Using kalk water only for topoff?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by stephane

BC I found that with kalk use you dont realy need to test calcium and mostly only PH tell me how well my calcium

as long as you start with a balance calcium and alkalinity level and dont add any buffer or calcium additive the kalk will keep in target you could even just look at the alkalinity if the alkalinty is on the right level
you are ok cause kalk add 100% the popper depletion rate it is good to test it 4 time a years for calcium but not realy more and other time PH will tell and once a month alkalinity will confirm

Stephane, this may be working for you but it is how I got in trouble.. I had everything ballanced then I started dosing Kalk, I ended up with a serious Mg and Ca deficiencys. In my opinion if you are dosing anything with out testing you are playing with fire..

Like some one once said on this board.. you spend over 5000.00 on the stuff in your tank.. why cheep out on a 20.00 part?

well not exactly what he said but along the same context.

also another problem/reason in which you shoudl be testing when ysing kalk is "dosing limewater causes the loss of significant amounts of magnesium ions from reef aquaria."
this was the cause of my Mg/Ca crash and hence the reason for me switching to a Ca reactor. I am still going to put a Kalk reactor on line soon but I will not run Kalk with out a Ca reactor anymore on a regular basis.

Steve