dosing kalkwasser? how?

well I've just started getting into sps corals. I have 5 frags of sps corals and other corals, and plenty of rock for coraline to encrust. There will be more sps and lps corals to come I'm sure. so....

I know people use Mrs. wages pickling lime but heres my questions:

1. How should I dose it? I've seen two methods, drip method and adding it to top off water. whats better/more practical?

2. How do I mix it? just add it to water?

3. Finally how much kalk do I add to what I mix it with. is there an exact measurement or does it depend on tank size?


I've read several articles now and if there is anything else you think I should know let me know

 

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

You have to really know what you're doing or you'll raise your pH to high and burn your tank. Kalk has a pH of above 12. Since your demand is so low I wouldn't use more than 1/2 teaspoon in one gallon of r/o. You'll want to drip this mixture very slowly, less than 60 drops per minute and only dose the clear water and none of the solids. Monitor and adjust as necessary, keep reading everything you can find. You'll also want your mag above 1400.

 

well said. and kalkwasser doesnt just raise calcium, it raises alk/dkh too. so unless both are low, dont dose kalk. if only wanting to raise calcium only then use a calcium only booster.

 

Here a link to the simplest dripper ever

A Simple DIY Kalk Dripper by Agu Lukk - Reefkeeping.com

 

+1 on this
just wanted to add that the solids reefmonkey mentions are in 2 forms and 2 places
you get a powder residue of solids on the bottom of your mixing container
you can also get a thin crust on the top of the mix
you dont really want either of these going into your DT

when I used it, I just decanted the mix before adding ( removed the liquid I wanted from the mixing tub and bottling it so I could drip from bottle without the solids in)
using a airline tube as a syphon I had it located about 1 CM above the base of the mixing container and syphoned leaving the last couple of cms in the mixing tub , thus not having either the solids on top or on bottom in the bottle I dripped the Kalc into the DT with

Steve

 

thanks for the replies everyone, It's something i have been looking into i will continue to keep reading up on it.
thanks for all the links.

 

I have another question, how often do i dose?

will it be every night?

or should i only add it to top off when i test and see that i need calcium?


and I'm guessing the best time to dose is at night due to the lower PH right?

 

Test your parameters tomorrow after your lights have been on for awhile and post the results. I'm curious to see exactly where your levels are at.

Alk
Calcium
pH
Mag

 

after considering all of the above, have a read through this to possibly increase the bang for your buck
http://www.3reef.com/forums/water-chemistry/new-way-dose-ca-fun-too-72650.html