calcium suggestion

Thanks for reposting that Kyron.

I have so many containers and bottles and jars of stuff, that for now I'm using
Seachem's Reef Builder and Seachem's Calcium buffer for the next few days, until
my B-Ionic shows up. But I do want to have the alternative of the Kalk slurry.

You don't see any corals suffering from the initial contact of this stuff? Even
though dissolved, it must be acidic to some degree, right? It would be hard to
pour it into any area of my tank and not have it make contact pretty quickly
with livestock.

Marc

Dragon Slayer wrote:


to do the slurry the correct way you need to own (or at least borrow) a pH
monitor as a test kit will not be accurate enough.

first you have to find the daily demands of your system, this is done by
testing the Ca levels of the tank and then not adding anything to the tank
other then RO/DI top off water. after 3 days (the longer you wait the more
accurate the test) and retest Ca to see how much it dropped. divide that
drop by the # of days to get the daily demand.

now with the pH monitor on, you want to watch the pH as you add the slurry
to the tank. start with a small amount 1/4 tsp in a cup of RO/DI water
slurried around til it's mixed completely. then dump the slurry into a high
flow area of the tank (not the sump)

you don't go by the initial spike but the total rise in pH after the tank
gets a good mix (about an hour) at that time you don't want more then a 0.2
spike in pH. I've had as high as 1.9 initial spike and never had any
problems from corals or fish from it.

in my 180g (250g total system volume) to boost pH I can add a full
tablespoon in a quart of water and dump it in with no problems.

hth
kc

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"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...

| You don't see any corals suffering from the initial contact of this stuff?
Even
| though dissolved, it must be acidic to some degree, right? It would be
hard to
| pour it into any area of my tank and not have it make contact pretty
quickly
| with livestock.

The corals will only suffer if the slurry lands on them and stays. Kalk is
very, VERY alkaline (acidic = low pH). In fact it is so alkaline (basic)
that if left on a sensitive area of skin, it can burn even you.
What I've found to be a good wat to dose it is to use a piece of
unrestricted airline tubing, and just start a siphon. It takes about 4-5
minutes to drain 3 quarts (the wifes kool-aid pitcher...shhhhhh!) this way.
You could put the tubing outlet right in front of one of the returns (one
that doesn't point right at any corals), and at the slow rate the tubing
drains the slurry, it will have plenty of time to mix with the tank water.

HTH,
Kev

Hi Kevin!

So you make a large amount and drip it quickly, rather than the slurry shot
glass method. I could do that relatively easily.

Btw, I hate to tell you this, but one of the coral frags you gave me RTN'd over
night. I even started a thread about it on RC.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=341172

Marc


Kevin M wrote:

The corals will only suffer if the slurry lands on them and stays. Kalk is
very, VERY alkaline (acidic = low pH). In fact it is so alkaline (basic)
that if left on a sensitive area of skin, it can burn even you.
What I've found to be a good wat to dose it is to use a piece of
unrestricted airline tubing, and just start a siphon. It takes about 4-5
minutes to drain 3 quarts (the wifes kool-aid pitcher...shhhhhh!) this way.
You could put the tubing outlet right in front of one of the returns (one
that doesn't point right at any corals), and at the slow rate the tubing
drains the slurry, it will have plenty of time to mix with the tank water.

HTH,
Kev

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Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
| Hi Kevin!
|
| So you make a large amount and drip it quickly, rather than the slurry
shot
| glass method. I could do that relatively easily.

Yep...I have a pitcher syphoning as I type. My batch is always less than a
gallon.

| Btw, I hate to tell you this, but one of the coral frags you gave me RTN'd
over
| night. I even started a thread about it on RC.
| http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=341172

Dang!! That bites!! Sorry to hear it.
At least it started growing for you! The other one just like it is still
stagnant, zero growth. I may have it in too high of either flow, or light.
I'll have to try moving it around the tank a bit and see what happens.
I also noticed, from your recent batch of photos, that the tri-color is
REALLY getting some blue/purple to it!

Kev

Not only that, but I believe it has almost doubled in size. I'll have to look
at some of the first pictures of it, and compare to newer pictures to be sure.
But yes, it has quite a bit of purple, and the very tips continue to be light
green.

It is a tough coral to take a picture of, and get accurate colors, but it is
great to look at. Btw, it is up high in my tank, not in direct flow, but
directly beneath the 175w 10,000K bulb.

I didn't even know that other coral was growing at all, it was in a nook where
it was never disturbed. I'd noticed the base was expanding some, but that is
always hard to see, and suddenly it was half white. I did a Lugol's dip for 1
hour, but it didn't phase the RTN one bit.

That coral was mid height in my tank, and centered where it got flow from both
sides, but never directly on the coral.

Marc


Kevin M wrote:

Dang!! That bites!! Sorry to hear it.
At least it started growing for you! The other one just like it is still
stagnant, zero growth. I may have it in too high of either flow, or light.
I'll have to try moving it around the tank a bit and see what happens.
I also noticed, from your recent batch of photos, that the tri-color is
REALLY getting some blue/purple to it!

Kev

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I try to make sure its completely mixed and no particles are undisolved that
could contact anything in the tank. my 180 is very cramped and I've never
had any ill effects from anything in the tank. I pour it into this tank
just in front of one of my streams pumps (not into but just outside where
the flow is max), I do half on one side and half on the other, it blows
directly across the blue Acro I sent you the pic of that time and it's never
caused it to even retract a polyp. the flow on that Acro is so strong that
it grows in a curved pattern so it's getting pretty much a pH 12+ dose when
the slurry is added.

the spot where I add the slurry to my 29g is considerably lower flow then
the 6100's put out and it's directly above a Hydnopora Rigida (Horn Coral)
it as well never retracts. no fish ever show a change in repertory behavior
either.

while it's recommend that you do the slurry at night when the tank has it's
natural tendency to decline in pH I've done them during the middle of the
photo period as well. a 0.2 spike is the same IMO day or night and the
natural rise of pH due to photosynthesis isn't going to be so great as to
cause a problem with the spike.