I need some help with Kalkawasser

[St_Francis]

I'm going to add Kalkawasser to my tank for the first time, its been mixed up for about 3 hours now, I'm going to drip it from the buclet I mixed it, but I need to know how long should it sit in the bucket before adding it, and how fast should the drops be added?

[Reef Junkie]

Francis,
3 hours is plenty of time, even though some people liek to let it sit longer. Drip it out and about 2 drops per second. If you have a pH monitor then you'll be able to tell whether you're going too fast. Otherwise, I don't think you'll have a problem with the 2 drops per.
Good luck,
Capt Cupcake :cool:

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[Fogcutter]

So how does that work then? You keep dripping untill you get the right ph or by dripping do you mean you have a doser?

[6-line]

Hi,
You drip it to keep the ph from skyrocketing. Too much too soon doesn't dilute into the tank water. Technically, this is dosing because all a doser does it introduce the kalk at a predetermined/calibrated rate, at least the ones I've seen. This is why kalk is often dripped at night vice during the day due to ph swing to lower measures at night, thus reducing the possibility of ph surges.

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[Staceon]

Fogcutter,

Here is my Kalk doser:

I use a gallon jug. Cut small hole in plastic cap and put in airline that sits about 1 inch off bottom of jug. Next attach that airline to air valve adjuster, you can use cheap little one found at LFS. Some valves have multiple opening/exits, doesn't matter which one you use because you will only be using one of the holes. Now with airline coming out of jug, attached to air valve, now need to attach another airline to exit hole. Here comes the fun part: suck to start the siphon(I actually blow first to see bubbles in jug than suck, seems to make better siphon this way). Lastly adjust drip rate. Slower the drip the better. You can play around to see how slow you can drip without stopping siphon. Addeed tip is to have cup around to start siphon in and adjust drip into that.

[Agu]

Staceon, You can make a cheap kalk dripper without getting a mouth full of kalk. Drill two holes in the lid of the jug(I use plastic milk cartons) slightly smaller than your tubeing. Insert one piece to within one inch of the bottom and put the airline valve on the output end of that line, this is where the kalk drips out. Insert another piece of tubeing in the second hole so it's in the jug but above the level of kalk in the jug (if it's in the kalk it'll back siphon). Just blow into the second tube and it'll force kalk into the output tube starting your siphon. Then just adjust the drip rate and you're set. Agu

[OrionN]

Just one thing to add. Becareful about the rate. You can kill things in yout tank if you add too fast. For my 100 gal tank I run the one gallon kalk over three hours or so to the highest flow area of my tank (the container to break the force of the water as it drain into my sump). I have added them over 30 min before, which result in stress for coral and fish but did not kill any.
It is OK to add the powder on top of the mixture (CaCO3) but don't add any of the powder on the bottom of the mix. This is pecipitaed impurities, and undisolved CaOH.


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[Finman]

I just got off the phone with John at Kent Marine in technical support. I have a 5 gal iv Kent doser. The directions were pretty limited so I wanted to make sure that I didn't dose to much and have pH shock. Here is what we came up with. There are 3.78 liters per gal. 1000 milliters equal a liter. 50 drips equal 5 ml. So you have 37,800 drips per gal. 26.25 drips per minute. If you drip 4.3 drips per second you will dose 1 gallon every 24 hours. Hope that helps.