Dosing Kalkwasser and All for Reef

[dolpator]

Ok so I've been running this the same way for a while now and here's my thoughts on your situation.

So obviously stop dosing like you already have. So the main 3, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium are a 3 legged table and as long as they are in balance the absorption rate will be the same. So IMO I would start right now by bringing up your alkalinity to 10 to 10.5 to match your higher elevated levels. And let that ride till they fall to the levels you are comfortable with.

These are the levels I am currently at.. but I also run elevated everything. So that being said you will want to set controls for your dose to ensure it doesn't go way out of hand, I dont know if you have that already.

You can ignore Line 4, I have a level sensor in mine because kalk plugs up lines and Ive had an overfilling situation that I never wanted to have happen again.. so you can see that my dose will stop if the trident tests beyond these set limits.

Obviously the only one that isnt of concern is magnesium. With a kalk reactor the only thing you should have to dose is magnesium. You will notice your calcium climb and your magnesium fall and for me once it reaches below 1400 i dose it back to 1450 usually once a week for me and the calcium will settle out. So with kalk its like finding out how much insulin a diabetic needs.. so you start with a low baseline lets say for your system with 100g total and a low moderatly stocked tank... I'd say set your interval to 2000ML daily and the apex will divide that up into a dosing schedule that will be spread throughout the day.

As you can see mine has settled out around 7000ML's a day

Or 53.8mL every 11 minutes.. now my tank is packed plus its plumed in with a sump a frag tank and another 20 gallon sump..

So watch your levels, only dose the kalk and leave out the all for reef for the time being if your dosing that too.. find the balance.. id say increase the interval by 500mL id say once every 3 days till your trident is showing a leveling off at the levels you like. My calcium swings no more that 30ppm a day and my DKH is from 10.5 to 11 all day every day. So the swings are minimal.

Also I saw that you have a ph probe in your reactor which is perfect.. if that ph falls below 12 its time to add more. Keep that in mind.

Now you'll find that depending on your tanks absorption rate you wont need an ATO anymore or very rarely used... but an optic eye in your sump to turn off the dos incase your evaporation rate doesn't match your dosing rate wont hurt...

Let me know if this confused you or you have more questions.

This is awesome. My issues are going to go back to the 10.5-11DKH range. I was doing the 2000ml per day dosing and I watched everything climb hard, and I completely freaked out and shut everything down. For most of my reefing years I have tried to keep my levels around 9/450/1500. So is there like a saturation period with Kalk that I am not thinking about that needs to happen, hence upping the DKH to 10.5-11. Maybe that is my issue I am not understanding exactly how kalk is working in the system.

 

[Wayofthereef]

This is awesome. My issues are going to go back to the 10.5-11DKH range. I was doing the 2000ml per day dosing and I watched everything climb hard, and I completely freaked out and shut everything down. For most of my reefing years I have tried to keep my levels around 9/450/1500. So is there like a saturation period with Kalk that I am not thinking about that needs to happen, hence upping the DKH to 10.5-11. Maybe that is my issue I am not understanding exactly how kalk is working in the system.

So there isnt really a saturation period outside the initial mixing. The ph is your biggest indicator, 12 and above... So you know your absorption rate at 2000mL is to low.. try 250mL and work your way up from there. Have you every tried soda ash for alkalinity adjustments?

 

[Wayofthereef]

This is awesome. My issues are going to go back to the 10.5-11DKH range. I was doing the 2000ml per day dosing and I watched everything climb hard, and I completely freaked out and shut everything down. For most of my reefing years I have tried to keep my levels around 9/450/1500. So is there like a saturation period with Kalk that I am not thinking about that needs to happen, hence upping the DKH to 10.5-11. Maybe that is my issue I am not understanding exactly how kalk is working in the system.

It's all about balance right? So having an alkalinity level of nine ideally you would want calcium to be around 350 to 375 with a magnesium level of 1350 to 1375. And the higher category with a magnesium level of 1450 to 1500 and a calcium level of 450 to 500 you're looking at a alkalinity level of 10 to 11 if not higher at 12. It's all about balance like that three-legged table I was telling you about. Right now two of your legs are really long and one is short. Look at it this way you saw my levels, and you have a 100 gallon system. Well I have a 105 gallon system and I'm adding 7,000 mL of kalk every 24 hours. What I mean by absorption rate is how much your corals are taking up the nutrients in the water column. Right now you don't have enough taking up the nutrients which is okay and not a bad thing it's all about finding that balance.

 

[dolpator]

It's all about balance right? So having an alkalinity level of nine ideally you would want calcium to be around 350 to 375 with a magnesium level of 1350 to 1375. And the higher category with a magnesium level of 1450 to 1500 and a calcium level of 450 to 500 you're looking at a alkalinity level of 10 to 11 if not higher at 12. It's all about balance like that three-legged table I was telling you about. Right now two of your legs are really long and one is short. Look at it this way you saw my levels, and you have a 100 gallon system. Well I have a 105 gallon system and I'm adding 7,000 mL of kalk every 24 hours. What I mean by absorption rate is how much your corals are taking up the nutrients in the water column. Right now you don't have enough taking up the nutrients which is okay and not a bad thing it's all about finding that balance.

How will the corals react to a higher alk never pushed it so high but I do inderstand the balance part and do feel that is more important with stability. No I have never tried soda ash

 

[Wayofthereef]

How will the corals react to a higher alk never pushed it so high but I do inderstand the balance part and do feel that is more important with stability. No I have never tried soda ash

Do it slowly... .5ppm per day if you've never had it that high. They should be fine, see the goal is to try and bring everything into alignment. So soda ash is an amazing way to raise alkalinity. Number one you can order that from bulk reef supply, and number two you can use their calculator to determine your exact dosage based on your numbers. So I would take that calculation and divide it by 3 and give the dose over 3 days. Once everything is in alignment sit back and watch all the numbers steadily fall and once you reach your desired levels start the dos back up at like I said 250mL's and go from there.

The growth at these higher numbers is awesome.. I keep my nitrates at 20 - 25 ppm and phosphate at .08 to .15.

So this image was 2 months ago

And this was yesterday... So at least for me its working really well.. actually to well my frag tank is full so now im trying to sell my stuff so i can get rid of it

 

[dolpator]

Do it slowly... .5ppm per day if you've never had it that high. They should be fine, see the goal is to try and bring everything into alignment. So soda ash is an amazing way to raise alkalinity. Number one you can order that from bulk reef supply, and number two you can use their calculator to determine your exact dosage based on your numbers. So I would take that calculation and divide it by 3 and give the dose over 3 days. Once everything is in alignment sit back and watch all the numbers steadily fall and once you reach your desired levels start the dos back up at like I said 250mL's and go from there.

The growth at these higher numbers is awesome.. I keep my nitrates at 20 - 25 ppm and phosphate at .08 to .15.

So this image was 2 months ago

And this was yesterday... So at least for me its working really well.. actually to well my frag tank is full so now im trying to sell my stuff so i can get rid of it

Awesome pictures. My nitrates are around 30 I have been dosing nopox slowly to try and get them back to the 20 range. my phosphates are .08 tested yesterday. I will raise my alk to the 10.5 range and see what happens. This will be new territory for me. I do know that Red Sea has a 12/465/1400 for coral growth/color using their new Complete Reef kit I was looking at as well. So maybe there is just a little bit of science that I just didn't pay attention to. That needs to change....

 

[Wayofthereef]

Awesome pictures. My nitrates are around 30 I have been dosing nopox slowly to try and get them back to the 20 range. my phosphates are .08 tested yesterday. I will raise my alk to the 10.5 range and see what happens. This will be new territory for me. I do know that Red Sea has a 12/465/1400 for coral growth/color using their new Complete Reef kit I was looking at as well. So maybe there is just a little bit of science that I just didn't pay attention to. That needs to change....

Well good luck to you man, message me later on. I wanna know how it goes for you.

 

[dolpator]

Well good luck to you man, message me later on. I wanna know how it goes for you.

Will do

 

[dolpator]

Well good luck to you man, message me later on. I wanna know how it goes for you.

Quick question how accurate would you say the Trident test are.

 

[Wayofthereef]

Mine is plus or minus 30 ppm on cal... almost perfect on mag and alk it can be off one part per million so if I'm ever going to make any adjustments of any real kind I always use my Hannah checker

 

[dolpator]

Well good luck to you man, message me later on. I wanna know how it goes for you.

So we have slowly brought the alk up to 10.5-11.0. Haven't seen any issues with the corals. I sure we need a time period on when we will start seeing the corals consuming these elements. Guess a month here will give us data to go on. We shall see

 

[Wayofthereef]

Just keep a watchful eye on all your levels and see that the cal and mag fall to where you want them.. did you code your apex?

 

[dolpator]

Just keep a watchful eye on all your levels and see that the cal and mag fall to where you want them.. did you code your apex?

I do not know how to do that. I looked around for it. I will do some research on it. I will copy your code, but I didn't find where to enter it...

 

[dolpator]

I do not know how to do that. I looked around for it. I will do some research on it. I will copy your code, but I didn't find where to enter it...

Also, If Alkalinity is raised, should I put the Kalk online so that equal parts of alk and calcium are entering the system or is that just going to keep calcium out of whack...

 

[FisheRare]

I dose AFR and kalkwasser. If I was you I would dose the kalk and AFR in two different a dosing container. If you dose kalk in ATO your gonna ruin your pump. I am currently dosing 75ml of AFR daily AND 1800ML of kalkwasser daily and I’m about to up it to 2,500ml on kalkwasser.

I test every 2 hours and maintain ALK between 8.80-9.30..calcium stays between 410-480..MAG is all ways at 1450 and my PH stays between 8.10-8.35.

What size tank do you have ? 2,500ML of kalkwasser seems a lot

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What size tank do you have ? 2,500ML of kalkwasser seems a lot

Of course it depends on the system size, but unless it is below 40 gallons, that amount does not seem excessively large. 2.5 L of kalkwasser added to 40 gallons of water volume boosts alk by 1.9 dKH.