Kalk

[KrazyKuch]

I have been trying it and I haven't noticed anything yet...what am I supposed to be looking for?

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by KrazyKuch

I have been trying it and I haven't noticed anything yet...what am I supposed to be looking for?

if you've been trying to mix it in saltwater, you probably aren't noticing anything because it's not doing anything really to your water chemistry. You're just going to have a lot of undissolved kalk eventually clouding up your water after a period of time, if you're mixing it with aquarium water.

You pretty much have to mix it in freshwater and go through the hassle of dripping it (or dumping it if you're daring) every single evening with your top-off water. There are so many mixed opinions on whether you add it all day, or during the night, or only during the day, or while doing a back flip over your tank ballancing a cat in each arm! And any which way you do it, there's often precipitation, leaving a white powder to float around in your water collumn. I quit using it because it was such a pain, and switched to two part. I'm never going back

With kalk, you mix it with fresh water, dose it any which way you choose, and it will raise your alkalinity and calcium in the same way you can shoot a cherry with a shotgun. Excessive, messy, but it works.

[BCOrchidGuy]

The reason you mix Kalk with fresh water is because it needs a lower pH to dissolve, at a pH of 8.0 or more like we have in salt water it pretty much wont dissolve. The lower the pH of your water the more Kalk will dissolve in it, this is why a number of people will add small amounts of vinegar to their top off water, the lower pH means higher saturation of kalk. Super saturated kalk (meaning no more will dissolve in the amount of water you are adding) will have a pH of around 12, this is why people aim to drip it at night if you can control it. Our tanks go through a low pH phase in the late night after all lights have been out, everything that relies on photosynthesis will release carbon dioxide at night and this will cause our pH to drop. Adding Kalk at night helps to keep the pH from dropping to low, but this is also why we don't just dump kalk water in, the drastic change in pH could be so severe it could cause undue stress to our tank inhabitants.
Read up on kalk in the chemistry section.

Doug

[KrazyKuch]

Thanks for the replies they have been very informative!!