I'm glad you liked the video. Are you putting mixed salt water in your ato, if so you don't want to it will mess up your salinity. If you have questions about it let me know.
I see you are topping up your ATO reservoir with a jug , the ATO already is nearly full , My Question is ,, is the water in the reservoir already an early mix you made and you are simply topping it up with more kalkwasser mixture you just made ?
Sorry I was not more clear in the video. Yes I made the mixture in a tub and used the jug just to transfer it to the ato you are correct. I have personally gotten away from kalkwasser and am using soda ash. The kalwasser in the ato worked well it just makes your ato dirty and is hard on the pump. There are pros to using kalkwasser but the big con for me I got tired of cleaning my ato tank all the time.
LPS will need alkalinity to form their calcium carbonate skeletons. You can also feed them and it helps a lot with LPS. The best answer I can give you is test your alkalinity. Test it 24 hours later and it will tell you how much alkalinity your tank is using and you will know what you need to dose. Depending on the size of your corals you may be fine with just your water changes. Testing really is the key when dosing.
Great video. Right now I’m dosing 1tsp per gallon of kalk in my ATO. My alk is stable at 9 but my calcium floats between 380-400. Do you think it’s precipitating or I need to add more? Low demand 180 gallon tank. Looks like precipitation on the back glass where my ATO enters the tank
Honestly if your corals are looking good and you have good growth I wouldn't worry too much about the 20 p.p.m. fluctuation in the calcium that could also come from inaccuracies in testing kits depending on what one you are using. As far as the precipitation, you could add or adjust the powerheads in the aquarium to increase the flow where the kalk is entering the aquarium. The kalk needs to be introduced Into a high flow area of the aquarium.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you just do a fully saturated mix ? How do you determine how much kalk is used per gallon of water? Do you find the demand and adjust the amount in there?
Hello, that is the tricky part. Yes you need to test your system l, wait 24 hours, test it again and calculate how much your aquarium uses. This number will change over time as you add more stoney corals and they get larger.
@@cmaquatics7428 Amazing ! Thanks for your information. One other question, is your salt mix close to the alk of your tanks ? I keep my alk preferably at around 9-9.4, I am not in a situation right now to mix my own salt, so the alk from my lfs is 8.5, bringing my alk down to around 8.8 or so after a water change. Are these swings significant, and is there anything I could do to combat this issue from your experience. Thanks a lot
By pouring the water into the bucket you made some of the calcium airborne. You can see it in the video. This stuff is very dangerous to breathe. Best to put the calcium in last and stir.
I'm not going to argue with you because Safety should always be a top priority. I definitively have my bad habits like everybody. Thanks for checking it out
I have not had an issue with precipitation. The top off water in the ato's are freshwater so I don't have any salt creep. That's not a bad suggestion though to keep stuff from getting in there. Thanks for the suggestion 👍
Hello I have switched to using soda ash to maintain alkalinity since I filmed the kalkwasser video. I was using around 20 gallons a month of kalkwasser at that time to maintain parameters in my systems. More than most will probably use as a hobbyist.
Been using it for about 2 years now in all of the systems. I like it because it is super cheap to make and use. I use it in dosing pumps for two of the systems and I manually dose 2 other systems by hand with it. It is doing its job by maintaining my alkalinity and it has not messed with ph which was my biggest concern. The reason I switched from kalkwasser was the fact that it was filthy. It made a mess of my ato and I had some precipitation issues with the kalkwasser. The soda ash fixed that for me and it is a lot cheaper with the amounts that I go through. I just go to Sam's and get a few giant bags of baking soda every month.
Yes you can use it. Keep these things in mind. Make sure it is fully cycled since it is a new aquarium. Make sure all your parameters are within the appropriate ranges so know your starting good. This way if the kalk is affecting anything you will see it in your testing and it's not from something else. If you drip it slowly and in a high flow area that should help with ph swings. Let it sit over night before dosing as well. If you dose too much too fast thats when you can have issues with ph in my experience.
The only way you'll kill stuff in your tank like fish is if your pH goes too high I've never had that problem I drip mine 24 hours a day continuous never have any problems
Great idea with the bucket, I’m going to do that mixing 5g and I can grave water from that bucket and fill up my ato thanks 😊
I'm glad you liked the video. Are you putting mixed salt water in your ato, if so you don't want to it will mess up your salinity. If you have questions about it let me know.
I see you are topping up your ATO reservoir with a jug , the ATO already is nearly full ,
My Question is ,, is the water in the reservoir already an early mix you made and you are simply topping it up with more kalkwasser mixture you just made ?
Sorry I was not more clear in the video. Yes I made the mixture in a tub and used the jug just to transfer it to the ato you are correct. I have personally gotten away from kalkwasser and am using soda ash. The kalwasser in the ato worked well it just makes your ato dirty and is hard on the pump. There are pros to using kalkwasser but the big con for me I got tired of cleaning my ato tank all the time.
Hey man should i use kalkwasser if i only have 20 lps corals in a 60 gallon ?
LPS will need alkalinity to form their calcium carbonate skeletons. You can also feed them and it helps a lot with LPS. The best answer I can give you is test your alkalinity. Test it 24 hours later and it will tell you how much alkalinity your tank is using and you will know what you need to dose. Depending on the size of your corals you may be fine with just your water changes. Testing really is the key when dosing.
Great video. Right now I’m dosing 1tsp per gallon of kalk in my ATO. My alk is stable at 9 but my calcium floats between 380-400. Do you think it’s precipitating or I need to add more? Low demand 180 gallon tank. Looks like precipitation on the back glass where my ATO enters the tank
Honestly if your corals are looking good and you have good growth I wouldn't worry too much about the 20 p.p.m. fluctuation in the calcium that could also come from inaccuracies in testing kits depending on what one you are using. As far as the precipitation, you could add or adjust the powerheads in the aquarium to increase the flow where the kalk is entering the aquarium. The kalk needs to be introduced Into a high flow area of the aquarium.
@@cmaquatics7428 thank you!
If you don’t mind me asking, do you just do a fully saturated mix ? How do you determine how much kalk is used per gallon of water? Do you find the demand and adjust the amount in there?
Hello, that is the tricky part. Yes you need to test your system l, wait 24 hours, test it again and calculate how much your aquarium uses. This number will change over time as you add more stoney corals and they get larger.
@@cmaquatics7428 Amazing ! Thanks for your information. One other question, is your salt mix close to the alk of your tanks ? I keep my alk preferably at around 9-9.4, I am not in a situation right now to mix my own salt, so the alk from my lfs is 8.5, bringing my alk down to around 8.8 or so after a water change.
Are these swings significant, and is there anything I could do to combat this issue from your experience. Thanks a lot
By pouring the water into the bucket you made some of the calcium airborne. You can see it in the video. This stuff is very dangerous to breathe. Best to put the calcium in last and stir.
I'm not going to argue with you because Safety should always be a top priority. I definitively have my bad habits like everybody. Thanks for checking it out
Your ATO should have a lid also. To prevent precipitation. I think?
I have not had an issue with precipitation. The top off water in the ato's are freshwater so I don't have any salt creep. That's not a bad suggestion though to keep stuff from getting in there. Thanks for the suggestion 👍
Sorry I misunderstood what you were saying in your original comment but I got it now, thanks.
How much do you go through a month?
Hello I have switched to using soda ash to maintain alkalinity since I filmed the kalkwasser video. I was using around 20 gallons a month of kalkwasser at that time to maintain parameters in my systems. More than most will probably use as a hobbyist.
@@cmaquatics7428 how’s your experience with soda ash?
Been using it for about 2 years now in all of the systems. I like it because it is super cheap to make and use. I use it in dosing pumps for two of the systems and I manually dose 2 other systems by hand with it. It is doing its job by maintaining my alkalinity and it has not messed with ph which was my biggest concern. The reason I switched from kalkwasser was the fact that it was filthy. It made a mess of my ato and I had some precipitation issues with the kalkwasser. The soda ash fixed that for me and it is a lot cheaper with the amounts that I go through. I just go to Sam's and get a few giant bags of baking soda every month.
Since it raises your ph. any thing wrong with dosing a 2 month old tank, helps with ph.
I am a little confused by your question.
@@cmaquatics7428 Sorted thanks
Yes you can use it. Keep these things in mind. Make sure it is fully cycled since it is a new aquarium. Make sure all your parameters are within the appropriate ranges so know your starting good. This way if the kalk is affecting anything you will see it in your testing and it's not from something else. If you drip it slowly and in a high flow area that should help with ph swings. Let it sit over night before dosing as well. If you dose too much too fast thats when you can have issues with ph in my experience.
Could you turn the music off next time
Ok
The only way you'll kill stuff in your tank like fish is if your pH goes too high I've never had that problem I drip mine 24 hours a day continuous never have any problems
I have had some precipitation issues before from not having enough flow but I agree, it is a fairly safe method if done correctly.
To long of an intro....I'm watching another video now.
Thanks for the feedback....enjoy your other videos.