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kalkwasser DIY...? help.

N

NJ_ychung1

Hi Fellow Reef Lovers.

I am new to this hobby. Since I've gotten myself into the reefs, my african cichlids have not been getting much attention from me.

any way. here is a question. i've started a 10 G nano with some softies and a montipora frag. Tank is cycled and with a prizm skimmer and some live rock....

I've done waterchanges and the corals are so far doing okay. My question is related to adding more calcium into my system via Kalkwasser.
I've done plenty of reading and there seems to be some confusing info out there.
In my research, I found out that Calcium Hydroxide is not something you can buy at a local Home Depot. I managed to get some pulverized Lime but reading the ingredient label tells me it's primarily Calcium Carbonate and Calcium Oxide.
I've also read that some folks use Calcium Oxide and water to make Kalkwasser but others warn you against it.

Can anyone tell me where I can buy calcium hydroxide? Can anyone tell me for sure whether or not it is safe to use Calcium Oxide and water instead of Calcium Hydroxide? Can anyone tell me whether or not my pulverized lime is safe for mixing kalkwasser?

Thanks a million to whomever can dispell all this conflicting information.
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
With a 10g nano and mostly softies, you should be able to maintain all of your levels through regular water changes. I don't know if I'd be too inclined to do a kalk drip in a 10g system.

JMO, but I'm sure there are others! You should do some searching around this site. There are a ton of threads relating to kalk drips, Ca Reactors, etc.
 
N

NJ_ychung1

i do have a montipora capricorn frag. i know that it will need additional calcium.

kenya tree, hairy shroom, striped shroom and yellow polyps? would any of these need extra calcium?

hmmm....
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The only thing that would need calcium is the montipora. If it's a frag, it's not going to need that much. You really should test your levels and monitor them for a while. See what kind of Ca you're starting with and then see how quickly it drops. Check to see where you are after water changes. My suggestion would be to do a lot of monitoring of levels (mainly calcium, alkalinity and pH) before you go to a kalk drip. Not to scare you off of a kalk drip, I just think it may be overkill. You'd probably get just as good, if not better, results using something like B-Ionic 2 part mix.

Again, JMO.
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I'm kind of reiterating what John said but, Dripping Kalk in that small of a system is dangerous at best. With a small demand for calcium I would think that your corals could pull all the calcium they need out of the salt mix through small water changes.
 
blange3

blange3

Add another vote for caution about additives and nanos.

What are your plans for water changes? I would recommend a minimum of 1 gallon a week. If you add fish, you should kick it up to 2.

Monitor your SG, ph, alk and ca, and NO3 frequently until you get a feel for the system's needs. Make sure the SG doesn't start to creep up on you. It happens if you forget to top off evaporation with RODI and just make up the level when you do a water change. When the tank cycles, you'll be able to reduce the number of tests, especially nitrates.

Depending on your evaporation rate, if the monti really takes off and requires extra CA, you probably won't be able to satisfy it with the small amount of Kalk that you would be dripping. B-Ionic would be the best bet.

Remember the REEFERS CODE article 3:

Do not supplement anything that you are not testing for!
 
C

Carlo

I'll have to jump on the bandwagon and caution dosing anything to a nano.

I look at dosing stuff this way. You dose additives because it's cheaper and/or easier then doing water changes (especially on big water systems). If it's a small system then doing a water change is probably cheaper and easier anyway. The water changes both export the bad stuff in the water as well as bring in new salt water that has everything your tank needs. It's hard to overdose a tank by doing a water change but very easy to overdose with additives on small systems.

With 25% weekly water changes you can "almost" not test your system and know things are good. If you dose stuff you need to test all the time to see if you need to alter or adjust the amount you dose to avoid overdoses which can crash your tank.

Carlo
 
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