Store closing

[Alexander1312]

Alex I know you have negative feelings about kalkwasser but many thousands of people over decades have used it successfully and it has never been logically explained (that I’ve heard) what people in Germany/Europe allegedly don’t like about it.

That said, there is no way a wall-to-wall SPS tank like this could get enough alkalinity through kalk, since it’s limited by evaporation. There is an exception to that rule with vinegar treatment of the kalk, but very few people do that. So while he certainly could be using kalk also, it wouldn’t be the main source of his alkalinity. Almost all tanks that size with that much SPS use a calcium reactor. And many use more than one supplementation method, calcium reactor plus kalkwasser is common since they balance out the pH nudges of each other.

If it’s really true that German reefers don’t like kalkwasser I think we should stop using the German word for it. Limewater and calcium hydroxide are better terms anyway.

Sounds like a reasonable compromise to me, John, thank you for the suggestion. I did change the name of the BOLUS vs Kalkwasser post, which everyone enjoys commenting on, accodingly.

My passion lies primarily in providing a counter-voice to the recommendation to new reefers with newer tanks that they should use calcium hydroxide (I almost wrote Kalkwasser) as an inexpensive and effective way to meet their alk and CA demands. Our members are 99.9% sold on that method and do not shy away from passionately commenting against not using CA(OH)2.

I am not a chemist and do not plan to become one to win an argument. The simple test one can make is what happens if you turn off calcium hydroxide dosing (temporarily replace with alternative CA and alk dosing) after dosing it for several months. Does anyone dare doing that? I did. I saw others doing it. It is not pretty, PH goes into free fall. High phosphate amounts are being released which can overwhelm your system. Most people do not keep their tanks long enough to realize this problem. I intend to. And I hope they will come out with their paper (or book is now being discussed), to provide a more sophisticated explanation. I hope I can still continue to state though that I am in the no calcium hydroxide (and no CO2 scrubber) camp.