Kalkwasser and a 29g Reef...

[charlie_g]

B-Ionic is getting expensive, would it make sense financially to start using Kalk? Is 29g too small of a tank for Kalk? Would I be ok adding it in Top-Off water? A drip system is a bit inconvinient for me.... No room for it....

Thanks !!!

 

[charlie_g]

BTW calcium levels are near undetectable...

 

[Anonymous]

BTW calcium levels are near undetectable...

You are using Bi Ionic in a 29 gallon tank and you can get any measure of calcium? That is very odd. What brand of test kit are you using?

 

[Anonymous]

To answer charlie_g's question, yes you can kalkwasser a 29. The easiest way is to make your own with pickling lime: 1tsp lime, 1 tbls white vinigar, 1 gal ro/di water. Mix well several times, let rest over night. Mix 1cup kalk w/ 1gal ro/di water and topoff as needed.

 

[charlie_g]

Yeah I'm starting to doubt my kit... The prob is that I just started dosing B-Ionic after about a year without adding Ca... I started a few days ago. I've been dosing quite heavy and gone through almost 1/4 of the botles in about 5 days and still not turning up any results... I did a large WC about 2 weeks ago that should have introduced Ca, plus the heavy dosing.... Something definately going on with my kit i think....

But what doi you guys recommend to maintain levels once I figure it all out? Is Kalk to much for a 29g?

 

[ElMonoCalvo]

I also have a 29g reef and have toyed with the idea of mixing Kalk in with my topoff water. I also lack a drip system and was dissuaded from the idea after reading posts saying that this would cause a pH spike. Is a cup of Kalk dissolved in a gallon of RO/DI water and added in small amounts, a half-gallon at most with no drip, going to cause problems?

 

[Ben1]

Kalk can work well but in a small tank, where it must be added slowly it can shoot the pH high pretty easy. Your kit needs to be replaced most likely. What's you Alk at? I had a old salifert kit that was reading both my tanks at 350 ish for the last few months. I finally bought a new kit to find it was fine at 455, go figure!

 

[Fastmarc]

With that size tank, I would stick with the bionic.
More than likely, it is a faulty test kit.

 

[Anonymous]

That's the way I dose my tanks, I have 2 2 1/2g, a 20 and 29. My alk (opps that's ca) stays at 400.

 

[Ben1]

Alk is 400 what? ppm? I have only heard it expressed ad dKH usually 7-12 and Meg/l usually 3.0-4.0.

 

[charlie_g]

That's the way I dose my tanks, I have 2 2 1/2g, a 20 and 29. My alk stays at 400.

8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O
8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O

I hope you mean Ca if not your tanks is gonna explode in any second !! LOL !

 

[Anonymous]

I used to topoff solely with Kalk at a concentration of 1.5 tsps per gallon on a 30 gallon. It was around a gallon a day. Kept my levels in the right spot.

 

[BillO]

Do you need to use vinegar when using pickling lime?

 

[Joew]

Bill,
I believe you do.

JoeW
_________________
Honda Orthia

 

[Anonymous]

No, you don't need to use vinegar with pickling lime. You can if you want to though.

 

[Anonymous]

Calcium test kits are always kinda suspect. FWIW, when my 37gal was really heavy in coralline, I was adding 35ml/day of B-Ionic. I took a couple of Ca++ measurements, and used the average and did what I needed to to get my Ca++ and alk balanced. From there, I would vary B-Ionic as necessary to maintain alk day-to-day and didn't worry about Ca++ (checked it every other week or so).

If you truly were at zero Ca++ before, it would take about 800ml B-Ionic to bring you up to ~400ppm.

ml B-Ionic=(400ppm Ca++)*(29gal)*(3.785l/gal)*(1000ml/l)/(54,000ppm Ca++ B-Ionic)

 

[charlie_g]

Very helpfull formula !! thanks..., How much can I dose per day?

 

[Anonymous]

What I would do is watch the drop in Alk from day to day (alk is a much more accurate test and Ca++, and alk shows a larger change than Ca++ in your tank--0.5meq/l for every 10ppm Ca++) then calculate using the info provided below what I would need to maintain your alk from one day to the next.

Obviously, if you need to increase your levels, you'll need to add more. If your Ca++ is out of whack w/ your alk (very likely if the tank has been depleted for a while), you might find it necessary to use CaCl (turbocalcium or similar) to bring things back into balance.

Also, keep in mind that as your Ca++ and alk get close to NSW, your tank will consume more additives--so keep an eye out for that.

The big challange is figuring out what your levels actually are, then driving them to where they need to be. Once you've done that, simply maintaining them is a piece of cake.

From the ESV website:

Component #1 - Carbonate Alkalinity: 2800 meq/liter (7840 dKH). 1 ml per gallon of aquarium water will raise alkalinity by 0.74 meq/liter (2.07 dKH).
Component #2 - Calcium Concentration: 54,000 ppm calcium ion. 1 ml per gallon of aquarium water will raise calcium concentration by 16ppm.

 

[Anonymous]

Thought about this a little more. You need to validate that your test kit is not totally hosed. A water change is seldom a bad thing, so I would go ahead and do another and check the Ca++ of your new water. I would expect it to be 390ppm for Instant Ocean--others might be a little higher. If the test kit says it is within about 10% of that, you should be good to go.

You need to be very careful with the Ca++ test kits. When you get to the point where you're counting drops, if you touch the dropper gets saltwater on it, then goes into the bottle storing the chemicals, you've contaminated the kit. Be very careful and the pieces well with DI water. Make sure you read the instructions (I did it everytime) and maybe take 2 or 3 measurements and go with the average.

You need to know Alk. If you add equal parts of B-Ionic to fix your chemistry, I'd bet money that your Alk will become excessive.

Ty