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Unread 01/05/2020, 02:58 PM   #1
Rhodesholar
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Confirmed Kalk Powder goes bad

I was searching and searching for answer to this question and could find not definitive answer. I have a 4 pound bucket of BRS kalk powder with a date on it of 2-9-15. Every time I mixed it even after 3 days it would be milky and never clear.

I just picked up some Mrs Wages and upon mixing at full strength it mixed almost clear immediately. Or at least way clearer then the 5 year old BRS stuff.

So unless I am missing something there is the answer.


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Unread 01/05/2020, 04:16 PM   #2
bertoni
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Kalk will go bad over time as it reacts with moisture and carbon dioxide in the air. Sometimes it mixes up cloudy, though, for reasons we don't understand, so the BRS might still be good. If you have a pH meter or a conductivity meter that reads in the right range, we could get a reasonable idea of the concentration, I bet. If the Kalk has gone bad, it should precipitate a fine white sand on the bottom of the container.


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Unread 01/05/2020, 05:19 PM   #3
Rhodesholar
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Thanks for the reply.

I let the mix sit for 3 days and it still looked like skim milk. I gave up on it and got some Mrs Wages pickling lime being fortunate enough to find it in stock. Mixes up a thousand times clearer then the 5 year old Kalk mix did. I did test the parameters of the 5 year old Kalk powder and they were equal to what Kalk should mix up at but the cloudiness was not acceptable.


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Unread 01/06/2020, 04:06 PM   #4
bertoni
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That's very cloudy. I wonder what is in that product.


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Unread 01/06/2020, 08:06 PM   #5
Rhodesholar
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Nothing against BRS. When I first bought the mix it was great and they rock.

I just think even being sealed after 5 years it went south. What's cool is they even have the date on the label so I know how old it is. I got out of reefing for a while and got back into it and started pulling my old stock out off moth balls. Nothing last forever I guess.

I even checked my RO and it is reading 0 on the way out so it's not a failed RO membrane causing it.

No fault on them at all.



Last edited by Rhodesholar; 01/06/2020 at 08:26 PM.
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Unread 01/10/2020, 03:36 PM   #6
hkgar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bertoni View Post
Kalk will go bad over time as it reacts with moisture and carbon dioxide in the air. Sometimes it mixes up cloudy, though, for reasons we don't understand, so the BRS might still be good. If you have a pH meter or a conductivity meter that reads in the right range, we could get a reasonable idea of the concentration, I bet. If the Kalk has gone bad, it should precipitate a fine white sand on the bottom of the container.
I checked the ph of my Kalk water and it is 11.6. I found that fully saturated ph would be 12.54. Can I simply calculate 11.56/12.54 = 92.5% concentration?

The Kalk water measures dKH of 25 which would be about 20% concentration?


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File Type: jpg ph0110.jpg (32.3 KB, 1 views)
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Last edited by hkgar; 01/10/2020 at 03:45 PM.
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Unread 01/10/2020, 11:52 PM   #7
bertoni
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You need to measure a bit of a fully saturated Kalk solution to see what it reads. The meter won't be accurate at that high a level. Just dissolve a bunch of Kalk in a glass of water, and have at it. Then subtract the readings. Each difference of 0.3 units corresponds to a halving of concentration, so a difference of 0.9 means the concentration is ⅛ full saturation (½3), since 0.9/0.3 is 3.


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