[rob99]

I have a 20 gal reef, 3 months old.
i had a problem with hair algae and was using astra snails
to help out. then i started dripping kalk at night as my make up
water and boom! no more algae! it also keeps my ph at 8.3-8.4
and pulls phosphates out of the water. it worked like a dream
the few sps acropora jumped to life, my live rock broke out
with macro (halameda) and purple coralline . now i drip the kalk but i will start adding
it a different way. i will get a digital meter and at night i will
add enough kalk to raise the ph .2 points. of course i will go slow at first.
if you have a reef- drip kalk, trust me.

 

[Adam101]

OK excuse my Ignorance but what Is kalk ? thanks

 

[foobuddha]

Kalkwasser:

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/kalkwasser.html

 

[rob99]

kalk is....

calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide.
a white powder that is very high in ph (12?)
children must be kept away as it can burn or kill them
if they eat it! but with care it is fine for an adult
to use. you mix it with water to create kalk and
use a iv type dripper to add it to the tank at night.
it breaks into calcium ions and h- ions that raise ph!
the calcium ions are in the perfect form for the corals
to use.

 

[Brooke]

Here's another article written by Bill-e on kalk and kalk reactors.

http://www.thereeftank.com/article/kalk.htm

 

[Geoff]

Re: kalk is....

calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide.
a white powder that is very high in ph (12?)

it is actually a ph of 10.

G~

 

[Adam101]

So Rob said It removed the Phosphates? How does it accomplish that? I have moved from well water to City water and Phosphates can be a prob occasionally. would this be adventagious to use in a Fish only system?

 

[foobuddha]

The calcium binds with the phosphates and renders it unusable by algaes.

tdwyatt can give you the low down much better than most can.

 

[Adam101]

OK sounds good, Does it take the place of a Poly filter? I run them all the time because you just cant count on the City water to be good every time I change water etc. Also Side note on PH my tanks always are at 8.0-8.1 in the evenings( only time I ever have time to test them is 7 pm or later) this seems low to me But I dont know what If any negative effects this is having on my fish etc, Just wondering hear from some people that its fine others say its way too low Im confused. thanks for any further help.

 

[foobuddha]

I did a search and I think this thread explains it. Look for tdwyatt's post about the stadium.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=9024&highlight=calcium+phosphate

 

[yardboy]

Adam, don't know where you live but if you have hard water (lots of minerals) then the city likely feeds phosphate constantly to prevent pipe scaling, so it won't be an occasional problem. Also, I don't know what a poly-filter is, but no filter will remove phosphate, it requires an RO followed by ion exchange.

 

[Geoff]

Also Side note on PH my tanks always are at 8.0-8.1 in the evenings( only time I ever have time to test them is 7 pm or later) this seems low to me But I dont know what If any negative effects this is having on my fish etc, Just wondering hear from some people that its fine others say its way too low Im confused. thanks for any further help.

i have a lowish ph problem in my tank. in the mornings it gets to 7.9 then by lights off it gets up to 8.13ish. i think this is low, but i do not see any harm in the critters. i seem to have a kalkwasser problem that i need to talk to Tom about. after a refresh of kalk in the reactor the ph will stay up at 8.1 in mornings then 8.35 in the afternoons. the only thing i notice is that when the ph is high after the kalk boost, the snails go an egg laying. they definately prefer the higher ph, at least for egg laying.

G~

 

[Chris Lakies]

Actually saturated Kalkwasser is a PH of 12.4. My Kalk is running about 12.2.

Geoff,

I think I've read that at the higher PH, corals have an easier time building their calcium skeleton. If your PH is running at 7.9 - 8.0 (where mine is) you have to make sure your calcium is higher along with good alkalinity.

 

[Geoff]

maybe that is part of my problem. mine always reads 10. i will mix a fresh batch and then compare to my reactor.

G~

 

[Chris Lakies]

What kind of Kalk mix do you use. I'm using Kent. I checked my the PH of my solution last night and if was about 11.56. All I had to do was add more mix to bring it up.

 

[Adam101]

OK well I may just get the full Testing done at My LFS, I do My own testing at Home and have only forund the PH to be low, That said last week I lost a yello headed jawfish, He just stopped going in and out of his little hole one day and 5 days later I took the rock from above his home and he was laying in the bottom wasting away, All his fins looked shreaded and he was SKINNYYYYYYYYY so since everything else in the tank is alive and I know that none of them were bothering the jawfish My suspishions are on water quality so I will have the LFS do tests and see how they compair to mine. I may start doing this kalK
OH BTW a polyfilter is a pad y0u stick in your outside filter etc that pulls out the phosphates, I havent a clue how it works but it does, I used to have a Diatom problem and now its gone, However that stated I havent used anything for phosphates within tha last 5 months and Im not having a prob with diatoms......WHO knows. Oh and My city water is Soft thankfylly, It origonates from Lake Huron( where the pipe goes) any more Ideas suggestions comments? thanks again

 

[Geoff]

i can add more kalk (do not remember right now who makes, but am also going to try pickling lime also) to the reactor. i hate doing this only because it seems like there is a huge amount already in there. it seems like there is something else going on that keeps the kalk from behaving properly. i do not think i am getting CO2 in there. it just seemed like i was wasting a lot of kalk. i keep adding more, yet i can still see a lot in the bottom to the reactor. for some reason i thought i would only need to add more when the kalk in the reactor disolved away.

thanks,

G~

 

[Chris Lakies]

I have not seen how the Nilsen reactors work but I kind of do. When you to the reactor do you just add water or Kalk mix? I dose with a Reef Doser from a 32 gallon vat with a lid. I usually mix the Kalk powder and R/O water with a fish net for about 20 seconds or until the mixture is a milky white. Maybe it is not getting mixed enough in the reactor?

 

[David Grigor]

Geof, I'm not an expert on the reactor thing, I only used one for about 6 months ( Then went to just using a big old bucket was mixing manually every 10-14days seemed no more or less trouble than the reactor) .

What I noticed is that if you clean out the unused gunk in the bottom every month or so then you notice a bigger punch in the PH. Perhaps what you seeing in the bottom isn't all pure Ca. Hydroxide anymore.

I found I needed to add more Kalk to the reactor every 2 weeks or so to keep the tank PH up even if there was still some in the bottom.

 

[Geoff]

David-thanks, so i am not the only one seeing these effects. if this is behaving the same as others then i have no problems to a reactor flush once a month. i just needed to hear that mine is functioning properly.

Adam101- could you be talking about phoszorb? i have seen it come in a bag/pad type form. a diatom bloom is everyones right of passage when setting up a SW tank for the first time. they will go away in a week or two without any intervention when all of the silicates are used up.

i am sorry to hear about your jawfish. they are neat little fish.

G~