New to the use of Kalkwasser

[dpearly88]

I been using kalkwasser drip for a few weeks now and I can't maintain a high enough dkh. It has been stuck around 6 dkh. The tank is often cloudy. I'm not sure what is wrong. Any thoughts?

[Billybeau1]

What are your calcium and magnesium numbers ?

[dpearly88]

Mag is 1250. Which I know is a little low, but all of my top off has been kalkwasser water and there is no room for mag mixed in water. Calcium last time I checked was 400 back when the dkh was around 10.

[dpearly88]

The reef calc says I should need about 1 gallon of saturated kalkwasser a day, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick. I used to use about 40ml b-ionic a day and that kept everything happy.

[bertoni]

The calcification rate of the tank might have increased when the lime was started. Lime tends to raise pH, which encourages calcification. Dosing limewater and another source of calcium and alkalinity is needed fairly commonly.

[fish2morow]

You should get your mag straightened out first. Up the amount of kalk your dosing. I personally use kalk in all of my top of water, along with a cal reactor but my system is full of sps. If you have a lot of sps/lps corals the amount needed may have changed as stated above.

[dpearly88]

I have a dozen sps frags and a few small colonies. I also have ton of encrusting and plating coraline algae. I just seems to ne that the lime water isn't doing anything. My alkalinity was so easy to maintain before I switched. Now it's always rock bottom.

Is there some kind of trick to this I don't know about?

[Billybeau1]

Many reefers cannot use limewater alone to maintain calcium and alkalinity. You may still have to supplement. Hows your pH when dosing limewater ?

[dpearly88]

Not sure about the pH I just ran out of test kits. But I have a montipora that is very sensitive to pH swings and it's doing great. So I'm thinking the pH is okay. Closest test kits an Hour and half away.