Kalkwasser remaining in suspension?

[Shark Fighter]

I'm sorry if I somehow missed this, but usually when I hear about kalk not dissolving it's when it's being mixed beyond full saturation i.e. two teaspoons per gallon. However my problem is this time the kalk did not dissolve AT ALL. I use a manual dosing jug and have been dosing a mix of RO water and one to two teaspoons of Seachem kalkwasser and have been doing so regularly for a while now.

My problem is that the last time I mixed my water as always but the kalk seemed to be taking much longer to dissolve. I gave it a full 24 hours to dissolve but I figured the water just looked cloudy because the jug had some deposits in it. I dosed it anyway, only to come back to find my whole tank milky white and the jug doesn't seem to have any sediment in it whatsoever, just kalk in suspension.

Has anyone had an experience like this? I have been using the same bucket of RO water and the same container of kalk, so why the sudden change? Is there anything I can do to shield my corals from the effects of the ph swing? Thanks in advance.

[Shark Fighter]

PS: I just dosed some vinegar to lower the ph somewhat, but the corals don't seem to be too affected yet. I'm thinking I may go back to using two part after this

[thedon986]

The first time I mixed my kalk into my ATO the water was cold and it barely mixed at all and was very cloudy through the whole week of topping off. After that I just warm the water up before mixing and it mixes beautifully. Not too warm just 73-75.

[Shark Fighter]

Actually you may be on to something there. The weather here in Florida just recently started getting cooler (currently 58) although the water in my tank is still 78*

[thedon986]

What's the temp of the water you are mixing the kalk into? 70 or below I think you may have that residual haze that will hang around and could be the source if you're dosing manually. You're mixing 1-2 teaspoons per gallon? How much are you dosing at a time? I mix 1tsp per gallon for my ato and it keeps my levels solid.

[Shark Fighter]

Well I just checked it and it turns out it's currently 69*, but I mixed it up yesterday morning so who knows what it was then. I keep the buckets of RO water in the garage and allow the mix to acclimate under the stand for half a day before using them, but usually I just mix the kalk in right away so that may be the problem.

I've been dosing just one teaspoon for a couple months and recently increased to two since my growth has really taken off. Before that I used two part. I do use vinegar too but mainly for nutrient control so I dose it seperaty from the kalk.

[thedon986]

Warm it up and mix for your next try I think that will solve your problem. You said you're dosing manually, how much do you dose per day?

[Shark Fighter]

Thanks I'm trying that today to see if it helps. I filled the jug with water and let it sit next to the tank until it warmed up to room temperature before stirring the kalk in. Still a little cloudy but we'll see if every settles out in a couple hours.

 

I've been dosing 1 gallon of kalk either every day or every other day depending on evaporation rates. Usually my tank loses approximately a half a gallon per day to evaporation but during the height of summer it loses a lot more. I dose using a plastic gallon jug with an air line siphon with a valve set to 1 drop per second and the kalk drips into the skimmer chamber of my sump.

[Shark Fighter]

Well after about a week's worth of dosing the kalk into warmer water this seems to do the trick. The top off water is still a little bit cloudy and it is taking about twice as long to dissolve, but it seems the culprit was the cooler temperatures and my hastily dumping the kalk into the RO straight out of the garage. Just chalk that up as another lesson learned from a lifetime of living in Florida and not having to deal with cooler weather