Does anyone dose Kalkwasser??

[surferjoe86]

thinking about using Kalkwasser to help with my Ph drop when the lights are out. I'm wanting to start adding SPS corals and dont want to kill any! My Ph goes down to 7.8 after the lights have been off 10 hours (just got a digital tester) Alot lower than I thought is was with my liquid test kit! I will test it at the end of the light cycle for the higher reading. But its not going to be anywhere near 8.3 where it should be.
I've been using buffer to try and get it higher. But I'm concidering dripping Kalk instead as it helps with Ca levels aswell.


What doage do I start with? Is it worth it? Does it lower the SG alot? I've read that I will have to drip upto 4Gal per day of mixed solution. My evaporation is no where near that amount. I also have made an over complicated auto top off system so I can't used that for kalk dosing and the amount it tops off is no where near 4gals!

Any advice would be great
cheers
Joe

[SYRG WYATT666]

I don't dose anything at all but I don't keep sps so I dunno and most I think use red sea

[surferjoe86]

im using crystal sea www.meisalt.com/products/prod_csmm.html
been using it for 2 years. Always had a Ph of over 8 until recently. I moved house 8 weeks ago so don't know if that's changed anything? I transported all the tank water in the move... Was a caufuffle to say the least. 260liters!
I've heard that if the air going into the skimmer is low in O2 it may cause the Ph to drop?

do you think Ph of 7.8 have a detramental effect on SPS?
Cheers Joe

[SYRG WYATT666]

when i did have ago with SPS my PH was always 7.8 and they always grew and were healthy but i got bored of SPS and sold em like my LPS esp acans

[ian]

Hi Joe,

I had the same sort of problems with PH ,and i also tryed using
kalk but couldnt get on with it because you can very easly
overdose.

With doing a bit of digging and asking around i found that
if you can get your calcium and magnessium stable at the
right levels this will help with your PH . + also have alook at
your alkalinity they all have a bearing on PH.

You are not using a calcium reactor with c02 are you beacuse
i also tryed this method and found that the c02 was driving
down my PH so i removed the reactor and went onto
the balling method, as i am now doing with all my addertives
CAL,MAGN,ALK-DKH,POTTASIUM AND STRONTIUM with great
results.

Since i started the balling method 2 years ago all my acros
and other sps-hard corals are growing + alot more colour.

( Have a look at a company called TANKTEST this is where i
get al my balling addertives from, they come in 1-3-5lt containers
and you just add them to the right amount of ro-water.I add
mine with 100ml suringes with a bought off e-bay, or you
could us a dossing pump.

Hope this may help ( I am still learning to )

Let me now how you get on.

Cheers Ian.

O ps i havent check my Ph for around 6 months now and
everything is fine ( Good Look ) ;D

[surferjoe86]

cheer's Ian I will look into that.
I don't have a Ca reactor. I think I'm going to change my salt I got myself a Ca and magnisium test kit and after many tests. All the levels are low including dkh

mag 1050ppm
Ca 380ppm
KH 130ppm

Not a happy bunny about this so somthing needs to be done. I've read that the salt I'm using isn't all it's cracked upto be according to the supplier. I'm switching to red sea reef. Hope this will help, but deffinatly for now going to have a go at the balling method

cheers for the advice
Joe

[ian]

Hi Joe,

Hows it going

Just wondered if you have had chance to look at tanktest yet.

Again good look speak to you soon.

Any problems give us a call and i will try and help.

Cheers Ian.

[davem]

i would recomend getting your kh up to at least 8 dkh, you can do this by using normal bicarbonate of soda that you can get in teco ect. ad one tea spoon to your top up and let it slowly add. as long as you keep testing the kh you will b fine and it will cost all of 70p. the kh is the main influence on ph as it is a measure of the buffering capacity of water, i.e the lower the kh the less acid compoounds it can absorb before your ph is effected. also you mag is low, meaning you wont be able to raise your calcium as the mag and calcium need to be in balance. however i would concentrate on kh first as you mind find that the others will start to rise once this is sorted.

hope this helps

dave