Will lime dissovle in salt water?

[axciom333]

Hello,

I was wondering if lime will dissolve directly into salt water? I only evaporate a gallon of water a day in my system and was wanting to get more Kalk in there but didn't want to do vinegar. So I was wondering if it would be possible to have a "kalk reactor" in my sump and have a pump run some tank water (salty of course) through it for a minute a few times per night?

Thanks,

James

[Boomer]

What are you calling "Lime", CaO? When lime hits water it is converted into kalk

CaO + H2O ¡ê Ca(OH)2 + Heat


What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.htm

[MrZ]

It will disolve but VERY slowly compared to freshwater. My experience on this is from using kalk paste to kill off some aptasia. I mixed up a thick paste and applied around 1 ml or so to the aptasia directly. It would multiple days for the kalk paste to fully dissolve. And that was in a moderate flow reef tank.

You could always use a fan blown across the sump to increase your evaporation rate and get more kalk in as topoff. Heck come June-July in AR that might be a good thing. Or suppliment your kalk top off water with 2 part ca / alk solution.

[Boomer]

I should have added and see MrZ took care for it kinda. Kalk or lime should not be added directly to seawater in a reactor. It will not only have a habit of dissolving slowly but will over saturate the water and precip out of solution as Magnesium hydroxide and some calcium carbonate.

[axciom333]

Thanks for the replies both of you. Upon reading the RHF article it does specify that the Calcium Hydroxide must be mixed with freshwater. If you do it in salt then...and I quote "will result in a mess of precipitated magnesium and calcium carbonates and hydroxides."

So I guess that is another great idea of mine that wasn't so great!

Have a great rest of your week.

James

[Boomer]

:thumbsup: