My first Kalk paste use

[darrowj]

I asked for some suggestions on getting rid of yellow polyps last week. A few people suggested Kalk paste. So I brought some, mixed it up in a zip lock bag (2 teaspoons) with water, and applied it to an area of polyps. I simply spread it over the area as best I could. I made it as thick as possible to keep it together while applying. This was for a 4" X 4" area or thereabouts.

This seems to have worked great. Probably around 90% effective. The parameter was a little thin so I need to pick off those areas individually. In any case this method saved me a lot of time and energy.

A sincere thank you to the BRS community.

I have a couple more areas to treat. Based on my reading I should wait between 2 -3 weeks between Kalk additions to my tank. I'm worried most about my PH which is at 8.4. I do not want it to get higher. With that said though this appears to be my solution.

 

[Blueflu1]

Not sure if this is an issue or not but keep an eye on your ammonia. It might spike it with the die off. I am just assuming on this. I could be wrong but worth watching.

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

+1 I'd add a bag of carbon if possible also...

 

[Joel A]

might be easier to add with a syringe... right into the mouths of the yellow polyps

 

[smokey30]

I am looking to do the same to rid my tank of some fuzzy mushrooms, was just wondering if you just mixed the kalk with water or is there something else that goes into this?

 

[Joel A]

just kalk and RODI, but a heavy concentrate of the kalk goes into the rodi making it "paste" like. The reason it works is because the kalk you are applying to the corals is such a tremendously high ph that it shocks and kills the corals almost instantly.

 

[darrowj]

+1 I'd add a bag of carbon if possible also...

I have added a bag of carbon. Thanks. Figure it could not hurt.

might be easier to add with a syringe... right into the mouths of the yellow polyps

I have hundreds of these things I want to rid myself of. I've tried scraping and at times used a set of tweezers to pick them off one at a time. Using a syringe sounds great and I'm sure would work. I just choose to try a different way.

Spreading the paste,and I'm talking a paste as thick as playdo, and spreading it by hand worked for me. When the paste came in contact with the polyps directly I found it killed them. Getting the paste in the mouth was not important.

The problem with this method is that it can get messy. Adjacent coral need to be avoided at all costs obviously. My RBTA that was 5" away was not happy with me. It is however fine today but at the time I was very concerned.

 

[Joel A]

I have hundreds of these things I want to rid myself of. I've tried scraping and at times used a set of tweezers to pick them off one at a time. Using a syringe sounds great and I'm sure would work. I just choose to try a different way.

Spreading the paste,and I'm talking a paste as thick as playdo, and spreading it by hand worked for me. When the paste came in contact with the polyps directly I found it killed them. Getting the paste in the mouth was not important.

The problem with this method is that it can get messy. Adjacent coral need to be avoided at all costs obviously. My RBTA that was 5" away was not happy with me. It is however fine today but at the time I was very concerned.

right, that's kind of the issue with going about it this way... also i bet there was a lot of excess kalk, that raised PH, Alk, and Calcium significantly... but i'm glad to hear you were able to kill a whole bunch of the little buggers... maybe in the next few weeks when you do it again there will be less of them so you can eradicate them one by one more precisely.

 

[smokey30]

I just bought a bottle of apstasia x to kill my mushrooms, I was scared that the ph would rise to much in my nano using kalk paste and I did not want to have to do a HUGE water change. This stuff worked like a charm I turned off the pumps spread it over the mushrooms, left it for 15 mins and sucked out the apstasia x and the melted mushrooms. Also I threw in a bag of carbon for good measure.

 

[Greg Hiller]

BTW, be careful about loading freshly prepped kalkpaste into a syringe. Sometimes it can heat up and come shooting out. I know a guy that had serious eye damage from this while trying to kill some Majano anemones.

 

[stingythingy45]

You're welcome.

 

[s_kelley]

BTW, be careful about loading freshly prepped kalkpaste into a syringe. Sometimes it can heat up and come shooting out. I know a guy that had serious eye damage from this while trying to kill some Majano anemones.

OUCH!! Good tip!

 

[wrassefan]

do a water change to bring down the ph