Or overdosing in my case. I have been dosing kalk in my topoff since day one as my calcium/alk dosing method. I didn't really notice a problem until I plumbed in a 2nd tank into my system. In that tank I used a coarser grade of sand and it would turn to rock over and over. Over time my coraline disappeared from my rocks, still had some on the glass. My pH was always a bit high but that was normal for kalk. My calcium was a bit low at 360, Alk was around 8 dKH. I didn't not have precipitation on pumps and such though. A few months ago a wonderful macro algae (Y branch algae) starting growing like crazy in both tanks. I pulled and pruned and pruned and pulled. Bought some urchins, bought some emerald crabs, yadda yadda. It kept gaining on me. I was basically dosing a saturated solution (2 tsp kalk per gallon makeup) and that was just too much. I backed it off to 1 tsp per gallon and what a difference. pH is back around 8.4 in the evening. Calcuium is creeping up on 400 Alk is still good around 8 dKH Coraline is growing back on rocks. Y branch algae has stopped growing Sand clumping has stopped Corals are growing much better So if you are a kalk doser be aware that too much of a good thing can be bad.
That is very interesting, I am not using kalk at the moment, but at times I get a wild hair and dose it.
I am not dosing Kalk but using a Calcium Reactor in my softie and LPS tank. The corals have done really well and grown but I am now having to rework my plenum because of sever caking of the substrate. I do not have much coraline in the tank either. What do you think that I can infer from your experience with Kalk with my use of a calcium reactor. To be honest I have never really had mass overgrowth of coraline algae like I see some people have. What do you think?
I don't run a cal reactor and I don't dose kalk on a regular basis. My calcium runs a little low at around 380 ppm and Alk at 10 dKH, but I have a problem with the substrate caking together.
