Another Kalkwasser Question

[biecacka]

or randy could i take a 32 gallon trash can make it lime water and have the pump pump it in my sump? like a gallon or so a day? according to the calculator i have about 249 gallons of total water volume? would the lime be enough to supply my tank or would i have to make it so strong it would cause a spike in parameters?
corey

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

or randy could i take a 32 gallon trash can make it lime water and have the pump pump it in my sump? like a gallon or so a day? according to the calculator i have about 249 gallons of total water volume? would the lime be enough to supply my tank or would i have to make it so strong it would cause a spike in parameters?
corey

There is only so much Kalk you can put in the water before it is saturated(aprox 2 teaspoons a gal). This is the amount I have used, and my tank has never been more stable and I've never needed to dose with 2 part-and I have the same size tank as you.

Basically you just need to find out if your tank requires a large amount of dosing, and if it does you would need to supplement it with two part(or I would simply do the two part system). You could also blow a fan across your sump thereby increasing the amount of evaporation and thereby increasing the amount of kalk solution you would use. The only way to find out if you can get the levels you need by dosing kalk is trying it on your tank.

I've found the best way to dose kalk is putting a ball valve on the end of the ATO line, so you get a constant drip and thus the most stable conditions.

 

[biecacka]

buckeyetodd my tank is a softy lps tank with a few small sps colonies in it. i prefer lps and softy tho so i dont have a huge need. just for coraline and the lps, i guess my fear is if i pump 2 gallons of water in my tank at once if that would cause a spike. i dont have an ATO to speak of. right now i use my 5gallon drip jug as a doser and top off and it just is too much work. so i think if i go to a 32 gallon brute i can place it next to my tank(i live in an apartment so my space is limited) and use a maxijet or something to push water into the sump. can u explain more or show me a pic of your setup with a ball valve on the end of the ATO line?
corey

 

[Orr2003]

1600ml?
Wow thats a lot. I always thought that when I reach 200-300 ml per day it would be a lot cheaper to use a Ca reactor. As I always feared having a Ca reactor running while on travel I always thought I would get an undersized one and supplement with 2 part or Kalk.
Care to share why yo uchose to continue with 2 parts alone?

250 grams of dowflake per gallon

1250 grams of dowflake per 5 gallons (2.75 pounds of dowflake in 5 gallons of mixture)

3785ml per gallon

18925ml per 5 gallons

18925ml divided by 1600ml (my usage per day) = about 12 days worth in 5 gallons of mixture

I bought Dowflake at $16 per 50 pounds

50#'s dowflake divided by 2.75#'s = 18.18 (so I can get 18 5gallon mixtures per 50lb bag of dowflake)

So if each 5gallon mixture last me 12 days roughly that is 218 days worth of mixture per 50lb bag.

So I figure with the RO/DI water it takes to mix the dowflake in it costs me about $32 a year for the calcium supplement.

That is not bad IMO.

The Baking Soda is a little more at about $24 per 50lbs. So it is about $50 for a years worth of mixture.

I have used many different calcium reactors over the years with the Schuran Jetstream 2 being the last one I used. This was probably the most efficient reactor I had used and it was still more to run it than the dosing, with the cost of CO2, PH Probes (replaced twice a year), PH controller, calibration fluid for probe, Electricity of the pumps, Media and so on, not to mention the headache of cleaning and calibrating the ph probe ever 3 or 4 weeks. It seemed like I was always adjusting the reactor or the PH probe would go out of calibration or need cleaning and my alk would swing. This does not happen with my 2 part dosing.
With all that said my tank ALK and CAL have never been as stable as they are with 2 Part Dosing.
As long as I have a supply of old style Dowflake ( I bought over 500lbs) I will never go back to a calcium reactor.

As for the Mag supplement I use Mag Pellets by Dead Sea Works and they are about $18 per 50lb bag.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

randy could i take a 32 gallon trash can make it lime water and have the pump pump it in my sump? like a gallon or so a day? according to the calculator i have about 249 gallons of total water volume? would the lime be enough to supply my tank or would i have to make it so strong it would cause a spike in parameters?


That's what I do, but it needs to be a slow pump.

 

[maroun.c]

250 grams of dowflake per gallon

1250 grams of dowflake per 5 gallons (2.75 pounds of dowflake in 5 gallons of mixture)

3785ml per gallon

18925ml per 5 gallons

18925ml divided by 1600ml (my usage per day) = about 12 days worth in 5 gallons of mixture

I bought Dowflake at $16 per 50 pounds

50#'s dowflake divided by 2.75#'s = 18.18 (so I can get 18 5gallon mixtures per 50lb bag of dowflake)

So if each 5gallon mixture last me 12 days roughly that is 218 days worth of mixture per 50lb bag.

So I figure with the RO/DI water it takes to mix the dowflake in it costs me about $32 a year for the calcium supplement.

That is not bad IMO.

The Baking Soda is a little more at about $24 per 50lbs. So it is about $50 for a years worth of mixture.

I have used many different calcium reactors over the years with the Schuran Jetstream 2 being the last one I used. This was probably the most efficient reactor I had used and it was still more to run it than the dosing, with the cost of CO2, PH Probes (replaced twice a year), PH controller, calibration fluid for probe, Electricity of the pumps, Media and so on, not to mention the headache of cleaning and calibrating the ph probe ever 3 or 4 weeks. It seemed like I was always adjusting the reactor or the PH probe would go out of calibration or need cleaning and my alk would swing. This does not happen with my 2 part dosing.
With all that said my tank ALK and CAL have never been as stable as they are with 2 Part Dosing.
As long as I have a supply of old style Dowflake ( I bought over 500lbs) I will never go back to a calcium reactor.

As for the Mag supplement I use Mag Pellets by Dead Sea Works and they are about $18 per 50lb bag.

thanks for the detailed explanation. wish we could find Ca and Mg at those prices here...
Any links to that setup consuming that much daily?
Sorry for the hijack.

 

[lewk]

Reef Filler noise

Reef Filler noise

I prefer to dose limewater from a settled reservoir, like a Brute trash can.

I use a Reef Filler pump (2, actually) on an Omega Engineering LV-1201 float switch, but that pump is only suited for remote use (a basement, in my case) as it is noisy.

As long as the ATO sends in the water slowly enough and in small enough amounts, many ATO systems will work OK.

Sorry to go OT, but would I be OK running the Reef Filler in a garage? Going to put a 135 on a wall that shares the garage and living room, and was considering this pump for an automatic water change system. What would you compare it to as far as noise is concerned? Thanks in advance.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

A garage should be fine. I can just barely hear mine on the first floor when it is quite and the pump is running in the basement.

 

[tozzi]

I will be dosing the kalk from my ato reservoir. I have 250 gal of water in my system, my reservoir is a 55 gal drum. It lasts about 3 weeks. if i make the reservoir limewater, should i wait till its almost gone like 6" left to mix more? Or should i mix more when its like 1/2 gone? When would be the best time to add more to the reservoir?

 

[biecacka]

randy i would dose it with a maxxijet 1200 on for a minute or so to put a gallon of water in my sump. would that work or spike parameters too much?
corey

 

[bertoni]

I wouldn't dose a gallon at a time.

As far as making more limewater, the timing doesn't much matter. I'd just put the pump intake off the bottom to avoid pumping precipitates, and make more limewater as the level dropped near the input.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree a gallon all at once is too much unless the tank and sump are super large.

 

[biecacka]

the tank is a 220. i have softy lps tank, with 3 small sps frags so the demand of calcium is not super high so it would be diluted limewater??
corey

 

[bertoni]

Well, you could try manually dosing 1/8 gallon, and see how that goes, and increase the amount, to see what happens. I might try 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and then 1 gallon.

 

[biecacka]

i am currently dosing it via a drip doser my issue w that is it is only a 5 gallon vat. so i was thinking i could do it by ATO and get away w it. the doser i use no the airline clogs too often
corey

 

[sjm817]

Corey, is the problem that your ATO has a 1 minute minimum time? If so, use a lower flow pump.

 

[biecacka]

no i dont have an ATO. i am trying to do 2 tasks one way i guess. i currently drip dose lime water via a 5gln jug, i would like to buy a 32gln trash can and use it as an ATO and dose lime. since its a softy lps tank my calcium demand isnt that high so i was wondering if it could be done. i would use a mj1200 or so to pump water into my sump. i just wonder if it would be too much limewater in my tank at once and if it would cause a large spike
corey

 

[sjm817]

If you use a quality float switch setup that exactly replaces the evaporated water with the same amount in very small increments, the type of pump doesn't matter all that much.

 

[biecacka]

right, i guess my main question is will it cause a large spike in my waters parameters

 

[sjm817]

No. Again, the key is the topoff controller. If it has a float switch that is sensitive to small level changes, it will only add a very small amount many times throughout the day. A poor one will need a large change resulting in large volume topoffs.