Calcium additives

[Mobious]

I have a question about calcium additives...

I currently use C-Balance.. I dose every morning...On the bottle it suggest using Kawkwaser (sp) and use C-Bal to supplement the kawkwaser.. So I thought about trying pickling lime.. I have read people mix this stuff in their top off water.. Well I guess my question is.. If I start using lime.. Could I mix it in my 29 gallon water top of reservoir, or should I use a gallon or so container on a slow drip? My water top off replaces about 2-3 gallons a day..

Thanks

[eses]

Everything I've read gives me the opinion you should always slow-drip calcium additives as they could alter the PH of the water if added suddenly. I know the kalkwasser will if you dump it in suddenly.

I've found it to be easiest to just mix up some kalkwasser in a bottle, siphon off the clear fluid into another container and let it sit. I use enough to last me almost a week, and I dose every-other-day with a drip method and it has been working really well.

I made a cheap-easy drip bottle using a 1-litre mountain dew bottle, turned upside down I have a 1" hose coming from the cap, and at the bottom (now the top) of the bottle I have a 1" airline hose coming from that with a air-regulator on it. You just dial in the drip rate, and it has worked rather well. But my aquarium only looses about a litre a day..if yours looses more, then a bigger container may be in order.

eses

[ravenmore]

I've done a lot of research on this lately - with most of my data coming from Craig Binham. I think you can find links to his articles in the reef central library. Good reading, but very technical. The guy knows his stuff.

Basically I think you can do without the c-balance and just dose kalk. I would slow drip it, as Mr. Binham (actually I think it may be Dr. Bingham) mentioned dumping it in quickly can deplete something in the tank....don't remember exactly what that was though. The ph is not as big of a problem though provided you have enough of a bioload in the tank. Calcium hydroxide (aka pickling lime or kalk) provides calcium (obviously) but also helps the alkalinity because of the hydroxide ions. However, you need CO2 to convert the hydroxide ions to carbonate alkalinity (this is straight from Bingham). Your bioload provides this, so in most systems this is not a problem. However, if you have a low bioload and are REALLY putting a lot of kalk in a system, then there is not enough CO2 to convert the hydroxide ions to carbonate alkalinity. What you end up with is raising your ph. This is rare but something to be aware of.

So, bottom line, kalk is an incredibly economical way to maintain calcium and alkalinity levels in a tank. Pickling lime is incredibly cheap and works just as well as the expensive stuff. Other additives, IMO(99% of the time), are superfluous if not down right detrimental to a tank.

hth,
-Mike

[Mobious]

Ok.. I think I get it.. Start getting off of C-Bal or B-Ionic and move towards Kalk or Lime..

If Kalk or Lime is so much better than these liquid additives they why arent more people using them.? It seems to be the census on this board to use B-Ionic...

When you say BIOload.. Are you talking about over all living creatures in my tank? If I wanted to increase my bioload could I just use some inexpensive fish or would I need critters that will use the calcium?

Thanks for the help

[ravenmore]

Well, why do people buy Kent's Kalkwasser at $15 and up for a small jar when a full pound of pickling lime is $2 or $3? Sometimes the mark up and marketing in our hobby is ridiculous..... Yes, the pickling lime is "food grade" calcium hydroxide and not "regent" grade calcium hydroxide, but that really doesn't make a practical difference for our application. And actually quite a few people are using pickling lime - and as more people discover it, the number of people using pickling lime is increasing.

Bio-load in terms of my above post has to do with anything that respires CO2. Fish and bacteria are the main contributors here I think, but crabs, shrimp, ect... would add to it too. In fact, Craig Bingham has an article about adding organic carbon sources (if your bioload is not providing sufficient CO2) to boost bacteria levels to increase CO2 in the system. There's another recent discussion that relates to all this... I think the title has something to do with adding sugar to a tank. There's a link to Bingham's article in the thread.

I would start slow dripping Kalk and just watch your ph... chances are you have a sufficient bio-load right now that it won't be a problem. If you want, pop over to reef central and go through Craig's articles in their library.

hth,
-Mike