Kalkwasser Long-Term Review
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- Опубліковано 2 сер 2024
- The kalkwasser I use: amzn.to/48Ud2H4
If you're thinking of dosing kalkwasser in your reef tank, this video will show you what benefits you can expect! Kalkwasser is cheap, easy and will significantly improve your corals in your reef tank so watch on to learn more as I show you my experience with kalwasser over the last 9 months.
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0:00 What is kalkwasser?
1:04 Has it increased my pH level?
1:35 Growth improvements
3:56 Coral health and colouration
6:20 When should you dose kalk?
7:04 What is my current pH?
7:35 Summary of kalkwasser benefits
8:11 Watch next - Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
Absolute fire video Alex. Can tell you put some real effort into this one. Well done and thanks.
Great one ! Thanks!
Another great video!
Just before I exited the hobby, many shops and experts were saying not to pay attention to pH at all. I was convinced it was one of my major issues, but listened to the bad advice. Good to see the hobby has sorted this one out recently.
Kalkwasser 💪💪💪 genuinely transformed the way I reef, love it thanks again for another fantastic video Alex
Thanks for the video!
Great video Alex
I discovered Kalkwasser in 2003 and it took my SPS dominated tanks to the next level and gave me explosive growth. For about 90% of the tanks out there, dripping Kalk is the best was to maintain Ph, Alk and Calcium. I add my Kalk mix at night from a DIY dripper for all make up water on tanks under 90 gallons.
Nice video, very informative!
Great review
The proof is in Alex, your corals look much better with greater polyp extension. Nice video 😊
Thanks for the heads up buddy I used cars for a long time ago when those compact lights and all that stuff are out and then I forgot about it then I found your video again and I'm back to using calculator I was at 7.9 ph now I'm an 8.2 it's off for now so I'm going to check it before I go to bed she would have dropped to
Great vid Alex. I cant understand why kalkwasser is not the norm. So easy to use. For me the kh level is irrelevant as long its not majorly low or majorly high, but stable. But ph needs to above 8.1 ideally 8.2 and stable
Thank you.
I’ve found that sodium hydroxide is far easier to use. It’s PH is higher than kalkwasser and it dissolves way better. It takes a TINY amount of SH to keep my PH pegged. This allows me to continue using my calcium reactor while keeping my PH pegged at 8.35, and not having to worry about evaporation rates.
Polyp extension difference looked massive
Hi Alex 👋 @ReefDork great video.
Please can you share what controller/monitor you use that track/chart your pH?
Reef factory pH keeper
Great video, interesting. Also nice top who makes it?
Ralph Lauren
I'd like to add it on top of my 2 part since my daily dosage is just getting silly, but my evap rate varies quite a bit, and I don't want to be chasing around the dosage all the time. I also feel like it was hard on my ATO pumps when I ran it years ago. I suppose I could find some consistent minimum and dose it with the spare head on my dosing pump.
Exactly - if your evap fluctuates between 3-4 litres through the year, just be conservative and dose 2.5L
@@ReefDork Yeah, I'm going to give it a shot. The shop where I work has a used kalk reactor sitting in our used equipment boneyard, and I've already got some kalk, so not a huge investment for me. I'll just have my dosing head pull through the reactor into my topoff reservoir. Hoping it'll help keep my nighttime pH up.
My first dosing solution and never stopped. Feels like yesterday when you made your first video about dosing kalk ,9 months already !? I don't think kalkwasser is doing anything for colouration as it's more down to dinoflagellate zooxanthellae population reacting to its environment of nutrients , lighting and other factors of chemical and bacterial processes of aquarium water chemical composition.
Add amino acids for colouration
I heard that wild corals could end up with a problem due to low pH later this century if humans keep pumping out Co2. You can really see the difference from it in your tanks pH.
The algae in your refugium must remove a lot of co2 during the day, I wonder if it's possible to run the refugium light 24/7 to lower the co2 at night too?
You can but you don't really need the photosynthesis during the day to soak up co2 which is why most people run them overnight only when there's no other photosynthesis in the tank.
I'm less than a month in to dosing kalk so I can't make any bold claims yet but I'm excited to see where it goes. Also Alex, do you use pH standards? You can pick them up on Amazon for under £10, and it's a great way to quickly tell if your probe is accurate. I use the Reef Factory pH probe as well, and once a month I just pop it in a small cup of the 7 pH standard. As long as my probe reads .03 +/- I know I'm still in the ballpark and saves me from doing a full blown calibration. 👍
Yeah I've got a bunch sat in my cupboard - I calibrated the probe before I made this video but it still reverted to over 9. I'm using an aftermarket probe instead of the RF one so I'm wondering if it's not compatible...
@@ReefDork Yeah I've got really obsessed with my pH probe being accurate. Because as you say the 0.1 changes are logarithmic changes. I recently found out that leaving pH standards open to air can degrade them. So I'm just buying small bottles every 3 months or so instead of sitting on a 5L jug like I do with most reefing consumables.
So I am not a fan of Kalkwasser. I know it has its benefits but I found it to be a bit of a pain and just one more thing to dose. I found a huge difference from just adding a CO2 scrubber. The results you are getting i started getting after I added that and my Ph stays very consistent. I think PH is the secrete trick to a successful reef that isn’t talked about that much. I have been reef keeping for years and only started to recently pay attention to Ph because I had acros just melting away. Once I figured out it was probably due to low PH, I added the scrubber and I have never seen my corals look so good.
You’re either mixing and dosing kalkwasser, or your mixing and dosing 2 part or using a calcium reactor. Mineral demand needs to be supplemented, pick your poison.
How to say I totally missed the point without saying it 😅
@@nimal_r kalk and CO2 scrubbers both raise PH. If you are looking to only raise Ph go with a scrubber. If you want to maintain PH, calcium and alk at the same time. Go with Kalk
I dose 24 hours a day no problems whatsoever everything's doing fine. I always use kalkwasser and it cheap
I'm currently using All for reef dose 25ml a day on a 200 liter mixed reef tank it's doing OK but feel it can be alot better think I might try kalk just worried I'm gonna mess my tank up
Just go slow and test regularly and you'll be fine
Have you considered adding a fan to increase evaporation so you can add more kalk?
No, not necessary in my opinion
Surprised your dosing more 2 part , I would have have thought the opposite . Diffinitely glad your took on subject with such gusto. Thank you Mr. Reef Dork ! So , you only top off your aquarium at night with kalk ? Always appreciate your replys even if its a dumb ?
You can dose any time you like, I just dose overnight because that's when pH drops naturally in a reef tank
I tried it years ago killed everything including fish so I got calcium reactor deltect with a pH and ORP controller till pump went very exspensive them days with no alternative than deltect 😁😂now I use calcium cloride but rarely dose my tropic Marin reef Pro salt keeps it up but over 550 mixed my pH is stabilized with soda lime reactor and I buff dkh with either sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate depending were pH is 🌝
Hi Alex, I’ve watched all of your videos on Kalk and am looking at trying it on my tank. Just one thought though, I plan to dose 3 litres per night (evaporation is just under 4 litres per day) but I was thinking that my skimmer might start to overflow as it’s very sensitive to changes in water levels. Has your been ok? Any suggestion that you could give me?
It should be fine if the water level in your return pump section is lower than the level in your skimmer section. But if not, dose over 24 hours instead of overnight and you won't have the problem
Are you planning anything to increase the pH in your Fluval Evo? My Evo is pretty consistently around the 7.7 - 7.8 pH range and live in a colder climate that doesn't allow opening windows for most of the year (also using stock hood so not sure if that affects the amount of gas exchange). I'm also dosing All for Reef so I'm not sure if dosing kalk specifically for pH is advisable. Any other ideas or options to bring pH up in a Nano?
Yep, I'll be using kalk on the Evo. Just dose it instead of All For Reef.
Has anyone set this up with the pH Controller / Regulator with Automatic dosing pump 1,5L/h Milwaukee (MC720)? Seems like a good idea as you can stop dripping should your ph spike for whatever reason
Can u , for example use tropic marin ABC balling and add extra kalkwasser ? Im thinking on that to be honest ..always a little ammount daily many Times
Yes, but it's best to do it the other way around - use kalkwasser until you've maxed out your evaporation then rely on balling for any alkalinity consumption after that
Damn you Reef Dork. I just set up a better CO2 scrubber. Now I have to dose kalk 😆
Kalk is not just for ph it adds calcium keeps kh stable and increases ph without causing chemical in balance in water which some 2 part will
I'd love to dose kalkwasser but have no idea how much to dose / calculations to do so
Watch my how to video, go slowly and you'll be fine
di doing this make your skimmer goes crazy and over foam
Nope
Alex, do you recommend this on a new tank with softies?
My tank is now 3 months old and has a few fish and a few corals, all my parameters seem fine and have just got a seneye to check my pH (when I can find the laptop charger)
No. Softies don't consume alkalinity!
You will raise the pH, but you will also have too much Ca and DkH
Softies don't use alkalinity and calcium at the same rate. You should be okay with just waterchanges
Don't use kalkwasser to increase pH, use it to increase alkalinity and calcium and think of the pH boost as a side benefit. Test your alkalinity a week apart - if it decreases, you need to dose. If not, you don't. There's loads of things like coralline algae that uptake alkalinity other than corals so you might still need to dose, even with softies.
I use 8.4 to raise PH. And all for reef every day. Could I use Kalk instead and add to my Rodi top up container instead?
Don't put kalk in your freshwater reservoir, just dose it to your tank from the container
Thank you sir. Daily dosing on 170 litres? I could drip dose 24 hours a day and to start 85ml?
You want to drip or dose same amount of kalk in tank everyday because then you can adjust amount if you put in top off it will varies too much depending on weather humidity you just use ato to keep tank level with normal water
I've only been able to grow leptoseris in low light, is yours under intense sps lighting and do up in have a trick?
Probably at least 200 par. No trick but I have quite high nutrients so that might have something to do with it.
@@ReefDork thanks for replying. I'm going to try to move it up again, I bet I went to fast
I have bought reef factory PH monitor and its saying 8.38-8.49 and I'm not dosing Kalk, just using triton method. DO you think I would benefit from using Kalwasser?
No, you don't want it any higher
Curious what the pH level was before switching to kalk!
I think I said in the video...
Darn must’ve missed it 😣
Is it not easy to overdose alk and ca when you dose that much kalk in a small system with lps? Like I have at home
You should think of kalkwasser as a way to dose calcium and alkalinity with the pH boost as a side benefit. So only dose as much as your corals are depleting alkalinity.
@@ReefDork use about 5ml all for reef a day now it’s not a lot.
Are you still doing that part 2 kalk vid?
Yeah, it's on the list but it'll be a while cos it'll take so long to make...
@@ReefDork ...we are waiting though..😁
Any budget way to mesure PH?
Yeah just get a manual test kit and test at 10am and 10pm for your peak and trough
Hi mate. Can I use all for reef with kalkwasser?
Yep, that's fine. Ideally don't dose them right next to each other or dose them at separate times. But don't sweat it if that's not possible.
I've been following you for years and you seem to have always had high PO4 in that tank. Any idea why? Thanks
Feeding quite a lot and not exporting it properly - I hardly ever use rowaphos.
Low phosphate is an old idea many people run .1 or a bit higher now you need to have nitrate and phosphate together if no phosphate in tank then nitrates will rise because corals coraline algae cannot use one without the other
Our tanks are not the ocean where corals have unlimited supplies of food they can convert to use for food so they do not require nitrate and phosphate in water to grow where as our tanks do need both for corals etc to convert to grow
I'm doing something wrong, its done sod all for my growth.
Heeeelllooo I'm looking into kalkwasser for the 1st time but been looking into ph continuouse meters/monitoring /controller, they are bloody expensive, is there a brand that you'd recommend, or maybe a subject you could do a vid on? Cheers Mr Dork and thanks for your no twatting about vids too
I use the Reef factory pH meter but they're all quite expensive I'm afraid...
So what is saved on kalk is spent and more on a pH meter, bloody love this hobby 😂 thanks for the reply
@@darrenwicker4881 😅
@@ReefDork sorry one more question before I'm off to be nagged at by the "better half" and tortured by my beautiful kids, can dosing this kalk be done without constant monitoring but checking on a regular daily basis, how would you recommend going forward
@@darrenwicker4881 I personally don't see pH monitoring as essential with kalk. It's just useful information but you can test manually at 10am and 10pm to get a rough idea of your peak and trough
wow, the acro at 3:12 , what's the name ?
It's a Pikachu
Do you dose ATI only from 2pm to 8pm ?
No, over 24 hours
@@ReefDork is that equal amount over 24h or you dose less during kalk “run” ?
“Now that you all have expensive WiFi dosing pumps to do your two part dosing let me introduce to you a much simpler, cheaper, and better way to do it.” Lol! Thanks man…
Simple is better why complicate things when kalk will dose and control 3 things at once
So you dont auto top off threw the day?
I have a separate auto top off - it only turns on a couple of times a day
@@ReefDork o ok I've only used it in my main ATO which seems to work pretty good to, you do have to dial down the concentration to what keeps you stable. Then adjust as needed. I did it that way to limit the amount of equipment expense and space saving.
7:50 fish name?
Regal angelfish 😍
Schitt's Creek on pause. Ewww David. 👍🏻
where is your foxface? :o
Died unfortunately - looked thin for a while beforehand...
Me being the idiot thought Kalkwasser was just some European trendy name never knowing it means limewater in German and it is highly concentrated calcium. Which would've answered my question "is this only required for sps tanks?"
Do SODA ASH in your two part....all these premix 2 part use a bicarb....it doesn't raise PH bc it old school....you need a 2 part where the alk is soda ash based....especially if you're dosng kalk plus the 2 part it'll be even better....myself I just run purely 2 part ....making it myself is cheap and the soda ash boosts PH like kalk....I get 8.3 to 8.47 on just this....good lighting intensity/spread raises PH too which is often
overlooked too... I do like kalk....but I hate the way it eventually trashes all my equipment.....wires get brittle and rot.. pumps age out wayy too fast....I just don't see this with soda ash dosing....I do find insane coraline algae growth with kalk and soda it's much less ....I do see fast sps growth using soda ash like I did using kalk
I think ati+ is soda ash - it bumped my pH up quite significantly when I switched from ati standard...