how often to dose kalk

[virgil68]

how often should you dose kalk. I have a 92 gal tank with about 15 small frags and 2 big colonies and then a lot of lps. I am just trying to keep my calcium levels up, since i started adding sps it has dropped a little it is around 400, will this help my alkalinity stay up also, because i have to dose aklalinity buffer every other day to keep it at 8-9 if i don't it falls to 6-7.
thanks for the help

[artful-dodger]

Kalkwasser will help alkalinity and calcium. The fact that you are testing both is the first step. How much Kalk you need to drip will be determined by the uptake of your tank inhabitants. Try dripping with saturated limewater for all of your evaporation replacement. That may or may not be enough. If you have a lot of uptake and not much evaporation it will be tough to keep up. You may need to go to a 2 part liquid supplement to keep both under control.

Randy Holmes-Farley has several good posts in his reef chemistry forum that also reference many of his online articles on the relationship of ca and alk and maintaining adequate levels.

[bkwudzjeep]

Here is a good read for calcium and alk questions.... http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

[JDT]

Dripping kalk 24/7 is the way to go. Since I started doing this several months ago my calcium, alkalinity and pH have all become stable and stayed that way. I find that having a fan blow directly on my sump helps me evaporate almost 7 gallons per day, that will help if you have a low evaporation and help stabilize your calicification. Most of the brands of kalk say to use up to 2 teaspoons per gallon, at times I did 3-4 teaspoons per day until stabilization occured, if you do this then you need to check these levels every day then back off to 2 teaspoons after you get better readings. Another thing that many do not do, check the alkalinity and calcium levels in the saltwater you use to do a water change, I make my own water and was surprised when I checked my Instant Ocean mix to find the calcium at 330 and the alkalinity at 7 dkh, that makes trying to stabilize you system very difficult, I now dose my make up water before doing a bi-weekly water change.

I do not run a calcium reactor or dose with any 2 part solutions and all I have in my tank is SPS and Clams with great color and growth.
JDT

[kozmo02]

most people drip kalk at night to help stabilize pH and also replace water that has evaporated.

if you are serious about using kalk on a regular basis you may want to look into investing in a kalk reactor. you can hook one up to a tunze osmolator and it makes things really easy.

or you can make a dripper, they are simple to make and work pretty well, maybe try and figure out what your average evaporation rate is and then drip kalk to match that amount.

[virgil68]

thanks i started dosing yesterday and checked my alk today and now it is at 9.5 and i didn't use anything else that's great
thanks everyone

[JB NY]

I dose kalk 24/7 as all my top off water.

[davejnz]

The simplest/cheapest way to dose kalk IMO is just gravity feeding it from a bucket to a float valve($15) in sump.You'll have your auto-top off and kalk doser all in one.Just clean the valve every month or 2 and you'll never have problems.I use this method with all my tanks as well as have to dose baking soda and calcium chloride every other day.Man,I really need a bigger tank,SPS and small tanks are demanding.

[chevell]

Be careful with kalk because it is a caustic material and you can easily dose too much, take it from me because I have made every mistake in the book.

[Fishman1113]

I dose kalk as top off. I have a 1 gallon jug with a hose that runs to a Kent Marine Float valve which is mid-way up my sump. It works great.