dumping kalk in the tank

[eduardo cavalcanti]

i´ve been using kalk directly in my 18g. i pic a small tea spoon, fill it with kalk and than dissolve it in a glass of water and put it directly in the external filter. the animals don´t see to care at all. what do you think about it?

[fade2black]

I think you are crazy Kalk needs to be added slowly so you don't get large pH swings. The pH of kalk is over 11!

[OxInYourBox]

Monitor your PH.

 

Calfo slurry method works well depending on how much you actually need. You need to monitor and test your PH so that you don't spike it.

 

When you say small teaspoon do you mean something smaller than a teaspoon?

[corriewf]

If you were going to that , at least do it right before lights cut on so that ph is at lowest.However , I would not use that method.

[MKramer]

I use the slurry method as well, but you MUST monitor your pH. On my 30g (+10g sump), with only a few corals with high calcium demand, I only need 1/4 teaspoon every morning to keep calc at 420.

 

Really, the slurry method is intended for tanks whose calcium demands are so high that dripping of a saturated solution does not deliver enough kalk. I use it because I'm lazy, I admit. If you're going to do the same, make sure you're being conservative and monitoring pH, Alk, and calc.

[eduardo cavalcanti]

but i think that if a huge pH change occurs, the animals will show me by closing the polyps, etc. until this moment, the on ly thing i´ve noticed when dumping kalk into the tank is that my monti frag that is in fornt of the external filter closes half of its polyps for a couple of minutes and than is already wild open. the xenias and leathers don´t even notice it

[eduardo cavalcanti]

ah, and by the way what slurry method is this? where can i read about it?

[holyherbiness]

How often do you do this?

 

maybe your corals would be growing even better if you did it another, slower method, but hey, prove me wrong

 

(by the way, I drip kalkwasser via a gatorade bottle+siphon with a t valve, at about 1 drop per 2 seconds).

[MKramer]

I'm guessing if you're seeing that much of a reaction to your kalk additions, you're adding too much, too fast. My pH goes up 0.2 when I dump in my slurry, and I get no observable reactions from any animals.

 

The immediate affects may not be a problem, but if you're doing this regularly (especially daily), the cummulative affects are something to be concerned about. Fish will have lowered immune systems, and be welcome prey for ich, and SPS corals will be less tolerant of lighting and water quality changes, and growth could cease.

 

These are all just possbilities, and I'm not saying for certain that you're going down that road. But I'd strongly recommend you monitor the results of your methods to PREVENT bad things from happening.

 

The slurry method is Anthony Calfo's method for adding kalk to aquariums. Basicly, put the powder in a cup of cold water, stir, and pour slowly into a high-flow area. It DOES result in larger pH swings. The reason he does this, though, is because of the limitations of dripping kalk.

 

If you drip kalk, you have the problem of only being able to drip the liquid. And water can only hold so much kalk (saturation limit). And your drip rate cannot exceed your evaporation rate, otherwise you'll lower salinity over time. All this comes together to mean that there is a limit to how much kalk you can introduce via dripping.

 

If your aquarium critters, say you have tons of SPS, consume more calcium than can possibly be replaced via dripping, then you need a different method. Like the slurry method. In this case you're jsut using a cup of cold water (cold, because not as much kalk will disolve in it) to create a suspension of kalk. There is a ton more powder than can possibly disolve in that cup. Then you pour it into a high flow region of the tank.

 

Search the web, or reefcentral when it comes back, for "calfo kalk slurry."

 

The real gotcha is that you really need to make sure you're introducing the right amount of kalk. Too much, and you'll get nothing but precipitate and a bad pH swing.