well i have used kalk for the past year or so but i see limited coraline growth . i have no acros but planning to buy some in the future when i get alll my parameters right. the kalk dosing is easy to do and cheap to buy. Is there any big difference between the two. please and thanks
Concentration, and PH range. Kalk is higher PH, but the two parts have more buffer . Kalk solutions can noly hold so much.
Both acros and coraline require Ca, Alk, and Mg(among other things) to survive. If you’ve always added Kalk and never even tested Mg this could be the issue.
For what it’s worth kalkwasser often won’t keep up with the demand of what is being used up if you have actively growing stony corals such as many Acropora in the tank. I use it anyways as it is easy to use and has the least amount of side effects of the dosing methods in my opinion.(if added properly)
Regardless of the method one thing that is critically important is keeping Ca, Alk, and Mg in balance. High Ca and Mg are worthless if your Alkalinity is 5dKH. If you have really high Ca and your Mg is really low you may be using one of the kits wrong or one may be bad.
For serious aquariums there is also the “calcium reactor” option of dissolving media such as old coral skeletons by lowering the pH(which use use CO2 to do), but I would never recommend doing so with out a full controller properly programmed. I use both a Calcium reactor and Kalk, but try to push the kalk as much as possible and rely on the Calcium reactor as little as possible.
my cal is- 420
KH is off the charts about 240 ppm kh
is that too high will it affect my corals.
my cal is low because i slowly stop dosing so i can change to two parts.
Where are you getting that 420ppm is low? My target range is 400-420ppm. I know some people believe in maintaining higher then natural levels for this element because so and so on forumXYZ said so, but other then that there is no reason.
240ppm is sky high in my opinion. 160ppm is the highest I would take it and my target for my personal aquariums(and most of my clients) is 7dKH or 125ppm. You may find it easier to discuss Alkalinity / KH / carbonates with other hobbyist if you speak in terms of dKH. 240ppm is 13.44dKH which is really high.
If you decide to run much higher alkalinity and calcium then you should keep them balanced, but really I would let things fall to natural levels or a lot closer to it. Animals have evolved over many millions of years to grow in certain conditions and I believe it to be important to keep them in natural conditions. Some keep them slightly higher in case they are unable to keep up with dosing for a week, but a dedicated hobbyist should be able to and I haven’t yet witnessed disastrous effects of low alkalinity.(slow growth, less color, less polyp extension, but not death, destruction, or crashing) Good salts also don’t have super elevated levels to begin with as well so your water changes with a good salt mix could be working against your goal if your goal is to keep unnatural levels.
Just my two cents.
are you going to diy the 2 part? either way store bought/ homemade, i use an online reef calculator …this one 'Reef Chemistry Calculator FV' I mostly do 2 part, with a monthly mg addition. pretty easy, i don’t raise dkh more then 1 in a 24hr period, and Ca i adjust in 10’s per 24hr period.
nitrates-0
nitrites-0
phosphate-??? dont have a test for it currently
one question then if my calcium levels are good do you think dkh cause my trumpet corals to fall off there skeleton.
I have noticed a direct relationship with dkh and calcium one drops the other rises and so on. If I want to raise calcium from 400-420 in 100 gallons I add 600 ml nut if I want to raise dkh also I need more calcium. That’s been my experience
You should maintain with Kalk and adjust with 2 part.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/3/chemistry