Manually addition of kalk

[JMorris271]

What is the best way to add kalk without an ATO on the system please and thanks if one chooses that route?

 

[CStrickland]

You can just use kalkwasser for your top off. It's not really dependent on having an ato.
Or people use kalk stirrers, but that's for higher ca and alk demands, like when your in between just using kalk for topoff and dosing or running a ca reactor.

Why do you ask, are you planning a tank, or finding that your waterchanges aren't keeping up with the elements your coral are using?

 

[thegrun]

If you do manually dose it you need to be careful not to dose too much at a time or you will have a large temporary pH spike. It is really best to use either an ATO or a dosing pump so you can add several smaller doses spread out throughout the day rather than one or two daily doses.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Manual dosing can be acceptable, but isn't best because it causes fairly large swings in your salinity, pH, and your Ca/Alk. I belive Randy said in "What your grandmother never told you about limewater" that up to 1% of your tank's volume may be acceptable to dose at once, based on perameter swings. Though this is harder for your tank to acclimate. Generally people seem to notice that their coral start growing much faster when they get their perameters stable, and doing 1 daily dose doesn't meet that.

If you have time, it's best to space your daily dose out into as many smaller increments as convenient throughout the day.

 

[MondoBongo]

there are some DIY drip solutions you can make yourself. here is just one example:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/nftt/index.htm

you can also use a dosing pump, in the top off water (ATO or not), or manual addition. i prefer to automate what i can though. the less i have to do by hand, the more i tend to enjoy my system.

 

[JMorris271]

Thanks for the link.
Then I should be able to use a dosing pump?
I have a Smart ATO but it will always over dose. I purchased 2 of them and they both do the same thing so it must be my plumbing or something else.

 

[Potatohead]

Manual dosing can be acceptable, but isn't best because it causes fairly large swings in your salinity, pH, and your Ca/Alk. I belive Randy said in "What your grandmother never told you about limewater" that up to 1% of your tank's volume may be acceptable to dose at once, based on perameter swings. Though this is harder for your tank to acclimate. Generally people seem to notice that their coral start growing much faster when they get their perameters stable, and doing 1 daily dose doesn't meet that.

If you have time, it's best to space your daily dose out into as many smaller increments as convenient throughout the day.

It's more like 0.2% assuming full saturation

 

[MondoBongo]

Thanks for the link.
Then I should be able to use a dosing pump?
I have a Smart ATO but it will always over dose. I purchased 2 of them and they both do the same thing so it must be my plumbing or something else.

i used one of the BRS peristaltic dosing pumps for almost two years to dose my kalk. i only stopped using it because i transitioned from kalk to two part.

 

[C.Eymann]

Here is a rig I used on one of my old tanks about 10 years ago.
Had a bunch of Arizona tea gallon containers ( I was addicted to that stuff) I would make up 5 or so at a time, two heaping tbsp of Kalk in each, filled 3/4 way stirred/ shaken , then filled up all the way.

Every night right after lights out I would blow into the green tube to start the siphon, and used the little valve to slow it to a steady drip.

Worked great.

 

[MondoBongo]

^-- that's a pretty darn clever setup. i like the method for starting the siphon.