Stabilize alk, calc, and mag using what equipment?

[splix]

One area of equipment that is a little unknown to me is what do I need to stabilize my alk, calc, and mag?
I know about dosing pumps but is that the only way?
What are these Kalkwasser & Kalk Reactors? What do they do?
Also, is a calcium reactor tied into it or is it it's own reactor?

I'm just trying to get stable Calc, alk, and mag for when I'm traveling.

 

[CStrickland]

It's easy to use kalk in your ato to keep ca and alk up, but it's not great for raising them in the first place. A waterchange is sometimes enough to bring them into range
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/

Mag seems to move less, I haven't had to adjust it yet. The first thing is to figure out your tanks consumption by testing a lot for a few weeks so you have an idea of what is getting used up and whether you need to do anything more than waterchanges to manage it. Every tank is diff depending how "hungry" it is.

 

[MondoBongo]

kalk works great for low to moderate demand tanks.

sometimes it is used in conjunction with a calcium reactor to help keep the pH stable. since calcium reactors use CO2 to lower the pH of the water enough to dissolve the media (usually old coral skeletons or something similar) then can also have the effect of lowering pH in the tank. kalk can be used to counteract that. so calcium reactors are their own, separate thing, but kalk is dual purpose. it can be used as the only means of stabilizing cal/alk, or it can assist other mechanisms.

kalk can be dosed by hand, but it is far easier (and in my opinion better) to use a dosing pump on a timer, gravity drip system, or to place it in your ATO.

a kalk reactor, or kalk stirrer, keeps the water moving around the slurry, helping to keep the kalk dissolved at full concentration while letting contaminants settle out. they're not required, but they are a neat piece of kit. when i was using kalk, i just had it sitting in a reservoir (old 5 gallon tank) and would stir it by hand every few days when i needed to top it off.

mag is usually dosed on its own and by hand. test for it every so often and buffer accordingly. it gets depleted much more slowly than cal or alk, so it is easiest just to test and add by hand as you need it. i test my mag usually every 2 - 4 weeks, and adjust accordingly.

two part dosing is another way to stabilize your cal and alk. it's works well once your tanks starts to use up more than kalk can provide. this also can be dosed by hand, or via dosing pumps on a timer. i have just recently switched to this, as kalk wasn't able to keep up with the demands in my new tank.

i like it so far. it provides more dosing potency than kalk, but is actually fairly cheap. all i have is two reservoirs (large plastic containers) and two dosing pumps hooked up to timers. i test my cal and alk, and adjust the length of the timers as needed. with the mag, i treat it the same was as i did with kalk. test every 2 - 4 weeks and supplement by hand as needed.

you can dose two part by hand, but it's far easier (and again, in my opinion better) to run it on dosing pumps with timers. saves me from doing more work than i need to, and with the right kind of timer, like on an apex controller, i can actually dispense it in small amounts through the day and night, as opposed to letting it drop and spike.

 

[splix]

How do you keep your PH in check if you're using calc and alk dosing pumps? Do you add a vinegar dosing pump or something?

Amazing explanation btw, thank you very much for that!

 

[Sk8r]

Ph isn't so much a concern in a marine tank. It varies during any given day and fish and critters cope. In the ocean, given the right salinity and alkalinity, temperature and so on, sea water dissolves old coral beds and limestone, and keeps itself full of calcium and magnesium. All we do when we buffer the water (dkh buffer) and supply calcium and magnesium is duplicate that natural equilibrium...so the ph tends to ride in an acceptable range, and even if you accidentally overdose kalk, say, the resulting ph anomaly corrects itself so fast you usually don't have to do anything. If it's really serious overdose, a teaspoon of Shweppes Bar Soda (no kidding) per 50 gallons of tank, and it helps speed the correction. Even with a coral reef, there's no damage done.

 

[danil]

How do you keep your PH in check if you're using calc and alk dosing pumps? Do you add a vinegar dosing pump or something?

Amazing explanation btw, thank you very much for that!

PH isn't important if you keep your Alk and Calc levels. Good thing about kalk dosing you don't have to worry about levels too much. You first need to get them to proper levels and kalk will maintain those levels. It's a best way to start its cheap and simple. The most common way is dosing kalk with ATO. You dissolve kalk in your ATO water container and it will slowly get to your reef system. It's pretty safe as well since you can't overdose it. You can dump gallon of kalk into your ATO water container but it will only dissolves up to saturation point which is about two tsp per gallon. This principal is used in kalk reactors where water getting through big amount of kalk getting saturated and used for ATO.


GL

 

[MondoBongo]

How do you keep your PH in check if you're using calc and alk dosing pumps? Do you add a vinegar dosing pump or something?

Amazing explanation btw, thank you very much for that!

with small additions over the course of the day, or even with moderate additions by hand once a day, you shouldn't have to worry about spiking your pH too much.

not all two part mixes are created equal either. some have more potential to spike pH (like soda ash) than others.

i don't know that i would add vinegar to try to lower my pH, i would more than likely just cut the dosing until it came back down on its own. unless it was a large spike, then i would probably do a water change.

i'll be honest and say i haven't looked in to correcting too high a pH much. i wasn't aware that you could use Bar Soda as Sk8r suggested, but that's a pretty cool trick. i'm going to have keep that one in my back pocket, just in case the need ever arises.

i believe she means normal Soda Water?

 

[splix]

Ok sounds good. I know know with this seachem alk dose I have it will spike PH pretty hard, so I thought it might be a concern with all alk dosing.
I really like using kalk in the ATO method. I'm going to get on that band wagon shortly.