kalkawassa

Forum:

Friend's Romans countrymen lend me your ears ! LOL

After much reading and guidance from many of you here we feel sufficiently comfortable with the process of making and adding Calcium hydroxide (aka) kalkawassa water to drip into my DT tank for the first time.

Any pointer as far as frequency from those here who currently use this method would be greatly appreciated...

Again Thank you


E

 

Good luck! Kalk can produce some awesome results.

 

I always dripped as much as I could to replace all of the evaporated water with Kalk water. That wasn't enough, so I resorted to 60ml of distilled white vinegar per gallon (before adding the RO/DI water) to get enough Kalk to dissolve into solution. That led to a serious bacteria bloom (very milky water), so I had to reduce it to 30ml per gallon to get it to clear up. I still had to use Calcium and Alkalinity supplements, but very little. If I ever get a larger tank set up I would probably go back to it, but with a 20g tank I just dose Cal, Alk, and Mag supplements.

 

i use it and have been very pleased, i mix up a 5g bucket ata time and let it sit covered for two days stirring it ever time i get a chance for the first day, and then its ready for use.the dripper you are using the lines will clog pretty quick, so i went to 1g reptile dripper they work really good and are cheap. i drip2g per day and use mag to help keep ph and alk stable,about once per week i use a 2 part cal and alk to keep readings high. sps love it, and grow really well. you can use 2 5g buckets ata time one ready and the other mixing that way you never run out. i hope this helps a little. i dripped at night to maintain ph through the night

 

Thanks guys for the advise i have read and seen videos of the issues you all mentioned. I believe we also will start with a five gallon test and see how it goes.

Again forum thanks

E

 

how do you drip 2g a day without overflowing your tank? ive been very interested in starting to use kalk but im intimidated and not clear on how for my 29g biocube

 

it is the size of the tank its a 220g with 1400 watts of lighting it goes about 4g a day evaporation. i also have fans on the sump which help in cooling and evaporation

 

i would also believe that 1/2g a night would be ok for a 29g tank, you would get the same effect i do with alot less

 

my mind cant fathom 4g a day of evaporation thats heavy water loss. i lose about 32oz per week lol!

starting a kalk drip would be really great though. if i started dripping .5g per night, what would i do with the excess water? (sorry if this comes out sounding newb)

 

do ya have a sump, you can put a fan on it and create more evaporation? i have 2- 1200 gph a sentra 9000 on the skimmer a mag 9 witha filter and a 180 gph on the gfo reactor all that in the sump plus 3 1200 gph in the tank all creating heat that is extreme , plus 3- 400w mh and 2- 160 watt attinics in a closed canopy, my ro'di unit is 10 feet away on my front porch, there is no excess water, it just rains alot at my house