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Just a question to see what you dose your system with. I haven't tested my water in about 2 months and I keep doing the same routine. I have mostly softies with 2 frogspawns in my 70 gallon. Heres what I do.

Weekly water changes of roughly 6 gallons
Trace elements with water change include:
Reef solutions ultimate reef
Kent Marine Iodine
Coral Vital

Water top off's every other day include:
B-Ionic part A and B Calcium and AK
Reef Solutions ultimate reef

Since I'm so lazy about testing my water I am a little concerned. However, I just did a test for nitrates and it was 0ppm. So I must be doing something right. Thanks

I dose with kalk and kent marine esential elements.

Dan


Dan

Anybody use Mrs. Wages or Ball's Pickling Lime in place of Kalkwasser? It supposedly basically the same thing and costs significantly less. It's like $1.50/lb at the grocery stores.

John

If that works, I would like to know. I pay much more then that for kalk.

Dan


Dan

Check out this site http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6260
there are other threads on the same subject listed on the bottom, where numerous individuals swear by it.

John

Now that's what I like to see. Just called my wife and asked her to pick up some. Thanks for the information.

Dan


Dan

Anybody use Mrs. Wages or Ball's Pickling Lime in place of Kalkwasser?

Ive been using Mrs. Wages for almost 2 years now. The only difference is you get more precipitation in your Kalk dosing chamber.....but its cheaper and works the same.

Now to the posted question....

I dont add anything really. I do a 50 gallon water change once a week, run a Kalk reactor, and a calcium reactor.

I too am a Mrs.Wages user.I have been using for about a year with only good results.http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/reefsalt@sbcglobal.net/album?.dir=b0b2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/reefsalt@sbcglobal.net/my_photos

Last edited by fishheadfred at 19-Mar-2005 16:04

Since this post is mainly towards calcium dosing (which is actually my main concern) I'd like to ask if there is a benefit to using Kalkwasser versus B-Ionic. I'm not going to use the cheap stuff from the grocery store. To me its too risky.

B-Ionic is good but it doesn't produce much coraline for me. Instead I get these small white calcium deposites. Thanks.

There are many benefits to using Kalkwasser.....the biggest ones though are its ability to raise/hold alkalinity while holding your calcium level. The second big reason is that it precipitates phosphate and makes it easier for your skimmer to remove.

There really is no reason not to use Mrs. Wages.....it is food grade calcium hydroxide. I have been using it and I trust it with my $12K investment.

With no more calcium demand than you have, I would keep using the B-ionic unless you are having problems with alkalinity. Your coralline issue could come from many different problems....phosphate, alkalinity, calcium, etc.

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"instead I get these small white deposits"
could these deposits be tiny feather dusters. Especially i f they are circullar in form.

Not from the info that I've recieved from the owner of the LFS that I go to. He explained that its just another form of calcium deposites and is neither good or bad. I personally didn't care for them. I'm hoping that I can get something to induce more coraline growth.