Kalkwasser in your reef?

jeffie · 08-09-2006, 07:37 PM

For all of you that drip kalk- how much do you mix at a time? I was just reading how it looses it's effectiveness rather quickly. I've been making about 2.5-3 gallons at a time depending on the time of year that it is and how much evap I have and it lasts me about a day for my 40gal. So I am making a new batch daily to keep up with my evap. What's eveyone else doing? Also, are you re-using the kalk that settles on the bottom of your mixing container or disposing of it?

dirk griffin · 08-09-2006, 08:17 PM

From Dr Tim from Aquarium systems at Foster/smith basically keep filling the same drip container over a week with water as needed. Once a week re-load with Kalk, once/ month dump it all and start over. The kalk that does not disolve right away will eventually, dumping everthing once /month seems to keep things fresh enough

jquigley78 · 08-09-2006, 08:52 PM

What about vinegar, who is using it to mix with their kalkwasser? I have been using about 250ml vineger to 10tsp kalk(pickling lime) to 5 gallons water which lasts me about 4 days. I am able to keep my CA between 400-430 so far but once a week or so I add some CA (calcium chloride) to keep it up. I also dont have any big corals just yet only about 13 small (less then 3") SPS frags and about 4-6 LPS corals. I am waiting to get to the day when I cant keep the CA up but so far so good.

HFG · 08-10-2006, 01:13 AM

One importiant thing, same with salt, remember to add water first then the kalk.
As I understand it, throwing in the lime then the water, the lime will esentially percipitate, making it harder to disolve latter.
I have read lots of contrasting stuff about how much you can make at a time. Making batches for a week and dumping it all out once a month or even 3 months seems quite reasonable.

thegrimreefer · 08-10-2006, 11:12 AM

I take a slightly different approach. I have a sealed, air-tight container with a 1/4" pex line in, and out.
The "in" line comes from my RO/DI top-off container. The line goes down to the bottom of the container.
The "out" line feeds from the top of the container, and goes to my system's top off float valve.
Into this container I put an arbitrary, large amount of Mrs Wages.
I swirl the mixture up manually whenever I think of it, once or twice a week. Anytime the top off flows, it flows through the settled lime, agitating just a very small section of it. that section essentially changes when I swirl the container.

All top off water passes through this container.

I do need to clean the top off valves perhaps every two months in vinegar to keep them clean.

Every few months I dump the remaining lime, and "re-charge" the system.

mattb · 08-10-2006, 11:14 AM

Save yourself some time and go with a Nilsen reactor and an auto topoff.... It's the way to go with kalk. You can put vinegar into the RO/DI water that gets fed into the nilsen..

Sea monkey · 08-10-2006, 11:19 AM

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-0...ture/index.php

Quote:

Summary
Limewater can lose potency by reacting with carbon dioxide in the air, forming insoluble calcium carbonate. Since calcium carbonate is not an effective supplement of calcium and alkalinity in reef aquaria, the limewater can become less useful through this process. The rate at which this happens in large containers, such as plastic trashcans with loose fitting lids, is much less than many aquarists expect. There is, in fact, little degradation under typical use conditions. Consequently, the dosing of limewater from such large still reservoirs can be just as effective as dosing using any other scheme, and may have substantial advantages. These advantages include simplicity of the system and the ability to use organic acids such as vinegar to boost the potency. The use of a reactor to dose limewater has the advantage of requiring less space, but does not have the oft-stated advantage of eliminating degradation by atmospheric carbon dioxide that is reported to plague delivery from reservoirs.

I use a 55 gallon drum and it lasts about two weeks.

mattb · 08-10-2006, 11:25 AM

Even in a Nilsen, you get CaCO3 on the sides of the reactor. It's not nearly as bad though... You do go through a lot of kalk.

David Grigor · 08-10-2006, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffie

I was just reading how it looses it's effectiveness rather quickly.

I just toss a few cups into a big ole' bucket when ever I need to refill the bucket. I usually target about 10 days worth. Container doesn't need to be airtight, just as long as you don't agitate the water then the loss is very minimal as Randy has proven.

Been doing it that way for about 4-5 years. IME: As long as you have room for the bucket, the Kalk reactor is just a useless piece of equipment and one more thing to maintain and still have to add Kalk every two weeks or so as not all of the undissolved also includs the impurities etc. that aren't going to dissolve. I know I used one for the first 6 months before the big ole' bucket method.

dirk griffin · 08-10-2006, 01:51 PM

I don't recall the specifics from Foster/Smith but Dr Tim mentioned something to the effect that if you let whatever type of drip container you are dripping with, get very low on water. Some type of chemical reaction occurs due to the air, I am assuming oxygen, that can cause the kalk to change into "calcium based something" making it useless. The calcium that could have dripped into the system becomes unsoluable....Anyone else who went to F/S remember?

David Grigor · 08-10-2006, 02:13 PM

Using a dosing pump with both ends fully submerged it should become a non-issue.

jquigley78 · 08-10-2006, 02:28 PM

I use a dosing pump and the end that drips into the tank (via the sump) drops about 3-4 inches before it hits the water and then it gets sucked up into the skimmer intake and still havent had any problems as of yet and like I said earlier the CA stays between 400-430ppm.

mattb · 08-10-2006, 05:08 PM

Kalk reactors aren't useless, other than adding kalk to it, I've not done a thing to it since I put in online 8 months ago. If you are dosing supersaturated (milky) kalk, it's the only way to do it. Plus, by using a nilsen, it's more consistent than making a slury of stuff and then throwing it in the tank.

David Grigor · 08-10-2006, 05:20 PM

If you use a container to store your water prior to feeding the kalk reactor then yes IME, it's a wasted piece of equipment. I have experience with both. There is no real advantage to using a Kalk reactor if pass ro/di water from a container through the reacotor. When you refill your bucket the agitation of pouring it your are mixing the Kalk to full saturation. You kidding yourself if you think a Reactor mixes it any better or more efficiently. If it did, I promise you I'd still be using it.

The only way the reactor is saving any space is if you have it directly feed from your RO filters. Anytime and especially when using Kalk, I'd never recommend an endless supply of water to your tank.

mattb · 08-11-2006, 07:52 AM

It's not about being better, it's about consistency.