 teaspoons per gallon, then go to 1 and so on (2 is saturation).

legrunt · Jul 21, 2020

Ah, so we don't need to use fully saturated right from the get go... Thanks!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 21, 2020

legrunt said:
Ah, so we don't need to use fully saturated right from the get go... Thanks!

That's correct.

You also will not get any bacterial growth in limewater (kalkwasser), but you will get precipitation of calcium carbonate as CO2 from the air enters it.

legrunt · Jul 21, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That's correct.

You also will not get any bacterial growth in limewater (kalkwasser), but you will get precipitation of calcium carbonate as CO2 from the air enters it.

Thanks for clarifying about the bio-film issue.

But with regards to precipitation, would that be the case of non saturated kalkwasser also? eg, 50%, or even 25%?

codycolina707 · Jul 21, 2020

legrunt said:
Currently, 16 gallon nano, using about 9ml of Brightwell Alkalin8.3 per day on an auto dosing pump and dosing Calcion by hand so far.

It's got to the point where I notice I keep needing more and more out of the auto doser (when I started, it was about 5ml per day), so I was thinking of supplementing with Kalkwasser in my ATO.

A couple of questions.
Can I start slow? Meaning, instead of replacing all my ATO water with settled Kalkwasser, can I just do like, 1/2 settled kalk and 1/2 RODI? or even 1/4 kalk + 3/4 RODI and continue to supplement with Alkalin on the auto doser? Then when the demand grows again, instead of upping the auto doser, I increase the ratio of kalk to RODI?

Also, I notice I have to wash n scrub my ato reservoir every now and then, cos a bio film will form on the walls of my reservoir. Will addition of kalk reduce this biofilm buildup?

I would see where you're ca is at i started Kalk only testing alk got a trident and my ca was at 600 still at 500 and been only dosing alk for last 2 weeks

legrunt · Jul 21, 2020

I test Alk, Cal, Mag, Po4, No3 weekly.
My cal is at 425 now.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 22, 2020

legrunt said:
Thanks for clarifying about the bio-film issue.

But with regards to precipitation, would that be the case of non saturated kalkwasser also? eg, 50%, or even 25%?

Yes, because it is not calcium hydroxide that is precipitating, but calcium carbonate. That will form even in dilute calcium hydroxide solutions when CO2 enters.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 22, 2020

codycolina707 said:
I would see where you're ca is at i started Kalk only testing alk got a trident and my ca was at 600 still at 500 and been only dosing alk for last 2 weeks

While limewater (kalkwasser) will very slowly raise calcium relative to alkalinity, iIt cannot be the explanation for calcium rising from normal levels to 600 ppm in two weeks. Something else caused that (or maybe test error).

The actual rise in calcium comes because some magnesium replaces some of the calcium in the calcium carbonate that forms. Very roughly, that is about 1/10th of the calcium replaced by magnesium.

Thus, if you add 2 dKH of alk and 14 ppm of calcium each day using kalkwasser, the "buildup" of calcium when maintaining alkalinity is about 1-2 ppm per day. You result of closer to 10 ppm per day is not possible from dosing kalkwasser.

In my case, using a lower calcium mix (normal IO) for regular water changes nicely kept my calcium at about 470 ppm despite using kalkwasser for all calcium and alkalinity supplementation.

Pntbll687 · Jul 22, 2020

You can start as low as you want for Kalk.

You can start with 1/8th tsp per gallon in the ato. You could even get smaller dosages if you have a digital food scale.

Nano sapiens · Jul 23, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
In my case, using a lower calcium mix (normal IO) for regular water changes nicely kept my calcium at about 470 ppm despite using kalkwasser for all calcium and alkalinity supplementation.

Since I don't use a lower calcium mix, my method to remedy higher than desired calcium levels brought about by Kalkwasser usage is to slightly reduce the saturated Kalkwasser-to-RO/DI water ratio (which slowly reduces both alkalinity and calcium levels) while manually adding an alkalinity boosting product (I happen to use Seachem's Reef Builder which also adds strontium and magnesium, but other products that boost only alkalinity might be more suitable for others) to maintain the desired alkalinity level. Once the calcium level drops back down to around 410 ppm, I'll resume my previous Kalkwasser-to-RO/DI water ratio mix.

I then repeat this process when required, which for my mixed reef is about every 8 weeks.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 23, 2020

Nano sapiens said:
Since I don't use a lower calcium mix, my method to remedy higher than desired calcium levels brought about by Kalkwasser usage is to slightly reduce the saturated Kalkwasser-to-RO/DI water ratio (which slowly reduces both alkalinity and calcium levels) while manually adding an alkalinity boosting product (I happen to use Seachem's Reef Builder which also adds strontium and magnesium, but other products that boost only alkalinity might be more suitable for others) to maintain the desired alkalinity level. Once the calcium level drops back down to around 410 ppm, I'll resume my previous Kalkwasser-to-RO/DI water ratio mix.

I then repeat this process when required, which for my mixed reef is about every 8 weeks.

That's a fine plan, although I would not count on it adding a useful amount of magnesium.