Dosing kalkwasser

D

Dr M

[Hey everyone I am a new user to this forum and wanted to get a second opinion on something. I read an article (which I will post) about adding a small amount of Distilled White Vinegar to your Kalk before adding your water in the mix. A better explanation would be in the article. Does anyone think it makes sense or have they done it? This guy claims to do it in his aquariums with great results.

Daryl

Kalkwasser/In Depth]
 
[I do not use Kalkwasser so I don't have to worry about that. But I have heard about the vinegar use in the water and kalk. mix. What the idea is that when you usually just mix kalkwasser with water you get a lot of sediment left from the kalkwasser. And you can not put that sediment into the tank. The vinegar lowers the ph of the water and helps breakdown the kalkwasser so that mixes better and you get a richer mix. So the theory goes and I guess I could not argue with it. Though I would be carefull how much vinegar you use. You would not want to lower the ph too much.]
 
[I used 30ml of white vinegar in a 5 gallon solution of kalkwasser the other day. I did it to bring my ALK and Ca levels up while I was tunning my reactor. Rick is correct in his explaination by the way.]
 
[Actually one reason I am concidering this method is because my PH in my tank has risen to around 8.6 (was 8.3) and my dkh is 13. Im not to worried at this time because everything in the tank is doing fine it is just a change I am not used to seeing. My Calcium is around 345 ppm which I don't feel is not high enough but I am showing decent coraline growth. I have just recently started using kalk because up until this point I used Liquid Reactor from Kent, which I know it is nothing more than powdered araginite. I didn't like using Liq. Reac. and I've always heard the benefits from kalk.

Any feedback what be much appreciated]
 
[Wow, if you pH and Alk are as high as you say you can get away with using Kent Marine Turbo Calcium to bring up your calcium and drop your pH and Alk a little.]
 
[David

Do you think I should just go back to using the Liquid Reactor. I know it is a fairly new product from Kent. I don't currently have any other form of calcium additive to use. I may go to our little lfs here and look for somthing else like the Marine Turbo. I did see the two part B ionic (not sure if that is right spelling or name) but I didn't check the price. I know alot of peaple use it on the forum.

P.S. Are my test results on the boarder of being harmful to my livestock.]
 
[Kalkwasser is a fantanstic balanced solution for the price. the only thing I know about liquid reactor is that Randy Holmes-Farley on RC doesn't recommend it. I also have no experience with the B-ionic solutions but I hear they are great although costly. What type of test kits are you using? The only reading you posted that I feel is problematic is you pH. It is on the high side and I would watch it to make sure it doesn't go any higher. I'll try to attatch some links to some good reading.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2002/chem.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/chem.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm]
 
[I am using the Fast Test Kit from Aquarium Sytems. I use their test kits for most of my tests (Good or Bad?).

Thanks for the links, Im sure they will come in handy.]
 
[Fast Test are good tests but I believe that Sailfert makes the best. I myself use Tropic Marine simply because they are easier for me to get.]
 
[Rick,

QWhy can't I "put the sediment into the tank"? I don't even let my kalk settle before I start dripping it in..Don't KAlk/neilson reactors stir the kalk sediment every hour or so?]
 
[Dr. M,

If it was me, before I did anything else, I'd get different test kits. I've used the Sea Test/FastTest kits in the past, and they were less than reliable, ime. The pH kit is ok, I checked that against my pH probe. The Alk and CA were way off. FWIW...]
 
[Duane

I was wondering if the Fast Test Calcuim test was that great because it is hard to tell the color change. The color will change then change back real quick and I'm not sure if that is my count or should I keep adding reagent until the color changes permanently, which is a difference of a couple drops. A couple drops equals 30 ppm though.
I don't use the Fast Test kit for my Alk test. I use a kit from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Inc. Don't know how good it is either.]
 
[I also forgot to say.

I lost an emerald crab last night, first thing I have lost in a very long time. I just bought 4 of them about a week ago and today around lunch I noticed one sitting on a rock not moving. I investigated closer and he didn't move at all. I seen no injuries or anything obvious but he was died. My other 3 emerald crabs are still doing fine and looking for algea.]
 
[I have been using Ball's pickling lime and white vinegar for over a month didnt saw any side effects and my rocks,calcium,ph and alk is great...]
 
[From the articles that David gave me it sounds like adding a small amount of vinegar to my kalk would resolve my problems. My PH has gone back to 8.2 in just under one day after stopping the kalk dosing. Seeing this would confirm exactly what one article stated. "Adding kalk when you have a low amount of carbon dioxide producing livestock will cause the PH to run high. Adding the Vinegar will add more available carbon dioxide and will allow the PH to stay constant".(In short)

Thanks again for all the info and the words of encouragement from the persons that actually use this method.

P.S. I hope to meet a few of you at the swap meet this weekend. To bad I didn't find the club about 2 years ago. I would have been a member already. Unfortunatly I am in the military and I will be departing the state in a couple months.
:(]
 
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