Some basics about Kalkwasser / Limewater
- Thread starter Boogie
- Start date
My question is geared not towards what else replaces kalk but why not dose kalk? Meaning, what would you see in your tanks or in your testing of your tanks that would say, oh hell, I shouldn't dose kalk? I get that you want to test before you dose but if the main benefit of kalk is to sustain calcium levels, not increase them, then why not?
I'll give another crack at the question. There are a lot of ways to slice that question and a lot of right answers both for and against.
For me, due to my SPS interests, I needed something that would be able to dose more ca/alk than kalkwasser could. At that point something else would need to be done...daily ca/alk supplementation (perhaps calcium chloride/baking soda) or a calcium reactor. I used to use a calcium reactor but decided that I wanted the sump space back so I sold that and bought dosing pumps to automate the cacl2/baking soda option. Then I did the math and driveway heat + bulk baking soda ended up being, to my surprise, cheaper. I'm spending $1/month to run my current system. If I went back to kalk + my current system, I would be in the $3/month range. (What can I say? I'm cheap.) Plus, my ATO is by float valve...prone to clogging by kalkwasser PPT. It's always been pretty reliable for me but I am happy to remove the need to knock out the PPT from time to time. Also, I eliminated another variable from my system as I only have to be concerned with cacl2 and baking soda.
If I weren't interested in SPS, or I hadn't ever been in a situation of needing more than kalkwasser could supply (hence I would not already own the dosing pumps), then I would be doing a straight kalkwasser scheme right now. For most of the life of my current tank I just kept track (generally...nothing major...no graphs or pen/paper required) of how many gallons I was adding when I topped up my ATO container (20 gallons) then added enough kalk to saturate. If I tested the tank and ended up ahead of plan, I would add less kalk the next time I topped up my container. It was a pretty easy solution and sounds harder than it actually was. TBH, I didn't need to test too often as my tank seemed to be pretty happy to fly on autopilot right around the saturation point of 2 teaspoons/gallon.
HTH!
For me, due to my SPS interests, I needed something that would be able to dose more ca/alk than kalkwasser could. At that point something else would need to be done...daily ca/alk supplementation (perhaps calcium chloride/baking soda) or a calcium reactor. I used to use a calcium reactor but decided that I wanted the sump space back so I sold that and bought dosing pumps to automate the cacl2/baking soda option. Then I did the math and driveway heat + bulk baking soda ended up being, to my surprise, cheaper. I'm spending $1/month to run my current system. If I went back to kalk + my current system, I would be in the $3/month range. (What can I say? I'm cheap.) Plus, my ATO is by float valve...prone to clogging by kalkwasser PPT. It's always been pretty reliable for me but I am happy to remove the need to knock out the PPT from time to time. Also, I eliminated another variable from my system as I only have to be concerned with cacl2 and baking soda.
If I weren't interested in SPS, or I hadn't ever been in a situation of needing more than kalkwasser could supply (hence I would not already own the dosing pumps), then I would be doing a straight kalkwasser scheme right now. For most of the life of my current tank I just kept track (generally...nothing major...no graphs or pen/paper required) of how many gallons I was adding when I topped up my ATO container (20 gallons) then added enough kalk to saturate. If I tested the tank and ended up ahead of plan, I would add less kalk the next time I topped up my container. It was a pretty easy solution and sounds harder than it actually was. TBH, I didn't need to test too often as my tank seemed to be pretty happy to fly on autopilot right around the saturation point of 2 teaspoons/gallon.
HTH!
I don't think that there, to my knowledge, is like a bad effect from dosing Kalk. I think that's what you're getting at, if it's not chemically dangerous and helps maintain than why not? Right? The key is the willingness to jump into Kalk and stick with it. From what I've heard, I don't want to take the chance on my tank, but that's not to say it will or won't work.
