Dosing Kalk
- Thread starter Nanz
- Start date
Randall_James
Premium Member
I use a Intermatic DT17 timer to go off every hour for 2 minutes during lights off (Only on my SPS tank)
It is connected to a Tom Aqualifter pump
I dose 2% (virtually 100% of all topoff) and it runs only when the lights are out.
Costs: $35
Better setups? probably but this has been running for 2+ years with 0 failures. I do only keep 2 days worth of kalk available in the event of a worst case scenario... (dumps all container in overnight, will not kill tank, wont be happy, but wont be dead)
It is connected to a Tom Aqualifter pump
I dose 2% (virtually 100% of all topoff) and it runs only when the lights are out.
Costs: $35
Better setups? probably but this has been running for 2+ years with 0 failures. I do only keep 2 days worth of kalk available in the event of a worst case scenario... (dumps all container in overnight, will not kill tank, wont be happy, but wont be dead)
marduc
New member
The ph of a tank drops off a tad at night due to lack of photosynthetic organisms taking in CO2. The more CO2 dissolved in the water, the lower the PH is. Since Kalk is very high in PH and serves to elevate the tanks PH a tad (this is why it is slowly dripped - to offset drastic pH swings), adding at night helps keep the tank a more stable PH across a 24 hour period, and minimizes the nightly PH downswing.
I made a doser out of a 2 liter pitcher for about $8. If you can find or get your hands on an IV drip tubing set up, simply put a little hole in the bottom of a container (slightly above the bottom so as not to suck in precipitate) insert the drip tubing and seal with either silicon, or even better a small rubber grommet, and you have a kalk dripper that has a highly adjustable drip rate.
I made a doser out of a 2 liter pitcher for about $8. If you can find or get your hands on an IV drip tubing set up, simply put a little hole in the bottom of a container (slightly above the bottom so as not to suck in precipitate) insert the drip tubing and seal with either silicon, or even better a small rubber grommet, and you have a kalk dripper that has a highly adjustable drip rate.
Agu
Premium Member
I use a BAS kalk reactor, running my topoff through it---kalk naturally dissolves in fresh water in a good proportion to drip into a tank, and it supplies both alkalinity and calcium, which otherwise has to be added in two parts, for instance, as a buffer and a calcium dose.
It's very convenient, but a reactor is large and fairly pricey.
Some people just put kalk into their topoff and stir it periodically.
There are a dozen different delivery methods.
The point is, though, it does a good job for a tank around 50 gallons; larger, or with lots and lots of stony corals, you might want to have both a kalk reactor AND a calcium reactor---it saves a lot of work, is not prone to overdose badly unless you have a severe accident, and when you get tired of daily dosing, it's one good option unless you're a tank of over 100g, in which case my personal advice would be to look at a calcium reactor.
HBD Turbo, the answer is---you can dump a month's worth of kalk into a reactor and just leave it to run: if stirred, it will dissolve only as much as the fresh water can naturally take up, and will deliver as much kalked water [kalkwasser] to your tank as you normally add of freshwater topoff, each day. The reactor has no pump of its own, just a stirrer: what drives it is the float switch in your sump and the topoff pump in your ro/di reservoir---it pushes water not into your tank, but into the kalk reactor, which then drips out into your tank until the water level cuts the float switch off, all automatic. It's hard to overdose. If you underdose, you just hand-add a little buffer or calcium, as needed.
It does tend to precipitate [if I remember a recent discussion] both magnesium and strontium, so you may want to check levels of those two chemicals---particularly magnesium, if your alk/cal start dropping and won't rise. [Precipitate: cause to solidify and 'snow' out of solution, meaning the water loses it.]
A month's worth of kalk for a 50 g tank is about 2.50. A jar of Mrs. Wages costs about 5.00, and it lasts about 2 months.
It's very convenient, but a reactor is large and fairly pricey.
Some people just put kalk into their topoff and stir it periodically.
There are a dozen different delivery methods.
The point is, though, it does a good job for a tank around 50 gallons; larger, or with lots and lots of stony corals, you might want to have both a kalk reactor AND a calcium reactor---it saves a lot of work, is not prone to overdose badly unless you have a severe accident, and when you get tired of daily dosing, it's one good option unless you're a tank of over 100g, in which case my personal advice would be to look at a calcium reactor.
HBD Turbo, the answer is---you can dump a month's worth of kalk into a reactor and just leave it to run: if stirred, it will dissolve only as much as the fresh water can naturally take up, and will deliver as much kalked water [kalkwasser] to your tank as you normally add of freshwater topoff, each day. The reactor has no pump of its own, just a stirrer: what drives it is the float switch in your sump and the topoff pump in your ro/di reservoir---it pushes water not into your tank, but into the kalk reactor, which then drips out into your tank until the water level cuts the float switch off, all automatic. It's hard to overdose. If you underdose, you just hand-add a little buffer or calcium, as needed.
It does tend to precipitate [if I remember a recent discussion] both magnesium and strontium, so you may want to check levels of those two chemicals---particularly magnesium, if your alk/cal start dropping and won't rise. [Precipitate: cause to solidify and 'snow' out of solution, meaning the water loses it.]
A month's worth of kalk for a 50 g tank is about 2.50. A jar of Mrs. Wages costs about 5.00, and it lasts about 2 months.
Last edited:
marduc
New member
Water can hold approximately 2 tsp. per gallon of lime before the solution is saturated and cannot take in any more lime. As a result no matter how much lime you put into a container, only 2 teaspoons per gallon will dissolve.
In a Kalk reactor you would add a decent amount of lime (kalk is german for lime) into the container, and then your water would mix with this reservoir of solid lime and attain its saturated state. Occasional stirring is to assure that the water is kept at a saturated state. After initially putting some lime into the reactor, it would have to be replenished as it gets dissolved into the water. How often depends on how much water gets ran through it (saturated), and how much lime was there initially.
The sequence would be fresh water supply fed into the reactor (with solid lime in it), which is then slowly added (dripped) into a high flow area (sump), and then fed via your return pump into the display tank.
In a Kalk reactor you would add a decent amount of lime (kalk is german for lime) into the container, and then your water would mix with this reservoir of solid lime and attain its saturated state. Occasional stirring is to assure that the water is kept at a saturated state. After initially putting some lime into the reactor, it would have to be replenished as it gets dissolved into the water. How often depends on how much water gets ran through it (saturated), and how much lime was there initially.
The sequence would be fresh water supply fed into the reactor (with solid lime in it), which is then slowly added (dripped) into a high flow area (sump), and then fed via your return pump into the display tank.
Randall_James
Premium Member
mrs wages pickling lime works great (2 tsp per gallon for me)
