Kent Marine Liquid Calcium

[keyozoxmfc]

hello all!
well i have been doing a lot of test and my calcium is kinda low. i am doing a waterchange soon and do i add the liquid calcium above. i was just wondering if anyone else uses that and if so, do you add it everyday?

or would it just been better for me to get a simple kalk set up like in the video cast?
and also where do i get pickling lime...i know its in the forums somewhere and i will look, but until i find it, if anyone can help me out, itd be great!

[Rob]

the stuff you have there is great stuff, the problem is that if you have a large tank it gets VERY expensive to use all the time.

this is where my pickling lime is from
MRS. WAGES® Canning & Pickling Salt <br>48 oz. (1362g)
i got a case of the stuff over a year ago, and still have a few containers of it left..

[keyozoxmfc]

okay great! thats a lot rob. now with the kalk setup from the video cast, can i just run that like all day? 24/7

[keyozoxmfc]

ohh and 50 my 50 gallon, could i just try one can of it to try it out? or would that go way too fast to even see a difference?

[George]

Bear in mind that dripping Kalk (and, for that matter using Kent calcium) will need Magnesium supplementation. The easiest way to do this is to add about 1 tsp/20 gallons of epsom salts (buy in the grocery store pharmacy section) twice a week.

If you use Seachem Reef Advantage, you'll get the calcium and magnesium in one, but that's back to paying a fair amount for supplements.

Also, I don't know about Kent liquid calcium, but Kent Turbo Calcium is Calcium Chloride which will also deplete your alkalinity, but that can be boosted easily as well.

[Rob]

George great point on the magnesium.. yes something to watch for..

Mark, the best thing is to start the drip and adjust your drip rate as needed

[iglowce]

mark, i used that for my nano. i drop 5-6 drops daily.

i have a question for all of you, do i need to add lime? would 5-6 drops of ca liquid be sufficient?

[keyozoxmfc]

uhhh so epsom salt is the thing to do? if i were to use reef crystal salt, does that have more calcium and magniesium than IO? and then not even drip?

[Rob]

Mark,
yes Reef crystals salt does have more Mg ad Ca than regular Instant Ocean
wether its enough can only be determined by testing

[keyozoxmfc]

ohh okay...but for now, should i be adding epsom salt? or do i buy a magniesium additivve?

[Rob]

you should test your magnesium, one you know the current reading then you will know if you need to add or not..

[keyozoxmfc]

yeah i knew that..lol

[George]

Mark, Epsom Salts is the drugstore name for Magnesium Sulfate which is what's in the aquarium market's magnesium supplements. Apparently Epsom is a town in England where they first figured out the medicinal uses of the Mg salts in water (thank you, Wikipedia). Basically a bag of Epsom salts is the same thing you get at the aquarium shop, but costs a lot less.

But, if you walk into a pharmacy and ask for "magnesium salt", you'll probably get a blank stare, so we have to shift to "Epsom Salt" outside the LFS.

[George]

And if you're going to start dripping Kalk, start slow. All the reef keeping forums are littered with horror stories of white-out tanks from people who went to fast into Kalk dripping.

I recently got a MRC Kalk reactor going and forgot to set the stirring motor to a timer and almost nuked my entire tank with a kalk snowstorm. Fortunately, my losses were limited to a single purple tipped acro, but could have been much, much worse.

[keyozoxmfc]

ohh okay thanks george...well after i test it, i will determine if i need it. and then add the ....2.5 tsp for my 50 gallon. and i only do that if its low right?