when to start kalkwasswer dosing......

[mrcopitr]

Hi again,

my new reef is been up and running for two weeks now...my live rock are curing well and currently has a few snails and crabs to test the system...could you guys tell me when I should start dosing kalkwasser???

Should I wait for the rock to be fully cured...only when I introduce corals ????

Please give me your feed back on this.

Also I've been reading lately on different brand of salt...I personally use the instant ocean reef crystals mix....is this what most of you use...From what I could see at my local pets unlimited..they seeem to use mainly the instant ocean base mix....

thank you Marco...

[Reefmaster]

marco
you will need a calcium and alkalinity test kit, and my guess is you won't need to dose kalk for at least a month or two depending on your lighting and how quickly coralline algae starts.
i don't know much about that salt - i just use kent.
shane

[Jack]

I think the "reef crystals" brand has a little extra calcium in it. That's about all i know :D

[Seaquest]

Hi Marco

You need to give your system time to settle and ajust, don't start adding all kinds of chemicals to your tanks water. Go out and get your self few test kits. measure than only begin to add only what is needed. don't get caught in a up and down chemical race trying to ballance out a unmature system, many beginners make there firt mistake at this point. only add what your tank calls for. Never stop reading books on the subjects and makke sure you understand why you are adding those chemicals. smile.gif

Good luck

Seaquest

[Aquattro]

Marco, you're paying extra for the Reef Crystals and you don't really need to. Instant Ocean is the defacto standard in salt mixes. If you prefer the Reef Crystals, my understanding is that Kent is the same salt. The advantage to RC/Kent is that the Ca is a bit higher than IO. If you're dosing kalk, this may help you maintain levels. Kent is generally a bit cheaper than IO.
On the kalk dosing issue, you certainly won't need to dose a saturated solution until you have corals that consume it. The best thing to do is calculate your total alk consumption and dose accordingly. Also, until your tank has fully cycled, any acids (eg. NO3) wil eat up your alkalinity faster than you can dose it. I wouldn't dose until you have zero nitrates. Using a DSB, this could be up to 2 or 3 months.
Finally, you may want to consider adding vinegar to your kalk as this tends to give you a more complete reaction within your solution and reduces precipitation of carbonates. I can give you additional info on this if you decide to look into it.

[titus]

Hello,

Some good advices given here. Here's mine:

1) Instant Ocean is cheaper than Kent, at least from what I've seen here. Both are pretty much the standard salt mix you should use. However, for whatever stupid reason, my batch of Kent salt provides a surprisingly low reading of calcium level, confirmed by both Salifert and Hagen's test kits. Weird. :confused:

2) A good advice on this one and remember this. Alkalinity and calcium level are backwards. What I mean by this is if your water chemistry is not balanced, too much of one will cause the other to decline. One mistake easy for new comers to make is to keep dosing alkanlinity buffer when they see their pH low, causing the calcium level to drop further and further down. What really is the cause can be due to in-sufficient gas exchange and/or during night time when the lights are out. You need to build both up gradually.

3) You may dose Kalk when you begin loading your system. Generally if you change your water on a regular basis and your stocking level, relative to your water gallonage is low, you probably don't need to dose much if at all. But when you begin to start loading your system with corals, your must dose supplements or Kalk or better yet get a ca reactor. Kalk can only give you so much because of the low evaporation rate up here in Canada.

4) Like Brad said drip some vinegar into your Kalk solution and that would help. Kalk solution has an extreme high pH (close to 12?) and the extra vinegar helps the bateria in your system to release more CO2, compensating in a way for the high pH.

[titus]

Hello,

Oh and by the way, when it's summer time, you can get the lime stuff (pickling lime) at your grocery store for a much cheaper price than buying Kalk powder from fish companies.