mix kalk in a cup to top off?

[zachfishman]

I like kalk over liquid calcium suppliments, but don't like the process involved in adding it. Can I just mix a small amount in a cup with RO water and add it to the sump? I'd check to see how much/often to do so.

[duec22]

Kalk isn't going to raise your calcium levels like the suppliments, it can only help to maintain your levels, you will still need to add the liquid calcium, just not as often...As far as adding it, DO NOT just mix it in a cup and dump it in the sump...The Kalk is a fairly strong base and by dumping a bunch in at one time will push your pH sky high and could kill everything in the tank. Get like an old 1-1.5L water bottel and mix it in there, let it settel out for a few hours. What you want it the clear liquid, not the cloudy percipitate. Now you will need a way of driping it into the system, do a search and you will find all sorts of methods for doing this.

[vgibbens]

yes you can mix it in a cup of cold water and add it straight to your water. Just be sure to monitor you pH. Add is slowly and don't raise the pH more than 0.2 or more than enought to satisfy your daily calcium uptake, which ever comes first! Get Anthony Calfo's Book of Coral Propagation. He goes over this "slurry" method in the book as well as the whole calcium/alkalinity thing.