Adding Kalkwasser

[The Kapenta Kid]

I mix and store saltwater in a 25 gal bin. I draw water from it to make water changes in my 15 gal nano--abt 2.5 gals weekly.
Would it be OK to add kalkwasser directly to this bin as a means of tank dosing--quantities to be calculated on a usage basis.

 

[johnanddawn]

if i'm understanding what your asking the simple answer is no
kalk needs to be dripped on a daily basis. the chemistry behind this is deep but basically slowly dripped (at night preferable) allows the most Ca and best buffering
if you add it directly to your water change water it will mess up the pH, Ca, and buffering capacity of that water

 

[reefman23]

You can add it to your RO topoff water. You want to add it at a rate of 1/8th tsp to 1tsp per gallon of RO water, mix it up well, give it a day or so to settle out. There will be a thin film on the top of the water and a white powder will settle on the bottom. You can then drip the clear water overnight Like John mentioned. You do not want to add it too quite as that can cause swings in pH because Kalk as a very high pH.

Check out this article too... http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

Jesse

 

[The Kapenta Kid]

Thanks for the info.

I had read this:
4. Delivering a small amount of limewater all at once. Adding 1.25% of the aquarium’s volume (1.25 gallons of limewater per 100 gallons of aquarium water) as saturated limewater all at once raises the pH by 0.6 to 0.7 pH units. Such an increase is clearly too large. Adding a smaller portion all at once can, however, be acceptable. Adding, for example, 0.25% of the aquarium volume (0.25 gallons or 1 L of limewater per 100 gallons of aquarium water) will raise the pH by only 0.1 to 0.2 pH units. Unless the pH is high (>8.4) before the addition, that amount is likely acceptable. The other concern with all-at-once dosing is that the local pH in the area of the addition will rise considerably higher than the values above. So dosing must be done far from living organisms, and in high flow areas that will facilitate fast mixture. In some aquaria, such restrictions make all-at-once dosing of limewater prohibitively risky to living organisms.
In this article:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

My idea was that an appropriate quantity of kalkwasser added into a holding tank and thus diluted, and then that dilute mix used for water changes might be a way to go. I can see now that although you could arrange things so that you were only effectively delivering 0.25% of tank volume kalkwasser into the aquarium, and thus limiting the pH rise to 0.1, it would be pointless since such a system could not deliver the quantities of Ca and Alk ions required for effective dosing.