kalk mixture

im doing some trial runs with kalk, just trying to get some feedback and advice.

my daily calcium usage is about 30-50ish ppm

but i mixed up a trial batch of kalk tonight... the calcium in the batch is less than 300ppm. pH of my kalk mix is 12.1.

how can i get the kalk to dissolve better in water to get a higher concentration of dissolved Ca?

 

how are you dosing the kalk? The kalk will not be completely dissolved. What you want to do is mix it and then let it sit for a couple hours. The kalk will form a sediment on the bottom and then you use the water left.

Dosing Kalkwasser | Aquarists Online | Aquarium Fish Resources And Information

I use a doser where there is a tube that sits above where the kalk settles

There is a calculator on this 3reef that will allow you to calculate how much kalk you need to dose depending on your levels

 

yea i mixed it last night. i had a precitate on the bottom and a hard casing on top... i assume this what had reacted with the CO2 dissolving on the surface.
I extracted the water in between the precipitate and the top-casing.
i will dissolve in a little bit of vinegar for my next batch so the reaction can go farther to products.

 

and im using a device called aquadose. it has a medical drip mechanism so you can control the rate of dripping

 

Hi Dingo

been researching this recently myself - and I have read that you cant get much more than 1.5 ounces of Kalwasser to dissolve in a litre of water
so unless your evaporation rate is very high then as a method of maintaining calcium it is disadvantaged by that fact
but bearing in mind the water your Kalkwasser is replacing ( evaporation) had no calcium in it anyway (it was just water) its the calcium levels in your tank that are the ones you need to focus on , as in does the topping off using Kalkwasser maintain your tank at your chosen calcium level

Steve

 

good point now that you make it... but i was thinking about it like this:
the calcium is being consumed by my inverts/ corals. so it is decreasing. as water evaporates the concentration would be slightly increasing (same ppm of Ca as ppm of H2O is decreasing)
now if i introduce new water with a lesser ppm of Ca once it all comes to equilibrium, it will be even more less... if this helps: [Ca equ.] = [Ca original] +/- [Ca new]
since [Ca new] is less than [ca orig] the [ca egu.] is going to be less

 

but your point does make me rethink my logic...

 

Hi Dingo

the calcium level in the tank increases as a result of evaporation and decreases as a result of utilisation

which of these is greater? (depends on calcium demand of individual set ups, versus evaporation rates)

The key thing is to focus on the levels in your tank and not the levels in your top off water

if using Kalwasser in the top of water, at a calc level of 300, when added on a daily basis, to replace evaporated water. maintains your tank at your desired level, (its being replaced as quickly as its being utilised) then your fine IMO

if the calcium level in your tank starts to show a downward drop, simply becuase the demand is exceeding the amount you replace using kalkwasser
then you need to look at alternative means of maintaining calcium, either instead of or in addition to the Kalkwasser drip

Steve

 

yes thank you for the help... i thought about it some more and came with the same conclusion you did lol.
the rate of consumption must be equal to rate of addition. if addition is greater then overall [Ca] increases, if consumption is greater then [Ca] decreases

this reminds me of my days studying differential equations in calculus (UGHHH) thanks for the help and sorry about the contradicting

 

Dingo your most welcome

also watching for decrease is our number 1 priority but on tanks with mostly softies and a few SPS - its possible to go the other way and increase your calcium levels to high as utilisation is lower than supplementation
so watch for increase as well as decreases in your set up

Steve