What are the consequences of overdosing with Calcium abd Bicarbonate?

[chrisbenavides]

Just wonder, what are the consequences of overdosing with Calcium and Bicarbonate?

And why does it say on Kent's Coral-Vite not to dose with Kalk? Is Calcium/Bicarbonate the samething as Kalk?

What does it mean to dose with? Does that mean I cannot add Coral-Vite the same day I add Calcium/Bicarbonate?

Thanks!!!

- Chris

[WaterKeeper]

Hi Chris

Well dosing with sodium bicarb and say calcium chloride really doesn't cause a problem but if you add bicarbonate and KW, calcium hydroxide you can create a snowstorm. The bicarbonate reacts with the calcium to form calcium carbonate which will easily reach saturation and precipitate from the water column. A magnesium supplement reacts with KW to create insoluble magnesium hydroxide. This also creates a snowstorm although the snowflakes are prettier and bigger. ;)

When putting those types of additives into the tank it is best to allow an hour or two between additions. Once fully mixed they do not interact in the same fashion.

See Supplement Ca and Alk (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm)

[chrisbenavides]

What is a KW exactly? I used Reef-Success.

[bertoni]

KW is an abbreviation for kalkwasser, which is the same as limewater, which is calcium hydroxide dissolved in fresh water. Pickling lime is calcium hydroxide, for example, and that's what I use for my limewater mix.

[chrisbenavides]

Do you get pickling lime at the grocery? If so, what is it called their? Another name?

Thanks!

[bertoni]

Some grocery stores might have food-grade lime. It's also used to make tortillas. Mrs Wages is a brand name for a pickling lime product.

[WaterKeeper]

Ball's is another well known, low cost brand. Look for it in the canning section.

[chrisbenavides]

Just curious, what is limewater used for? Cooking? Cleaning?

[WaterKeeper]

It's what makes those dills have pucker power. :D

A saturated solution of lime water, Ca(OH)₂, has a pH of ~12.5 and is a good preservative. Jon knows more than I about its use in cooking tortillas. :D

Lime is also used extensively by industry as a cheap base. Usually purchased as the unhydrated kiln lime, CaO, it is mixed with water in a process known as "slaking" to form the hydrated form. Sold normally as pebble lime it cost less than $100 a ton. Out in the midwest it widely used in water treatment in the process of Lime softening. In wastewater plants it is used to remove phosphate from the process water. Air scrubber on coal boilers use lime to remove acidic gasses such as nitrogen and sulfur oxides from the exhaust. Commercial uses are to make glass, steel, cement, calcium carbide to name a few.

It is manufactured by heating limestone in kilns, which drives off the carbon dioxide and produces the oxide. Hydrated limes, such as pickling lime, are produced by grinding the lime into a powder and blowing it into a fine mist of water producing the hydroxide.

This is the "Discovery Channel" signing off. ;)

[chrisbenavides]

AWESOME!!! ;)