Trouble with Kalkawasser

[Shouse94]

Hey I've been dosing Kalkawasser for a couple months now but I'm still having trouble keeping my water parameters up with the kalkawasser alone.
I have a 55g Mixed Reef and Calcium and Alkalinity keep falling. Alkalinity more than Calcium. I am using the brand ESV and am up to dosing 2.25 teaspoons a night. I keep having to add 2-part to keep the parameters up.

Is this unusual? MY tank isn't exactly overly stocked with corals, especially not SPS. Can I safely add more Kalkawasser? Any input appreciated. Thanks
Pete

[Billybeau1]

I suspect your magnesium may be low.

Keeping mag at an acceptable level will help you keep cal and alk in check.

Magnesium is the third most abundent ion in seawater and is often overlooked.

If you tell me what salt mix you use, and how often you change water and what percentage, I can probably tell you what your mag is.

[bertoni]

If the pH is okay, then dosing more lime is fine. It's fairly common for tanks to require more calcium and alkalinity than lime can provide, but I agree that a magnesium test is a good idea.

[Shouse94]

I use Tropic Marin Pro Reef. 20% water change every 2 weeks.
I've been trying to keep my parameters to:
calcium: 440
Alkalinity: 10dkh
PH: 8.2
Mag: don't have a test kit, i've been dosing approximately 50ml a week with Randy's mix.

Any help appreciated

[rigleautomotive]

it is hard to get those parameters with just kalk.low mg is a possible,like billy mentioned,but i shoot fot 8 to 9 on alk and 375 to 400 on cal when dosing just kalk.i am not convinced running your alk and cal higher than NSW is of any benifit,so you might want to lower you desired parameters a bit and things may balance out.