dripping kalk

well i was dripping kalk in my 40 gal sps 24/7....i have heard others say not to do this i got great growth...whatsd everyones imput on dripping 24/7?

[Doug1]

Why would one not drip 24/7
Easiest to rig up a top off device that feeds kalk water to replace evap.
The trick is to keep calc and alk where you want it then maintain it with kalk drip. It seems to maintain better than trying to use it to efffect changes

i have cal and alk perfect......i dont know....i have heard alot of rummblings of not doing it, thats why i asked ol man of wisdom!

[Doug1]

If it's working , why change. I would do decent water changes to help keep ionic balances from getting outta whack , but thats just me.

[laddy00]

I would just make sure that your pH is not rising to much during the day. The kalk drip at night should offset the normal pH drop associated with plants respiring.

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by mnreefman
well i was dripping kalk in my 40 gal sps 24/7...

Best method. It maintains salinity at a constant level and keeps your alk and kalk at consistantly high levels. Skeletalization still occurs during lights out, although not at nearly the same rate as with the lights on, and rates of calcification are correspondingly low during dark periods (iof any occurs at all), but there is still some utilization or both alk and Ca even at night.

The biggest advantage of 24/7 is that it maintains your salinity at a constant level as opposed to fluctuations associated with prolonged bolus supplementation (even with slow infusions). Oceanic levels of Ca and alk vary little, although there are some biotopes where the levels can vary drastically (closed eutrophic lagoons, shallow stagnant bays, estuary flats, etc).


Why bolus dose when the continuous drip provides 3 major parameters (alk, Ca and salinity) at stable levels???

Curious, what is their rational behind NOT doing it 24/7?

well i have always said that kalk maintains your ca alk and salinity just liek you said....this was coming from people who say if you dose 24/7 you ca and alk will be outa whack

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by mnreefman
this was coming from people who say if you dose 24/7 you ca and alk will be outa whack

I just don't see it. It supplies a balanced Ca and Alk supplement, no unwanted ions, any excesses will precipitate out of solution, it will remove Phosphates from solution down to reasonable levels, I just don't see a down side (although just like any system of supplementation, there are things tht can go wrong).
Biggest problem is high Ph at the end of the day, but that is easiy remidied.

how exactly does kalk fluctuate your ph.. or are we just talking about the lights and heat fluctuating it?

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by mnreefman
how exactly does kalk fluctuate your ph...

one of those extreme situations, or when there are few consumers of alkalinity and Ca for calcification and skeletalization. Limewater is CaOH in a saturated solution. It depends on CO2 to provide the inorganic carbon for the converion of Carbonic acid to bicarbonaate and carbonate to make tha buffer system (alk). In systems where their is eather a low Co concentration or where there are few organisms using alkalinity and Ca, the solution will remove carbonic acid from the solution to form the bicarbonate so effectively that the pH will rise due to the relative ABSENCE of CO2. usually happens when the
cO2 in the air above the tank is depleted in greenhouses or with large pops of macroalgae, CO2 occasionally will notbe able to diffuse back into the water colun fast enough.

small occasional doses of vinegar will correct this situation, although I really don't recommend this unless the corals or fishes are showing distress.

sorry to be so brief, got to go to bed.

HTH

okay i got a ton of sps i dont think that should be a problem......and i have no macro alge

[wasabi]

how are they doing? all still kicking?

the one that bleaced, the big acro i think is dead

[9fishers]

I'm a newbie, though college educated. Unfortunatly, I majored in Education. I didnt take chemistry so the above thread has gone WAYYYYYY over my head. Obviously, I need to do some major reading on this. What can you guys recommend to ease me into this? If it starts out too complicated, I wont get it.

Thanks.

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by 9fishers
... I need to do some major reading on this. What can you guys recommend to ease me into this? ...

Here are a few links to get you started, lots of info out there in the archives, as well as sites like Advanced Aquarist, Reefkeeping Magazine, etc. Look for Randy Holmes and Craig Bingman as authors. short list to start:

Ca /alk #1

Ca/Alk #2

Ca/Alk #3

Ca/Alk #4

Lots of articles and threads here on TRT, use the search key to look at the archives.

HTH

MN: If the corals are not uptaking Ca for any number of reasons, the numbers will skew, Water params, lighting, feeding, etc must be in the zone to see approp uptake wfrom the Water column, exactly what are you looking for?