Calcium dosing -- do I need to check daily?

[geno]

I've decided to introduce a simple kalk dosing setup to my 125g tank. The tank is in the early stages of cycling with LR purchased from Sal.

I know I need to use the drip method and have found a few DIY approaches that I can handle.

Question: For those of you who add kalk -- how often do you test the water in order to make adjustments? I realize the demands of my tank are low at this time having only LR and no corals.

I will be dosing via water additions which amount to about 2 gallons per day -- which I think will increase in the summer.

Thanks,
-gene

 

[photokid]

i really wouldnt worry about dosing kalk right now just use it in your top off to keep your ph up.

 

[george]

Personally, I do NOT recommend dosing kalk via top-off since you can get such a variation in how much goes in your tank if it's your primary means of calcium dosing. As a primary calcium source, you would be using a variable amount each day which can result in a large dose on a high evaporation day.

I would recommend dosing it a fixed amount each day and then schedule your auto-top off to kick on afterwards to make up any difference. That way, if you dose more kalk than you need for top-off, you only have to worry about a very slight drop in salinity, which is a trivial matter and, unless you're dosing massive amounts of Kalk, will fix itself over time.

And that doesn't mean you *can't* dose via top-off. Lots of people do it and it works fine. It just that it's possible to white-out your tank doing this.

 

[geno]

I really appreciate the advice.

George -- I really think your point is well taken. I like you recommendation and intend to implement it -- especially since my top-off water needs do change almost daily. Fixing the kalk amount seems to be a great idea.

If I do that -- how often should I check calcium levels -- weekly?

-geno

 

[skriz]

initially, you would want to check your calcium weekly until you figure out where your levels are going to stay at a certain dosage point. Then, I would only check once a month at the most. (but I'm a slacker and only check once every 4 months or so).

There are 2 ways you can make kalk too. You can make a supersaturated formula or a regular formula.

I topoff with supersaturated kalk, but then again, I have a massive water volume and a 5g safety (I can only add a max of 5g at any given time, which will do NOTHING to my system).

 

[george]

geno;164830 wrote: If I do that -- how often should I check calcium levels -- weekly?

Any time you change a dosing schedule such as calcium (or any other water chemistry modifying dose), you should test every couple days until you establish that the change you made goes in the direction you want. That is, if you want your calcium levels to go up, that the calcium levels do go up (and stay up). After that, I would check your levels the same way you'd do for anything. On a well-behaved and non-problematic tank, I think weekly testing of water is good.

Every time you add more livestock that uses calcium, you should test a bit more frequently to see what the impact is. Also, assuming you get coral growth, you will have to up the dosing levels over time. Neither additions nor growth should impact levels too quickly unless you add a large number of items at once. That should be done with caution, though, since mass additions can cause all kinds of other problems other than calcium depletion.