Kalkwasser + Calcium Chloride?

[Damian Ireland]

I've been drip dosing kalkwasser for awhile now and have been having good results, but i'm finding the calcium it delivers is not enough for my tank, yet the alkalinity it delivers is too much. My alkalinity has been getting to high while calcium slowly goes down, unless I increase my mix to 2 teaspoons of kalk per gallon of water. But then of course there's too much alkalinity. I have been adding vinegar to the kalk mix in hopes that it increases the saturation of the kalk calcium in the water, so ive read. Im not worried about the vinegar lowering the ph of the kalk cause I don't seem to have any ph problems, I originally hoped it would also slightly lower the alkalinity of the kalk mix but ive read later that's only temporary, and is later released back into the tank after a process involving bacteria or something. Anyways my main question here is since im not a chemist obviously, can I add a small amount of calcium chloride powder mix to my calcium hydroxide (kalkwasser)mix? to increase the calcium? Would it be a bad reaction or just not do anything at all? I've tried researching this online but cannot seem to find anything. I also realize I can just dose liquid calcium to the tank on occasion to raise it, but this bulk powder stuff is much cheaper and I find to be a more steady dosing, hence the whole point of the kalk drip. That and I just think its easier to have everything auto-dosed, im lazy. Tank is just a 40 gallon, magnesium is around 1550, calcium 400, my alk kh just hit 12.8 today, ive lowered the kalk dosing until I can lower the alk. Thank.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Is your kit outdated?

12.8 is a little high for that ppm calcium. I would do the vinegar with the two tsp kalk and on the weekends I wouldn't dose.

Originally I thought your magnesium level was too low, causing the chemistry to be out of whack.

When you mix the next batch of new salt water, test ca and alk to see if it's a bad batch of salt.

Dosing calcium chloride in high doses can cause chloride to greatly increase. It's a temporary solution until the next water change.

Please tell me, when are you dropping it in and when are you testing? Where are you sampling from? What test kit are you using? What is your temp and specific gravity?

 

[bang guy]

Short answer - NO - you cannot add Calcium chloride to a Calcium hydroxide solution to increase the Calcium delivery. It will actually have the exact opposite effect.

Now, we need to discover why your system is consuming Calcium faster than Alkalinity.

Three common mistakes come to mind -

1) Your Magnesium level is too low to support the Calcium level in your system.

2) You are adding something to increase PH.

3) You are using tap water or your RO filter is malfunctioning.


We know #1 isn't an issue at 1550ppm.

I did want to mention that in the typical system Alkalinity (as Carbonate) is consumed just slightly faster than Calcium. So, something is going on and it's probably something easily fixed if we can find out what the problem is.

 

[beaslbob]

look up and follow the diy two part method

my .02

 

[Damian Ireland]

I'm using Red Sea reef foundation test kit, for alk, cal, and mag. I just had a alk kit refill a few weeks ago so it is good, my Specific gravity is about .24, I run my temp around 79. The only thing I'm adding that increases the ph is just the kalkwasser. I don't think I have a heavy coral stock compared to what ive seen out there so im suspicious as to how its taking that much calcium. I have a few lps, some smaller sps frags, the only thing I have a ton of is pulsing Xenias. But they don't even have a skeletal structure so im assuming there not taking any calcium. My Ro may need a filter change, but the tap water that runs through that is deep well. Runs around 7.4 ph. Ive salt mixed with that tap water before for a worst case/test scenario and the alk runs around 9. So its not crazy high. I had my calcium at 420-430 for a week or so when I was putting 2tsp of kalk per gallon of water, but like I said that was raising my alk to much. And I drip my kalk to replace water from evaporation, constant. I lose about gallon of water from evaporation every 5-6 days. I mean could I do another slow drip of calcium chloride separate? Sounds like a pain and an overkill for what I have stocked but I could be wrong I guess. Thanks for the replies.

 

[bang guy]

First - " my Specific gravity is about .24"
Thank you thank you thank you. So many people would say their salinity is 0.24 which is about the same salinity as tap water. Thanks for saying S.G. Much appreciated.

I agree with Snake that you may have a bad batch of salt. Mix some up and test a new batch of saltwater for Alkalinity when you get a chance. Your Alkalinity is on the high side but it's not dangerous, just odd.

With Alkalinity that high having Calcium at 400ppm is OK, not balanced but it's OK meaning it's not going to cause problems. My initial suggestion is to just maintain 400ppm until you find out why ALK rises so much.

Test your RO water to see if the filter is working right. TDS above 20 means it might be time to change something.