Setting up a kalkwasser drip.

[MoonInTn]

I tried to find my previous thread about setting up a kalkwasser drip to continue this, but I can't seem to find it. So, I thought maybe I would ask one more quick question about it. I'm going to be starting a kalkwasser drip within the next few days and was wondering where to place the drip. Should I drip directly into the tank, or set up the drip in the sump? Which would be better, or would it matter?

 

[Mariner]

Dripping into the sump is definitely better. It allows the kalk to be diluted with tankwater before coming in contact with anything in the tank. Kalk has a pH of over 12, and can really do a lot of harm if it contacts corals or algae full strength. One of my tanks is sumpless, and there's a 3" "dead spot" near the filter overflow where the kalk drips directly into the tank.
FWIW,
Mariner

 

[MoonInTn]

Thanks Mariner. I guess that might be the way to go. One of my tanks has a sump and the other doesn't, but I'm going to be setting them both up with a drip of their own. May not have a choice with the sumpless one until I'm able to put a sump on both of them. With the drip in the sump, does it do any harm to any of the equipment in there? Like the heater, skimmer, pump, etc?

 

[Mariner]

You'll get more precipitation on you return pump/impeller and possibly more in your return line, but I've got to clean all my pumps every six weeks or so anyway, so it's not that big of a deal.
Mariner

 

[MoonInTn]

Thanks again. I'm starting to get everything together so I can get it started over the weekend. Does anyone know how long would it take before I start seeing a difference in the water parameters? One tank is a 90 gallon and the other is a 75 gallon. Just trying to figure out when to stop dosing with other additives to allow the kalkwasser to take over.

 

[Mariner]

If it were me, I'd dose the other calcium/alkalinity additives as needed for a couple of days to get the levels where I wanted them to be, then stop them and start the kalk. Test your levels every day for two or three days to see if kalk is keeping up with demand. If not you should be able to tell about how much of your other supplements you will have to continue to dose.
Here's a great calculator for figuring how much of a given supplement to add to achieve a target level.
HTH,
Mariner

 

[bllfish]

I have a HOB fuge and have mine drip into its return section.

 

[returnofsid]

Avoid dripping into display if possible. If you have to drip into display, drip into a high flow area.