Attention pickling lime users!!

[chris l]

Anyone using pickling lime. I just bought 2 bags (16 oz. bags) of Mrs. Wages pickling lime. Anyone use this brand. Is all of the pickling lime the same. If not, how do I know how much to add to the ro/di water.

 

[dburr]

I just mix it like the stuff they sell in the LFS. Let it sit over night and don't use the scum on the bottom or the top.
HTH

 

[chris l]

Is all of the pickling lime the same. There are no ingrediants on the bag of what is in it.

 

[cap'n pete]

I don't know if was on this board or not but there was a discussion about pickling lime. No one was happy with the grocery store stuff! Apparently the stuff you buy at the grocery store is food grade and the stuff sold as Kalk is research grade. Everyone was stating it didn't disolve well and an overall decline in coral vitallity! Just a heads up.

 

[alti]

i know some people love the gocery store stuff and some people hate it. i have a friend who swears by the stuff. it is the only calcium suppliment he uses and the tank looks great. heres the link to the post .
pickling lime

 

[nm reef]

Over the last couple of years I've read several discussions about pickling lime vs aquarium trade kalk...bottom line seems to be that each is calcium hydroxide....pickling lime may be a bit less pure and it may leave more residue...but each properly applied seems to work. The cost difference is a major plus for the pickling lime.
I personally use Balls pickling lime and have for well over 18 months....a years supply is less than $10.00....and the product works fine....I add 1 tablespoon per gal of ro/di and let it settle a few hours. Then I drip it over night at a relatively slow rate...try not to use either the scum from the bottom or the scum from the top surface.
Any addition of kalkwasser can stabalise/maintain levels of calcium/alkalinity ... and does have the abality to precipitate phosphates out of the water column.

 

[chris l]

alti....interesting thread. Thanks for posting it. I am still going to try Mrs. Wages pickling lime and see what happens.

 

[alti]

chrisl,
im going to try it too when my kalk runs out.

 

[chris l]

It seems to me its just like everything else in this hobby. Different opinions on everything you do.

 

[dburr]

I once read an article on pickeling lime VS. kalk. Kalk is like 99.95% pure and pickeling lime is like 98.9% pure. It was so close it can't be a big deal. I've been useing it for almost a year.

 

[starfishjackedme]

The only people advocating the use of kalk from the LFS are the people selling it. They are making a killing. It's like those fresh water ph adjusters that are just baking soda and charge 10x what it costs at the grocery store.
Kalk costs me about $30 for a 1Kg (2.2lbs) container at the LFS and it lasts a month for my 200gal. So spend over $300 a year on kalk or get the exact same thing from the grocery store for $40 for a years supply. Of course they want you to buy LFS kalk.