Dosing Kalk in my 90.

[metronil]

How often do you dose kalk? In my 90, i usualy dose a 1 gallon heavy slurry mix about once every two weeks. Now in my old 55 i had coraline algea growing like crazy up the sides, powercords...everything was coverd and i only dosed once, maybe twice a month a lighter mixture. Doesnt seem to be working on the 90. Should i dose heavy/more often?

Help me to dial in my 90.

 

[Gatortailale1]

what are you trying to keep in there? (sps, leather softies, lps?)

how old is the tank?
lights?
DSB?
amount of liverock?

need mroe details

 

[rayjay]

I can't comment on the success of the 55g but to compare my 90g tanks with your 90, we dose quite differently.
All my tanks are dosed nightly with kalk water. The water is made up of 2 teaspoons kalk per gallon of water and let stand for 24 hours. I then siphon the limewater out from between the top lightly crusted surface, and the precipitate on the bottom. My 55g tank gets 3 litres, and my 90g tanks get 5 litres of kalk water dripped NIGHTLY.
Even if you start on this type of schedule, it will take some time to restore conditions conducive to coraline growth. It would help to do a lot of water changes while you're restoring conditions.
I believe that allowing the precipitate into your system can tend to lower the pH and erode the alkalinity in time. (experimenting with 90g non reef tank)

 

[metronil]

Yeah sorry for the lack of info.

I have a 90gal reef ready tank, 20 gal sump. 100 lbs live rock. icecap 660, 2 x 50/50 2 x actinic 110 VHO's, 440 total watts. Hang on bakpack skimmer as well as another skimmer in the sump. I am dosing only Combisan once a week as well as C-balance (once a week at lights out) and kalk, (never at the same time)

My corals are all soft, polyps, mushrooms, tube worms and anenomes, some sponges. Nothing spectacular, but wht i have thrives.

Its been up and running for 5 years. Use to enjoy tons of coraline pink and purple algea when it was all in a 55. I switched to the 90 about 6 months ago. I havent wintessed a noticable loss of coraline algea on the rocks, however i used to have in growing on the glass, powercords..everything. That when it was in the 50, which was NOT reef ready, i.e. no overflow/sump.

Maybe i just need to give it more time, i would like to know how others are dosing their 90's though.

 

[Anonymous]

I dose kalk 24/7. I think there is a little impatience here

What are your Ca and alk levels? Also PO4?

 

[metronil]

Yikes!

Im a bad bad reef keeper!

I had no idea to dose so often. No wonder!

Well ill get crackin' on the kalk. Maybe thats why everytime i dosed the crab and shrimp shed their exoskeleton.

And here i was thinking i was a reef masta'. Glad i finaly got connected to the internet and found this forum!

 

[Anonymous]

Whoa, slow down. What are your parameters? I dose 24/7 because the "SPS" in my tank consume Ca and alk by the boatload. Before oyu start dosing, it is important to have a handle on the consumption. What are your levels?