[rebrob]

Does Kalkwasser raise Alk? I know it brings Ph and Calcium in line, but does it touch the Alk?

I have been using kalk as top-off for about two weeks and i have noticed that my alk seems to drop to 7 and below. Should i add some B-ionic 1 solution (which has been my recent solution), but i don't want the calcium to drop? Will the alk just work it all out eventually?

[Ninong]

Kalkwasser is balanced. It raises both calcium and alkalinity. What are you measuring right now for calcium?

[rebrob]

400-410

[rebrob]

took another reading tonight:
calcium - 400
alk - 7.0
ph 8.4
Phosphates - not traceable

why is this happening with the kalk. I dosed about 2 gallons the night before. Also, i am getting some bleaching in the coralline. Could this be from the low Alk.
Any thoughts?

[BubbaWPB]

When you say your alk is 7.0, is that mEq/L or dKH?

[rebrob]

dkh

[BubbaWPB]

What sort of bio-load do you have in your tank?

[rebrob]

bio-load? do you mean biological filtration. i have life rock.

[Poseidon]

Nope he means what do you have in your tank that consumes the Ca.

Bio-load is also used to describe how many fish/corals you have in TOTAL. A tank dominated with SPS, will have a larger load on Ca then one with mushrooms for instance.

[rebrob]

i have a bubble coral, hammer coral, and one other that i don't know what it is named. 7 snails and two shrimp, two tangs, two percs and 5 chromises, all in a 72 gallon. I have about 100 pds of live rock which has alot of growing AND bleaching going on at the same time.

[rebrob]

Also, What would be the reaction in a tank if the top-off ro/di water was overly saturated with kalkwasser? I have been using 2 tsp per gallon (8 tsps for 4 gallons of water)? Could this cause too low alk or should it cause a greater raise in ALk? What would happen if l lowered the tsp per gallon and what would happen if i raised it? I am wondering this because in my search on kalkwasser info, i found a lot of people using 1 tsp per gallon to get their optimimum levels.

robbie

[BubbaWPB]

I was asking about bioload because the living organisms produce carbon dioxide during respiration... it combines with water to form carbonic acid... the hydroxide part of kalwasser neutralizes the acid (hydroxide + acid form a water molecule) and leaves bicarbonate/carbonate...

Long story short, if you don't have living breathing critters in your tank, the hydroxide part of kalkwasser doesn't turn to carbonate... but that doesn't seem to be your problem anyway - it sounds like you have lots of critters.

If your calcium and pH are near target, I wouldn't worry about the carbonate - but that's just one opinion.

[rebrob]

problem is Ph rises without Alk. Yesterday night i checked my Ph and it was at 8.6 and the alk was still below 8

[rebrob]

what if i added baking soda. I remember someone using it to up alk. What will that do?

[BubbaWPB]

Low alk and a pH of 8.6?....something sounds fishy to me (no pun intended). How are you measuring your pH? The only time my pH has gone that high is during curing when the ammonia spiked. There is definitely something out of balance, or your pH readings are off - one of the two.

Baking soda can be used to "up the alk," but I've only done that when the pH was low... you need to find out what's out of balance before you start experimenting, at least, that's my opinion.

[golfish]

Originally Posted by rebrob

Does Kalkwasser raise Alk? I know it brings Ph and Calcium in line, but does it touch the Alk?

IME, it only raises PH, and helps maintain alk and Ca. I'd use something else like B-ionic to raise and help maintain alk and ca. If your dripping kalk 24/7 I can see how you might have a high PH reading. That's the good thing about using a Ca reactor and a Kalk reactor (dripping kalk) The ca reactors tend to lower PH and dripping kalk 24/7 tends to raise PH....together they kind of balance each other out