I have a crappy lil Remora on the current tank.

if a specific salt is working for you why switch because of reviews, i was getting lower calcium readings constantly so i switched to seachem reef salt, now finding my calcium and alkalinity on the higher side so i'm satisfied with it so far. next time you do a water change do some readings and judge from there :smile:

i'm pretty sure as of friday, wendells gonna have both the rs80&100 in if you're interested, saw on you're profile that you're looking for a 100

Actually the Kent is not working for me, that is why I am looking for an alternative.

Wow, I thought the RS series weren't going to be available in Canada anymore...?
I'm trying to find a used one though...but I may have to contact Wendell. Thanks! :)

I don't know anything about SeaChem salt, but check out my comments regarding IO: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...1&postcount=73

Thanks Myka, I have been participating in that thread as well. I like the idea of treating replacement water first.

Yes, if your salt is lacking it really should be made up before the water is used. Honestly, I put my calcium up to about 440-450 in my waterchange water, and as long as I do waterchanges once a week like that the calcium in my tank stays right around 420-430.

I really like dosing Kalk water its a bit more work but I have always had good results with it.
Mag is at 1420 I dose for that
CA at 460
SG 1.025
PH 8.1-8.3
NO3 0.2ppm
No NO2 and ammonium
I use Instant ocean and add Mag and CA to bump initially.
Then Dose Kalk to keep my CA up if it gets to high I use just RO by itself for for a few days.
I have always found coraline to be a bit of a pain though, but better than the green stuff.:biggrin:

always wanted to go the kalk route as it's a better buffer and it's a 2-part in 1 kinda deal, but i don't use a top-off system so never wanted to dose it with out one, but it looks like you're calcium & alkalinity are stable enough, do you run kalk thru top-off or just daily dosing?

btw this thread ended up real helpful thank you:mrgreen:

ya myka i check last week all they had was the rs135's+180's, both overkill so i settled for an rc80. BTW i phoned this morning for a price on drilling my tank and they said wendell is in LA till thursday i believe-

I run it through my top-off just drip it in at night.
I have a small container with a piece of tube and a small air line valve to drip it in slowly. Just picked up a dosing pump though so will probably hook that up soon.

Im running IO right now, and Cal/Mag is ,low. Originally was going fowlr but now getting LPS and softies. What should I dose with? I have some Liquid Cal and mag, Salfert brand I think. But using alot of it just to get to NSW levels. When this bucket of salt gone, Im switching I think.

You can get bulk Ca and Mg from Chem Master (littlesilvermax) . Here is his thread
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=67

Thats what I use to bump it up. Works great

hey thanks i'm actually considering kalk dosing for once. the whole thought of my pH sky rocketing always kept me away from it, and i ended up dosing alk & calcium individually. how does it hold up as a buffer though, i see you also dose a seperate calcium supplement, is this to make up for the kalkwasser?

Kalkwasser should add cal and alk in approx. the same ratio that your corals use them. For years thats all I ever used

Here is my high tech kalk dripper
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...skimmer019.jpg

I used to have a valve to control the drip rate but I kept breaking them so I now use an even more high tech method :razz:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...skimmer020.jpg

If you want a slower drip just tighten the knot :mrgreen:

thats a good idea marie i'll have to set something like that up in a couple days, get an airline check valve and some kalk pretty soon. is that a weeks worth of dosing, or more?

Thats a 6L container and for me its 1 nights dosing (I also use a calcium reactor).

When you get started you will have to monitor your alk daily to make sure you are adding the right amount of kalk for your system. 2tsp per gallon of RODI water will give you complete saturation with a ph of something like 12.65 (or there abouts).

What's the check valve for?

Its to control the drip rate of the kalk

about what drip rate do you set it at, or in other words how much solution would you drip for a 40 gallon?

The kalk that you drip will replace the water that evaporates. How much water do you evaporate in a 24hr period?

I would start out with a light dose of kalk, say 1tsp of kalk per gal of water and try to time the drips of the kalk to top up your tank by morning. Test your alk and if it has dropped then you need to make a stronger solution of kalk, if the alk has gone up then you need to add less kalk to the water the next night.
To get the right amount (unless someone else knows of an easier way :razz: ) it is going to take some fiddling and lots of testing.
While going through this stage I never bothered testing cal until I was sure I had alk stable. Once I figured out how much kalk I needed to keep alk stable, I checked the cal to make sure it was inline (it saves money on test kits).

By dripping at night when the ph is lower you lessen the impact of the higher ph. You will probably notice the ph of your tank going up a bit overall anyway but as long as your not just dumping the kalk water into your tank then small ph blips shouldn't be anything to worry about

marie, i evaporate about (give or take) 3L/day, that being said it'd be smart to start at about 1/2 a tsp/gal. i have both of those test kits so i'll be monitoring thru-out for the first week or so. as for a pH swing, my pH is already at 8.3 so i'm hoping it settles at no more than 8.5 after i'm done dialing in my kalk dosing? :lol: already made a kalk dripper, sooo techy too~! a 1 gallon jug, whatever works for me-

Don't you mean a ball valve then? How would a check valve work for that...?

Actually a check valve wouldn't work...unless your worried about syphoning all your tank water out through the airline.

I think they meant ball valve or those little clamp thingies that fit on the outside of the hose (which is what I tried and kept breaking).
I just knot the airline, its cheap and adjustable :lol:

The small air line valves work real well. They plug up after time but they are cheap.:biggrin: JL has a bag of 6 for about $10 if I remember right.
I use them to drip acclimatize my fish as well.

this is the one i use myka, to clear up any confusion. i'll give it a try but something tells me that there gonna clog up on me and i'll have to replace them all the time,we are talking about kalkwasser after all, and i might just go for maries airline knot solution!

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgur...icial%26sa%3DX
it's the pic of the airline control valves& tees.

those are similar to the ones I use.

The knot clogs over time as well but I just untie, run vinegar through and then tie back up again

is my calcium & alk going to jump the first day even if i dose minimal, like 1/2 tsp/gallon? or is it a gradual change unlike the pH swing? also what brand do you use marie? i was thinking kent..

I've used kent and littlesilvermax ( http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26588 ) kalk and never any problems (that I know about) with either of them.
It's possible you could have a jump depending on how much alk/cal you use in a day but the worst that will happen is that it will precipitate out and you have to start all over again. I've overdosed more then once :lol:

*edit* If you find the impellor shafts on your powerheads are getting too much mineral buildup and need to be soaked in vinegar more then once every couple of months then you are adding too much kalk

o so kalk precipitates if overdosed too, good to know. i think i might have to get a new calcium test kit, i just have a hagen one from when i started, and not too sure i'm comfortable using it now when i'm gonna be testing calcium from kalk dosing.