Kalkwasser Best Practices

I'm interested in hearing how many people are dosing kalkwasser and how they are doing it.

Early in my saltwater experience I mixed up kalkwasser and used my ATO to dose it into the sump area with the return pump. I had some significant issues with calcium buildup on the impeller magnet and was constantly changing pumps and cleaning them.

Currently I have been doing a slow drip into a high flow area of the sump with about a gallon a day of kalkwasser going into the 120 gallon. It has a 40 gallon sump and a 30 gallon frag tank attached to it.

My mix is 2 teaspoons of pickling lime in a gallon of DI water with about 30 ml of vinegar to help suspend the lime. I dose carbon anyway so this lets me dose a bit less. It mixes well and weekly I clean out the reside from the jug I use.

What are others doing and who successful have you been with kalkwasser?

Thanks,
Fat

In my previous large coral farm I used a dosing pump to dose Kalkwasser every night from a 5 gal bucket/reservoir to replenish evaporated water. This worked, it helped reduce nighttime pH just slightly but not worth shouting about, since the system was very open with good surface water agitation that kept pH in range through the night anyway. 

Mark Peterson wrote: Kalkwasser is really just a hassle and is quite unnecessary in my opinion, since it hardly impacts Alk and Ca supplementation in any worthwhile amount.

By the way, assuming my math is correct, in a 100 gallon tank: to raise the calcium 100ppm you'd need 25 teaspoons of kalkwasser. That's a half cup of kalkwasser is all you need to raise it 100 ppm!!!
And it is balanced.

Adam

48 teaspoons in a cup... right?

Caution: It must be dripped slowly otherwise too much Calcium Hydroxide added at once will make the pH shoot up through the roof, damaging the animals. (Vinegar added to the Kalkwasser solution moderates this effect.)

Phys- well true, for the times you don't want to add alk you'd be better with CaCl snow melt, but that's just to correct levels not maintain. Typically you do want to add both.

I'm still wondering if Mark is arguing that kalk doesn't have much of an effect. Sure sounds like it does to me.

Adam

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/KalkContribution.php

I've never even wanted to try dosing kalk just due to the extra work involved. But it sounds like you have it mostly figured out. A quick reading suggests you need to maintain mag levels as it may cause higher than normal ph shifts and you must also keep the alk in constant check as it can be depleted at a higher rate which can also be affected by CO2 levels present (which is taken care of by the vinegar). I'm sure you know that but just doubling up since it hasn't been fully mentioned. Ps.. I may have some equipment/suggestions for you.

pH has been a problem in my tank, typically running around 8.0. Dripping kalk in a 150 gallon system (estimated water volume) may increase the pH, but I'm constantly dripping so it shouldn't swing to much, just work up gradually.

Fat

From what I read, its a difficult process that requires a lot of patience and careful calculation/implementation but can be quite beneficial once dialed in. Normally ph doesn't need to be checked but when you're doing something that could potentially cause a large swing or low/high ph beyond what it should be, you should keep track of it so you know you're not getting into bad spots.