Keeping up Ca, Mg and str.

[SantaMonica]

I mix one 8 ounce cup with 30 gallons

[Floyd R Turbo]

I believe the formula for full saturation is 2 tsp per gallon. If you have a FW reservoir like a Brute trash can you can put as much as you want in and stir it up and let it settle, and it will be fully saturated. Then next time you add FW to the reservoir you just stir it again and let it settle, etc. At some point you need to remove the sludge. Of course, you can just get a kalk stirrer like one by Avast pretty cheap and then just push your top-off water through it and always have a saturated solution (if that's what you need to maintain levels).

My question then becomes, if you're using a kalk stirrer, how would to apply the vinegar? To the top-off water?

[kerry]

Thats a good price. The wife said she found some at the Walmart for under 3 bucks for a 1 pound container so she is bring that home today as well. I called a few places here in my town and no one said they had it, even the Walmart where she found it at???? So I ordered it yesterday and will have it Monday, oh well, at least its not expensive. How much in a measuring device is 30 grams? I have a scale but no idea where it is anymore, have not seen it in months.

[kerry]

Thanks!!! That helps a lot. I guess we posted real close to each other. What does a certain qyt of saturated kalk do to a certain amount of water in terms of CA. I will be doing it by the gal then putting it in liter drip devices I made.

[Ace25]

I honestly don't know how much CA a certain amount gives you, I just know to be very careful when dosing because it is potent stuff, my ATO method is right on the edge of dosing too much at once in my opinion because I get a short term .4 spike in pH everytime the ATO kicks in (for about 10 minutes).

The way I do it is I have a 5G bucket, I fill it 1/2 way with water, dump in 30grams (that I measure on a digital scale), stir the water and dump in the remaining 1/2 of the water along with 5ml of vinegar (making sure to turn your head away from the container, do not breath in the fumes!), let sit for 24 hours to settle with a tight lid on the bucket to seal it from the air. Then I scoop out the top 80% of the water (clear water) very carefully so I don't stir up the kalk. I refill the kalk bucket with water and stir 4x before I dump it out and replace the kalk.

[kerry]

I plan to mix it up a gal at a time then distribute it to the three 1 liter drip bottles I made for each of my tanks. I will have it siphoned and regulated by a medical rolling do-hicky that pinches off the hose.
Anyone have any idea how much a liter or quart of saturated solutions would have on 50G's?

[Floyd R Turbo]

Thanks!!! That helps a lot. I guess we posted real close to each other. What does a certain qyt of saturated kalk do to a certain amount of water in terms of CA. I will be doing it by the gal then putting it in liter drip devices I made.

http://reef.diesyst.com/cf/chemcalccf.html

Not the best, and it doesn't have all supplements on there, but if you know your daily Alk/Cal drop, then you can figure out the amount of saturated Kalk to dose per day. If you need less, then make saturated solution and dilute it accordingly I'm guessing.

[Ace25]

I always found trying to figure out dosage too much of a pain for me. I tried, but it got to be way to much work testing all the time so now I just mix full strength kalk for my ATO and use it and once every 2 weeks I will test Alk/CA levels, if they are a little high, I will use straight RO/DI water for a couple buckets of top off to let it come down slightly. I never had any issues with that method but if I didn't test every 2 weeks I would have ended up going really high and causing precipitates. Still, I find it an easier method than trying to figure out "1/2 dose of Kalk mix, 3/4, what do I need this time?" type of thing. CA levels can swing 100 +/- without any issues if it is in the 350-450 range, but Alk is the one you want to keep as stable as possible, whatever # you feel is best for your tank. I like to keep mine between 7-8.

When I first started using Kalk I tried using the Kent Doser/dripper thingy and it didn't work, the air tubing clogs from kalk where the roller pinches the tubing even if your super careful to get only clear water. Plus it would only 1 liter worth which I was going through daily on my tank so it ended up being more of a pain than it was worth. For a small tank (30G or less) it probably would work fine, but larger tanks it just wasn't enough volume to last more than a day and having to take it off daily to wash it out so it didn't clog got old real fast.

[kerry]

I am fine with the ball park thing like you do Ace25, knowing that 2 teaspoons saturates a gallon helps a lot. I think a liter (taken from a gallon mixed with 2 tsp of calcium hydroxide) dripped into a 40G in a 8-12 hour time span should be plenty safe for a starting point.

[Aeros]

Thanks for that link Aeros. Very informative. I thought I had gone through every AA and RK article since their inception but the one you linked to didn't sound familiar to me. Either I read it really early on in my reefing days and didn't understand it, or missed it, but today that is a treasure trove of good information on that subject (heavy metals in the aquaria).

Can anyone explain to me how a CA reactor can raise alk so high it crashes a tank, but still leave calcium levels a little lacking? I have a friend with a 240G tank and 6 months ago he switched from dosing to a CA reactor, worked great for 5 months. pH is set right on the effluent. CA last week was 360 and Alk was over 14 and all his SPS corals died. He went from an Alk of 5 to over 14 in less than a week, didn't make any changes at all to his system, all of the sudden he got a huge alk spike. I have no clue how to to explain it (I admit, I have never used or setup a CA reactor myself, only seen them in action on other peoples tanks), which is why I am asking the question.

Ran into the same issue. I did a 30% WC to reset dKH, it was around 14 and Ca at 380. I suspect the dolomite as the culprit. Since Mag is such a light ion (even at NSW lvls ~1200ppm it makes up a fraction of the weight of Ca at only 380ppm) that when dolomite (Magnesium Carbonate) is dissolved it's pretty much pure CO3 with a hint of Mag.

I ripped my reactor apart and took out some dolomite. Haven't tested yet, but, corals look amazing and am measuring 1mm growth per day (milipora is encrusting a zip tie haha).

Should really call Ca reactors CO3 reactors though that also add Calcium.

If not the dolomite, my lack of WCs while dosing BRS three part is the only thing else I can think of.

Contrary to Santa Monica's stance, sodium, chloride, and sulfate are not metabolized (sulfate a little, but not in the form added via epsom salt, and not faster than added if it is). This leads to "lack of room" in the soup we call salt water. There is a point where any Ca addition will percipitate out as fast as can safely be added, while there is still room for "skinnier" ions, e.g. CO3. Allowing for a runaway CO3 event, while Ca gets lower and lower.

Find out from your friend his WC regiment, and ratio of dolomite to koralith/aragonite.