I am looking for DOW FLAKE

[Kevin McG]

Tested my calcium for the 1st time today and got about 300 for a reading. I called around looking for dow flake and got nothing but a bunch of "what is that" and "what is that used for". And to be perfectly honest I had no idea exept to raise calcium in my reef tank

I don't have any SPS just yet, but I figured now would be a good time to start working on calcium levels for when the adding of new corals other than softies and LPS begins.

Anyway..... is there anywhere that is in the nashua area that may carry this and what the HELL is the other uses for this stuff other that our reefs

 

[stevenp]

Driveway salt! They sell it at Home Depot in the winter months.

 

[Moe_K]

Check with Home Depot.
The stuff is used for melting the ice on your driveway, sometimes in concrete, and sometimes in loading tractor tires.

 

[gordonzoo]

Good luck finding it this time of year. I hit 20 home depots throughout Mass back in March. Shrewsbury is where I finally found some. By the way can Dow flake be used as a Kalc paste to put on nuisance worms and such? I can?t find pickling lime anywhere. LOL
Rich

 

[Moe_K]

By the way can Dow flake be used as a Kalc paste to put on nuisance worms and such? I can?t find pickling lime anywhere. LOL
Rich

No.
Dowflake is just calcium chloride.
What you want is lime. Lime is a calcium carbonate mixture, known as "kalk" in German.
You get get kalkwasser mixture (lime in a palstic container) in any LFS.

 

[starrfish]

You can also buy lime here for very cheap:

http://store.yahoo.com/mrswages/mrswagpiclim.html

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll find Dow Flake until next winter - unless you can buy some from a fellow reefer. I would offer, but I just "borrowed" a small bag from Marco67.

 

[Kevin McG]

You can also buy lime here for very cheap:

http://store.yahoo.com/mrswages/mrswagpiclim.html

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll find Dow Flake until next winter - unless you can buy some from a fellow reefer. I would offer, but I just "borrowed" a small bag from Marco67.

Can I get that at the grocery store? and if so where can I find mixing instructions. Or, is that something I can just add without mixing?


Nevermind I found a lot of info using the search feature

who would of thunk it

 

[starrfish]

2 tsp per gallon - use to replace evaporated water to keep calcium, ph and alk consistent. It must be slowly dripped in. It won't raise your calc from 300 - you need the Dow Flake or the other commercial products listed in the previous posts to raise it. But once you get it to the right level, lime will help to keep it there. Unless you have high calc demands, then you will still have to supplement the lime.

HTH -
Daire

 

[Pat H.]

Kevin, if your just trying to raise cal level, try Peladow(Dow Chemicals). It's basically the same but i think without any water and pelletized. Almost identical to Kents Turbo Calcium. I have a bucket if you can't find it. Also there is a great online calculator.

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

I also add kalk every night as topoff water to maintain cal and alk levels.(the Peladow will not maintain alk)

- Patrick

 

[SMS76]

I have 200G IO salt bucket full of Daw Flake. PM me if you are interested. I am in Saugus MA.

 

[gordonzoo]

Thanks Moe. Understood, I realize they are differnt so you dont think a cal chloride paste would kill as effictivly as the Kalk paste would. I guess the High ph of the Kalk is what does the job.
Thanks...Rich

 

[NateHanson]

Patrick, Do you have a source for Peladow? It'd be great to have a more direct measure using an anhydrous calcium chloride.

 

[Deafasa]

While I don't know if it was for sale, or left over from the winter for their use on sidewalks outside the store, but I saw a couple of bags of DowFlake at Costco in Waltham Ma this weekend. It was in the back of the store right above the toilet paper\tissues row.

 

[Pat H.]

Nate- Yes, I know Amesbury Industrial Supply has at least 10 50lb buckets of Peladow left over from winter. I think it was $25.

 

[starrfish]

Can that stuff be used in place of Dowflake in Randy's recipe??

 

[Kevin McG]

OK I have located some calcium Chloride from a place in Pelham called BEAVER VALLEY FARM.

She said they were 50# bags but didn't know the manufacturer but did say it wasn't DOW .Should i be worried about this or is it all the same

Enlighten me

 

[gordonzoo]

I asked the same question a while back. Never got a real solid answer. I did a lot of reading and this is the best answer I can come up with. As there are many Calcium Chloride?s on the market Dow Flake specifically was chemically analyzed and tested and was found to be reef safe. There are a lot of other chemicals in the makeup. There are other brands but have yet to be tested. I would image try at your own risk.
Here is a link...
Rich

Calcium Chloride

 

[Kevin McG]

Thanks for the info Rich, I am going to stop over at that place tomorrow after work and check it out. I don't want to take any chances with untested stuff so if it doesn't look like the right stuff looks like i will need to bite the bullet and get some B-ionic

 

[Pat H.]

Can that stuff be used in place of Dowflake in Randy's recipe??

Daire, if your still following this thread, yes it can be used as a substitute.
But Randy has not anilyzed Peladow for impurities, so use at your own risk.
Here's a quote from RHF's article and a link to the article incase you couldn't find it.

>If you use an anhydrous calcium chloride (such as Kent's Turbo Calcium or Peladow Calcium Chloride (a brand sold by Dow that some believe may just be a dehydrated equivalent of the Dowflake), then you should use about 20% (1/5) less solid calcium chloride to make the recipe. Note that the solution will get quite hot when dissolved anhydrous calcium chloride. <

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/chem.htm

I've been using to correct my cal level for about 6 months and haven't noticed any ill affects...yet.

HTH, Patrick

 

[starrfish]

Thanks Patrick. I also did some research on RC and came up with two places to order Dowflake online. One sells it in 50 lb bags and the shipping is very expensive (obviously because of the weight):

http://www.mainstreetseedandsupply.com/saltproducts.htm

The other sells 4 lbs and the shipping isn't bad, so if you didn't need a whole bunch this might be a good alternative:

http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/showproducts.asp?Category=46&Sub=1