Warner Marin - Kalkwasser

prior to deciding to completely remove a rock with an Anthellia colony from the base of my reef , I purchased a tub of the above product, with a view to making a Kalk paste, which I intended to use to deal with the Anthellia and save myself the strip down

having never used Kalk paste before, I was rather surprised at what occured

added 2 table spoons to a plastic tub
added 1 teaspoon of water
tub got very warm , very quickly,
Kalkpaste seemed to dry to a solid substance and then started exploding, cracking, with some particles flying out of the tub and the tub was changing shape, melting due to the heat being generated

I basically slung the lot out of the back door (because it was a bit spooky)

has anyone else experienced this?


Steve

 

Actually, I was just reading about that today in Randy Holmes-Farley's article about kalk dosing. I guess you've confirmed it. ;-)

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

To quote the actual paragraph:

"Quicklime has some special hazards beyond normal lime and limewater. Specifically, these relate to the heat produced when calcium oxide hydrates to form calcium hydroxide. A small amount of water added to a significant amount of quicklime will get very hot. It can even boil. Some aquarists have melted Nilsen reactors this way, and some have had such reactors “explode,” presumably through rapid heating and pressure buildup. So when using calcium oxide, be sure to add a small amount of lime to a significantly larger amount of water."

 

lol wow had no idea

 

Didn't know about the exploding with the water mixed in with an improper ratio, but knew about the heat.

 

I'm sorry Steve but this hit my funny bone. I had no idea it got explosively reactive. Glad you weren't injured!

 

Thanks Toronto Guy - I hope I never confirm any other things that spook me like that did

I was the same prior to the weekend

heat - I was amazed, I thought warm, I didnt expect hot enough to cause plastic to deform

You can laugh reefmonkey, its funny to me now, but you should have seen me struggling with the french doors , with one hand, whilst the other hand held a shape changing plastic tub as bits cracked and popped out of the top

serves me right for looking for a convenient alternative to the labour intensive partial strip down I ended up doing

Steve

 

I would have been just as panicked no doubt! Sorry you had to do a tear down to rid the little bastages.
Unfortunately I am experiencing the same issue atm. Only I'm confident my problem was the direct result of using Aiptasia X. Seems that when the aip's begin to die they release 1000's of cells into the water column in an attempt to reproduce and continue life. I used to believe it was just a 'myth' made up by Berghia Nudibranch farmers. Long story short I had that huge aiptasia in my sump and then I found one in my DT. I manually remove the huge one by taking out the chaeto it was attached to and giving it a pure alcohol bath. The other I used AipX on. No aiptasia for a few weeks and all was well right?? Noo. I began finding them everywhere and all were about the same size so I assume they began growing at about the same times. And they are throughout my system now. I'll be buying a few Berghia Nudi's very soon.