kalkwasser
 

been reading on kalk lately and am curious as to how important it is for success. Do most of you reefers use it? Do you utilize it in a reactor, or is a solution mixed in your top off. Thoughts

It's simply another way to maintain Ca/Alk. I don't think too many people use it. I used to , mixed with my top off water. Or you can run a kalk reactor.

You could alternatively use a Ca reactor, dosing, or 2 part solutions.

Thanks Brad. curious as to why you stopped using it. beautiful reef BTW. All that coral for $5000. What a deal.

I don't use top off jugs anymore, I have it directly plumbed. And unless you have a cheap source, retail kalk can be expensive. I use a Ca reactor now and it's way easier, I fill it once every 8 months and done with it.

I did both a Ca reactor and a kalk reactor, and when I get the new tank ready I will be running the same.

Steve

ya find this better than bio-pellets

Completely separate technologies. Biopellets don't supplement Ca/alk.

so technically i could run all three?

Ya, although I disagree with Steve. I think if you need to run a Ca reactor AND a kalk reactor, neither of them is operating or sized properly. You should need one or the other.
Or, if you use a top off reservoir, you can simply mix the kalk into that.

Bio pellets are for reducing nitrate and phosphate nothing to do with calcium and alk

Kalk is an excellent way to maintain calcium and alkalinity in a balanced way. The major advantage is that it also increases PH. :biggrin:

Wit that said, there is only so much kalk you can dose when you saturate your top-off water with kalk. If you have a heavily stocked tank (lots of corals) it won't be enough.

You can alternatively blow a fan across the water surface of your tank to evaporate more water so that you can top-off even more but it may still not be enough evaporation to keep up with demand.

I know what some with heavily stocked tanks top-off with kalk and also use a dosing pump. The reason for this is the increase in PH from kalk.

I completely agree. Once CA/Alk demand gets high enough, it becomes really difficult to keep up with Kalk alone due to the limit of how much fresh water you can add along with the Kalk. There are some methods to super-saturate the Kalk...but things get increasingly tricky.

I run my Kalk reactor to the max overnight when pH is lowest and also run a CA reactor.

I personally use a dosing pump to maintain stable cal/alk/mag and also use a CO2 scrubber to maintain a higher PH.

I just about have my new system up & running but I'm still a little cofused about dosing. I have a profilux 4 pump slave doser & a good supply of bulk mag/cal as well as Kalk. This is where my confusion lands, alkalinity....... what do you dose for that? Only running a doser nothing else.

Kalk will help maintain alk but not raise it much. You need to dose a buffer like BRS bulk soda ash to raise and maintain alk levels, if your using a doser.

My plan is to use a co2 reactor and kalk reactor both. A co2 calcium reactor is sometimes referred to alk reactor as its very good at maintaining alk levels besides calcium, magnesium and strontium.

and I thinks you need to read up on how each one works again and you'll remember why we used both and why I still like them in tandem :mrgreen:

don't forget I don't really run a Kalk reactor but rather an inline top off water reactor, it looks like a reactor and mixes like a reactor but only adds to the tank during top off. so I guess in a way I do agree with Brad, I would never run both a true Ca and Kalk reactors, but I will run a Ca reactor and use kalk in make up water (saturated level)

they both supplement Ca, alk, but in totally different ways which both ways have advantages for your tank. kalk will bind phosphates where a Ca reactor will release phosphates as one example.

Steve

I use a calcium reactor then add kalkwasser to ato with a power head. it helps keep my ca and alk a bit higher but for the most part I use it to raise my ph.

That statement kind of suggests I ever read up on it -lol

ahh I know you did, lots of posts on here about it 15 years ago LOL

Steve

Thats my plan Steve. My Tunze will feed through the reactor. Just an assist to the co2 reactor.