Pickling Lime

[gogregerson]

I've heard that you can use pickling lime as a kalk substitute. Is this correct? Has anyone used Mrs.Wages or are there any better suggestions?

[Superman]

Kalkwasser is german for pickling lime, so pickling lime is kalk. Mrs. Wages works fine, I've used it along with many others here on the forum, just do a search for Wages.

[aka_bigred]

I use Mrs Wages.

Some people still prefer using kalkwasser sold by name because there's some extra inert "stuff" at the bottom of your kalk reactor when you're done after using Mrs Wages, but I have had no problems. Mrs Wages isn't made for the aquarium, but I tend to think anything meant to be human food safe may actually (or at least hopefully) have BETTER manufacturing conditions than it's non-food counterparts.

There's plenty of evidence IMO to show Mrs Wages is perfectly fine. I think some people just like to pay more for something that's got a fish label on it. Though if you truly have a setup worth thousands of $$'s and you cut corners to save a few bucks a month, it doesn't pay, but for the "common man" it's just fine IMO.

[REEFSTOCK]

I use Wages

[csb123]

I just switched from ESV Kalkwasser to Mrs. Wages pickling lime 2 weeks ago. I have not seen any difference in the critters or the chemistry since the change. The only difference is the price.

Now is the time to stock up on the stuff...it's canning season and Fleet Farm has a bunch of it.