Adding Kalk

[why is it floating?]

hi i read somewhere that if you mix kalk with white vinager this 'frees'up the calcium in the kalk and if added to RO water it could be added to the tank without having to be in an air tight container.

is this true?

[elliot]

yup... do a search on reefs wiith kalk and vinegat - it comes up every week or so.

There is no reason for you to need to do this.... unless you are massively stocked with sps

e

[Frogfone]

Hi there

AFAIK adding vinegar drops the pH of the RO water and allows more CaOH to go into solution. Therefore getting more Ca/ml added into the tank.

As for using an airtight container I believe there is some debate about whether this makes any difference in the long run. We have just changed from using an airtight "pasta jar" kalk stirrer to a bucket full of kalk instead of RO and we have been amazed. The tank has been suffering with severly low pH problems for months and since chucking in 100g of kalk to our top up bucket (pH12.4) and letting it top up only at night our pH has risen from 7.7 to 7.9 up to 8.2-8.3 and is much more stable.

Worst comes to the worst, I have to clean my top up bucket every couple of weeks. Will I be adding chalk? Don't know.

Sorry couldn't be of more help.

Sharon

[Glenn@home]

Sharon

Im not sure there is any debate about the CO2 in the air and kalk anymore.

There appears to be a theoretical issue which is not usually realised, otherwise as you say, bucket reactors would not be particulalry effective. If you bubbled air through the kalk effluent then i can see that having a big difference but otherwise i dont thik the problem is a real one.

My DIY reactor is not airtight even if i remember to put the lid on it and i dont have problems achieving saturation and increasing Ca/Alk levels in a 750 litre system..

RFH from RC did some experiments to test this and basically came to the conclusion its a non-issue.

Most of the CO2 entering reactors does so via the RO water AFAIK rather than via the water air interface.

JMHO

Glenn

[why is it floating?]

sharron, Glen etc

thanks for that, i was thinking how much easier it would be just to dump a load of kalk into my top up reservoir and drip feed with my peri. it makes life so much easier.

so you dont think I dont need to add the vinegar?

[elliot]

There is no reason for you to need to do this.... unless you are massively stocked with sps

;)

e

[craighuckins]

....another claimed benefit of the vinegar method is that the calcium acetate breaks down and eventually releases carbon which feeds denitrifying bacteria in the tank. ;) whether this makes any difference in the real world remains to be seen :huh:

[elliot]

its just the old carbon source argument again.....

[danny]

The only reason I can think to add vinegar is if your evaporation is less than you need to dose enough kalkwasser. Adding a fan usually makes sure there is aswell as the added benefit of more stable temp.

[Glenn@home]

The only thing i would say about simply dumping it into your reservoir is that it will not give you a saturated solution unless you als use a pump to stir it.

You are basically talking about a bucket reactor and the usual method is to add kalk to the ro water, stir for around 10 minutes or so using a powerhead, let it settle and then add the clear layer using a peri pump.

HTH

Glenn

[why is it floating?]

yes that helps glen, had that method in mind

cheers, thanks for help