Dosing kalk thru a gravity fed ATO bucket?

[Dapg8gt]

I've been having issues keeping cal and alk up in my frag tank. It's ATO consists of a food grade 5 gal bucket run to a normal float that controls my evaporation. I have the bulkhead up about an inch off the bottom and a valve in line for maintenance.

My question is it will be fine to just add my Kalk to the bucket and have that be the source for Cal alk right? I figured it will be ok if I start with like 1 tsp per gallon and monitor from there. I guess I'm wondering if the kalk is gonna plug the 1/4" lines too quickly to be effective or degrade the gasket material in the float valve? I've been reading a lot of the posts on here and google and I am pretty confident that my cheapo little ATO will work fine with the proper maintenance and making sure it doesn't suck the top layer in to the line right? And when I do go ahead and top back off with Kalk/RODI do I have to clean the bucket completely or just add more kalk and RODI let I settle and rock it. I'm guessing it will completely dissolve so I can continue to just do a monthly cleaning of the ATO bucket and float. sorry if it's a dead horse subject I just couldn't find exactly what I was looking for in the posts most likely wasn't lookin in the right place LOl

Tank is 45 gal total volume, SPS frags PH 8.3, cal 440, alk 8.3, mag 1400, nitrate/nitrite 0 , phosphate .1 (all salifert and seachem for phosphate and Hanna pen for PH

Thanks in advance


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[disc1]

How fast does it run? My only concern is that you have to drip kalk in really slowly or it spikes pH and causes a snowstorm.

 

[Dapg8gt]

It runs super slow. Like 5 gals a week. It just keeps the level in the sump up with evap.

 

[disc1]

Not per week rate, the per minute or second rate. My ATO would never do for kalk because when it runs it dumps in about a pint all at once. If I wanted to run kalk I would get a peristaltic pump and have it run at a steady drip when it ran.

 

[Dapg8gt]

It doesn't dump any it just drips when the float drops so it's pretty much just keeping up constantly never dumps anything just when needed. It's sitting in the return chamber hooked to a 1/4" line from a reservoir. Less than a gallon spread over 24 hours. Only time it would constantly drip is during maintenance and I have a shutoff valve for that. I know a pump will be better but for experimental I am gonna try it. Thanks for responding I appreciate it a lot.

 

[disc1]

That sounds like it will work then. To answer the other question you don't have to clean it out every time. Just put in more RODI and kalk and stir it up. The sludge at the bottom is actually a good thing. Clean it out when it starts to get really cruddy or clogging things up.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate learning from all of your posts on topics..

I'm gonna start slow and montor it daily to make sure it's good. And manually dose two part if needed.

 

[bertoni]

I'd be careful using a float valve to control Kalk. They have a reputation for sticking, which can be a big problem. I used a dual float switch with a dosing pump. At the least, I'd check and clean the valve and tubing every couple or weeks or so.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Thanks bertoni. I've had it in use for over a year with just RODI and with monthly maintenance it has been flawless. I'll just watch it a little closer than usual for a while and maybe change the float out to a new spare I have laying around if I notice it get gunked up. IMo since its in my garage and I have te space and looks doesn't really matter I would rather have no electrical parts to deal with and over the long term eventually fail. Hopefully most I have to do is change out the float yearly if it shows signs of wear. If it doesn't hold up I'll just get another set of dosers..

So far so good added 4 tsp of Kalk stirred it up and let it sit for an hour or so and put it on line. We will see how my levels and system hold up over the next week.. I'm guessing I will need more kalk than I added I just wanted to play it safe with a little less than a Tsp a gallon.. Usually I drop over a point of alk over the course of two days so I will check daily to see what it's consuming. Cal is a little slower about 20-25 points but it's def using it up. Its been getting more and more two part to keep up with it as my frags/colonies are taking off(obviously)...Fingers crossed LOl. Thanks again

 

[NastyZ]

Thanks bertoni. I've had it in use for over a year with just RODI and with monthly maintenance it has been flawless. I'll just watch it a little closer than usual for a while and maybe change the float out to a new spare I have laying around if I notice it get gunked up. IMo since its in my garage and I have te space and looks doesn't really matter I would rather have no electrical parts to deal with and over the long term eventually fail. Hopefully most I have to do is change out the float yearly if it shows signs of wear. If it doesn't hold up I'll just get another set of dosers..

So far so good added 4 tsp of Kalk stirred it up and let it sit for an hour or so and put it on line. We will see how my levels and system hold up over the next week.. I'm guessing I will need more kalk than I added I just wanted to play it safe with a little less than a Tsp a gallon.. Usually I drop over a point of alk over the course of two days so I will check daily to see what it's consuming. Cal is a little slower about 20-25 points but it's def using it up. Its been getting more and more two part to keep up with it as my frags/colonies are taking off(obviously)...Fingers crossed LOl. Thanks again

I was think bout the same thing I also have a gravity feed ATO and have it set up the same way the only concern I have is right now I'm evaporating about a gallon and half a day now that the heat is going away and winter is coming wondering wht I'm going to be evaporating then

 

[Dapg8gt]

I was think bout the same thing I also have a gravity feed ATO and have it set up the same way the only concern I have is right now I'm evaporating about a gallon and half a day now that the heat is going away and winter is coming wondering wht I'm going to be evaporating then

You can add a fan pointed at the surface to speed up evap if that's what your concerned about. Zoomed makes one about $20 on amazon that looks better than a clip on one IMO. Or just put a 6" one aimed at the surface of your sump to increase it. A lot of threads I've been reading utilize that to add more total kalk to the system. I personally haven't tried it but it sounds like it will work.

Are you at full saturation already 2 tsp a gallon? If no couldn't you just increase the kalk to make up for the evaporation rate you have now.

One of the other two posters on this thread know a lot more than me on this topic I only know what I've read over the last few days so I would go with either one of their advice over mine LOL. Hopefully they chime in on your question.

 

[NastyZ]

You can add a fan pointed at the surface to speed up evap if that's what your concerned about. Zoomed makes one about $20 on amazon that looks better than a clip on one IMO. Or just put a 6" one aimed at the surface of your sump to increase it. A lot of threads I've been reading utilize that to add more total kalk to the system. I personally haven't tried it but it sounds like it will work.

Are you at full saturation already 2 tsp a gallon? If no couldn't you just increase the kalk to make up for the evaporation rate you have now.

One of the other two posters on this thread know a lot more than me on this topic I only know what I've read over the last few days so I would go with either one of their advice over mine LOL. Hopefully they chime in on your question.

At the moment I'm dosing 2 part and have been keeping track of my alk consumption looking like I'm losing a point of dkh a day.. I'm ok for now doing 2 part I was just looking at Kalk for the convince my system is still very young

 

[Dapg8gt]

Yeah doing the passive kalk thing to me just seems so much easier.. Check back on this thread and bump it in a month or two and I can tell you if it is working out for me or if it just turns into a hassle with the float. I sold my extra dosing pump a month or two ago cause my tank wasn't using enough to justify it for me. I was just adding baking soda to the ATO and dosing cal manually. And adding mag maybe once a month. But I've seen an explosion of growth and have been dosing two part manually and it's a PITA. Just dont want to get another dosing pump if I can just rely on kalk. Hope this works out. But if no at least it's only one pump VS the three head one I just sold LOL.

 

[mx36]

I have been dosing Kalk with this kind of set up for about 6 months now. The only two problems I have had are the float crusting over on the outlet not alowing it to keep up with the evaporation. I added a small power head in that area of the sump to keep the water adjatated a little and it helped, I still clean it about once a month. The other problem I had was my fault, I let a cord get caught on the float valve and didn't see it, needless to say it dumped about 20 gal of kalk into the tank. I have about 350 gal set up so luckly I didn't see any ill efects. Other than that I have been completely happy with it.

 

[N Awe]

It's been several months now, how is it working out?