Ok, so after a year of not having a tank im jumping back into it. My old tank one of the tedious tasks where to dose every day (two part). But this tank im wanting to go the rout of kalk and a cal rex. Could some one please explain this method of dosing more? I understand the basics of the cal rex raises the Cal in the tank and lowers the ph a bit and the kalk is to keep the ph at the level's you want. Is there more to it and how hard is it to get everything tuned. Is this a couple hour project or is this a week long event of constant monitoring. Also what is put into the kalk rex?
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kalk cal planing
- Thread starter m and m
- Start date
You can dose dose kalkwasser in several different ways. You can drip it from a water jug with air line tubing tied in a knot, in a kalk reactor which is feed by your auto topoff or you can put the kalk directly in your auto topoff barrel if you have one. The Kalk reactor just holds powdered kalkwasser and freshwater as your auto topoff feeds water into the reactor it over flows into your sump. Kalk is usually dosed at night when pH is lower but IMO I don't think it makes a difference.
Calcium reactors are expensive and require a tank of Co2 and a regulator to control the amount of Co2 that enters the reactor. The reactor is filled with an argonite material and the low pH of the Co2 (6.7) dissolves the argonite and drips into the sump continually or is controlled with a pH controller.
I have no idea how long it takes to dial in because I've never used a Ca reactor. I just dosed kalk through my top off barrel.
Calcium reactors are expensive and require a tank of Co2 and a regulator to control the amount of Co2 that enters the reactor. The reactor is filled with an argonite material and the low pH of the Co2 (6.7) dissolves the argonite and drips into the sump continually or is controlled with a pH controller.
I have no idea how long it takes to dial in because I've never used a Ca reactor. I just dosed kalk through my top off barrel.
Jcurry, can you elaborate on kalk in your topoff barrel? How big, how much kalk, how do you add the powder, mix and how often. ETC.... I was thinking about setting up a gravity fed topoff system.
Taz
Taz
Tazmaniancowboy said:
I can tell you about mine Taz.
I have a 14 gallon plastic barrel filled with RO/DI. I add 2 teaspoons of ESV kalkwasser per gallon. I pump into the sump using an aqualifter pump. I time it with my aquacontroller 2 minutes on and 28 minutes off. The pump is connected to an autotopoff float switch, so that when the sump is at max level the pump shuts off. I don't have a mixing pump. It gets mixed when I top it off weekly with fresh water and mix.
Mine is similar to Bill's. It's one of those 55 gallon white barrels with a lid, inside is a little giant pond pump raised off the bottom a few inches by a plastic stand. Once a week I shake some SeaChem Reef Advantage Calcium http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/ReefAdvCalcium.html into the barrel, usually about a cup measured by eye. That's it, I don't stir it or touch it, I just let it dissolve over time and after a couple of months I take the barrel outside and rinse out the residue with a garden hose. The pump is activated by by a float switch http://www.reefgeek.com/equipment/Float_Switches/Level_Controller_w!_Dual_Float_Sensors_by_Reef_Fanatic in my sump which tops off about 2 gallons a day.
Before this setup I used a 1 gallon plastic bottle with a small piece of rigid air line tubing siliconed in near the bottom. I used air line tubing with a loose knot tied in it to drip into my sump every night. It worked OK but was inconsistent. Sometimes the jug would dump all the water in a couple of hours (leading to a pH spike) and sometimes would only dump a little.
The auto top off is one of the greatest pieces of equipment for a reef. With a barrel, small pump and some float switches it makes reefing fun again. And it only takes a small hole in the wall to run the tubing to the basement.
Before this setup I used a 1 gallon plastic bottle with a small piece of rigid air line tubing siliconed in near the bottom. I used air line tubing with a loose knot tied in it to drip into my sump every night. It worked OK but was inconsistent. Sometimes the jug would dump all the water in a couple of hours (leading to a pH spike) and sometimes would only dump a little.
The auto top off is one of the greatest pieces of equipment for a reef. With a barrel, small pump and some float switches it makes reefing fun again. And it only takes a small hole in the wall to run the tubing to the basement.
I used to add calcium this way and I grew a lot of coral! If you find that the calcium still runs low, you can spike the water with white vinegar, that increases the amount of Ca you can deliver.
I use a Ca reactor and kalk reactor now because I like being driven nutz by inanimate objects! :-X
I use a Ca reactor and kalk reactor now because I like being driven nutz by inanimate objects! :-X
m and m said:
Welcome back! We always come back!
m and m said:
You can dose either one. Or both. The best method is both. Run the Kalk at night to increase pH at night when there is no photosynthesis going on in the tank.
m and m said:
There's a little more to that equation above~
Kalkwasser was the original method used by the pioneers in the reefing hobby. Put simply, a solution of Calcium hydroxide is diluted by water and left to settle for an hour or more so that the excess calcium powder settles. The clear liquid is slowly dripped into a tank via drip method since all in all at once will spike the tank's pH. (slow and steady does best) If some of the Calcium Hydroxide solids go in the tank and settles on any coral, it will burn them; hence the needed settling time. The solution has a high pH but full of bio-available Calcium ions.
Calcium reactors employ the use of Carbon dioxide which lowers the pH of the water in the reactor. Solid Calcium carbonate (not soluble in plain water) is placed in a container where CO2 is injected in which lowers the pH to 6.4 to 6.8 This "acid" water will now eat into the Calcium carbonate media and release bio-available Calcium Ions which is used up by corals. The by-product is a lower pH of the effluent water which can be bad for the tank in large doses. It is best to track how low your pH effluent is with some kind of reefkeeping monitor if you want the best results and peace of mind. It will need to be calibrated a few times a year for best performance. I DO NOT have one. I watch the corals closely and let them tell me if something's wrong. One more thing, a Calcium reactor is great for MAINTAINING Calcium. You'd still want to bump up the calcium to a preferred level if you want your corals to explode in growth. I like to keep mine at almost 500. 480 is normal for stickheads like me.
They are two different methods with the same results of adding Calcium in the tank.
m and m said:
Kalk dosing will be similar to your two part in terms of prep time. Kalk solution is also only good for about 7-10 days if you mix it in a large batch. It has something to do with opened containers containing Kalkwasser reacting with oxygen in the air. It lessens the intensity of the ions or something.
Once a calcium reactor is "dialed in" you rarely need to touch it. I haven't touched mine in about 9 months and I really need to fill up the media again. I only have half left in it since the other half either dissolved or compacted. Personally, I use Korralin media. I have also used two other companies, but like Korralin better for some reason.
Keep in mind that adding Calcium without the proper balance of Magnesium won't do you any good. Make sure you keep that up as well. Adding Dolomite in a Calcium reactor will help do this, or adding a Magnesium supplement on occasion.
m and m said:
well, after reading specs at the geo website, they all seem to say "will hold approximately X lbs of large grain media"
It probably suggests you use the same as that's what their reactors work best with. I remember using the KNOP Korallith before, but those grains were small. The Korallin that I previously mentioned were a larger "grain" size. Both are carried by marinedepot
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~substrates_calcium_reactor_media__index.html
m and m said:
The kalk solution creates a crust on the surface of the water and then stops the the reaction. Also the kalk will bind with phosphates and heavy metals and settle out of solution. That's why I don't stir my kalk water. Just let it dissolve and then rinse out residue after a few weeks.
Kalk degragates in air from CO2, not O2
Degradation of Limewater in Air
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rhf/feature/index.php
Boomer said:
Kalk degragates in air from CO2, not O2
Degradation of Limewater in Air
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rhf/feature/index.php
whoops, lol. CO2 not O2. thanks boomer