Dosing Kalkwasser

smm607

In Memoriam
I just set up my dosing pump for my kalkwasser so i can keep my calcium at a fairly consistent level since i can't afford to buy a calcium reactor setup right now... Just wondering how many Mililiters everyone usually doses a day for those of you who still use a dosing pump for this purpose
 
I think you are going in the right direction to be considering how much you need to add. Often people just start using Kalk for top-off water without really tracking how much they actually need. It is too easy to add too much that way.

The answer to your question is..."as much as your system requires to maintain Ca/Alk levels".

Get some good Ca/Alk test kits and start testing your Ca/Alk every day at about the same time. If you are concerned that your Ca/Alk are waaaayy off because you've never looked at them or supplemented, then do a good-sized water change to get them back to nearly normal.

Without knowing a lot more about your tank, it is impossible to guess how much Kalk you will need per day. It depends on what life you have in the tank and how much Ca/Alk is being used.

Test every day and increase your daily Kalk dosing until you are getting stable Ca/Alk readings every day.

And remember to always add Kalk very slowly....preferably with a drip bag or something like that.
 
I wondered the exact same thing a few months ago when I started dosing kalk. I add it to my top-off, which drips from a 5gal bucket through an I.V. dripper. I started with a bucket of 1tsp/gal, then tested my alk/ca every day and added 2-part solution to keep the levels up. Each time I topped off the 5gal bucket, I added a little more kalk until the levels stabilized and I no longer needed to add 2-part. After a few weeks I found that ~2tsp/gal works for me and keeps my levels stable. Every once in a while I'll add some 2-part for the trace elements, but the alk/ca stay stable with just the kalk now.

Hope this helps!
 
ok, well i have been dosing the two part to keep my Ca at a steady 440 maybe a little higher but not by much.... I am using the salifert kits.. The past 3 days i have not added any two part and tonight my Ca was under 400. I am using a precise feeding pump with a kalk mixture of 2tsp per gallon dripping at 10ml's an hour... Tonight will be the first night the pump and drip are in place so i will tels early tomorrow.. Oh yeah my alk is usually around 10.6 to 11 but i have also stopped dosing for this and it is mid 9's since i have stopped.... Do you think 10 ml's and hour is a good starting point or should i go lower so i don't over shoot anything? I keep multiple sps and they seem to be using it up fairly quickly
 
How big is the tank? How many gallons evaporate per day?

There are roughly 3785.4118 milliliters in a gallon.
For example, if you want to replace 1 gal per day you would need 157.73 milliliters per hour.

people are probably more familiar with drops. Just remember a drop is roughly .05 milliliters. Therefore the above example is roughly this is .876 drops per second.

I find I get precipitation if I go over 2 drops per second, even when dripping into a very high flow area. 2 drops per second would be 2.28 gallons per day. I'd be hesitant to go much over this. This would be 8640 milliliters per day or 360 milliliters per hour.
 
My system is just a 29gal, so my evaporation will be substantially less than yours. I'm dripping with actual medical I.V. drippers, so I know that 60 drops in the canula equals exactly 1ml. I drip ~1ml every minute, which works out to about 1 gal every 2.5 days. Just FYI.
 
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