Dosing Kalk

[pickront]

Whats a good drip rate for dosing Kalk and how often should I do.

I'm using an Kent Marine Acudoser.

Thanks

[Nagel]

I drip kalk into my 29g mixed reef on a nightly basis. The reason you do it at night, is that typically your pH will go down in the night, and kalk has a high pH. By dosing at night, you tend to keep the pH swings to a minimum. Dosing during the day when your pH is already high will only make your pH climb even more, only to drop during the night a greater amount. For example, typical pH in the day in my tank is about 8.3, and at night it is 8.0. If I dose at night, I can keep my pH a little closer to 8.3, maybe 8.2. If I dosed during the day, my daytime pH would be higher (8.5-8.6) and drop to 8.0 at night.

As for how fast to drip, I made my own doser and I use a gang valve for airline tubing to adjust my drip rate. On the average I have it dripping about 1 drip every 1-3 seconds. I only dose 1 gallon of kalk per night, and this is enough to make up for the evaporation that occured during that day.

If you are topping off with RO/DI water AND dosing, you may slow it down so that you drop every 3-5 seconds so it lasts through the night, and if you have a larger tank, you can obviously drip it a little faster. The key point is to make sure it is dripping in and not pouring in in a steady stream.

HTH

[mgk65]

From another perspective, I drip all day to combat evaporation.

I use a dosing system or top off system that will drip water into the aquarium.

Evaporation is around 1.5-2g per day.

In addition, my calcium and alkalinity demand is high, with two clams, 15 SPS frags, and tons of other stuff....


mgk

p.s. HI erik!

mgk

[Nagel]

Just to note

Either way is fine to dose :) The only way you dont really want to dose is during the daytime only. Either at night, or 24/7, but not daytime only.

ps. hey mgk, how's it going? That caulerpa is growing like wildfire! Nice export there.

[tilly]

I'm thinking about using kalk. I have about a 1/2 gallon per day of evaporation in my 55g. I've also had a lot of trouble with keeping my calcium up. It will come up some with additives, but drop right back down to 330.
My question....
I have an eco-system and my pH is always rock steady at 8.2. How would that affect my pH? Drip all day? My alk is in the optimum range too.
Tilly

[rreynell]

Tilly, how so you like that ecosystem, I'm thinking of getting the hangon version for my 46g bowfrnt. They say you dont need a skimmer once it gets setup:confused: Thanks, Roger

[mgk65]

The limewater may or may not affect your pH, Ca or alk. It depends on the amount of evaporation and the demand your tank has for those things.

I dose limewater exclusively for top off. My alk slowly goes down from 13 or so. I boost it every 3-4 weeks with SeaChem Reef Builder.

My limewater is spiked with vinegar to increase the amount of Ca and carbonate in the water.

For my tank, an alkalinity of 13-14 dKH (4.6 meq/l) and a Ca of 450 does well. I rarely add anything more than vinegar spiked limewater.

Limewater is a perfectly balanced addition and does not result in any ionic imbalences; something that can happen with Kent Turbo Calcium or using a single part of any two parter like B-Ionic.

mgk

[tilly]

rreynell, I really like my eco-system. It is very stable. About the only problem I've had is keeping the calcium up. If you go to their website, they have some good articles written independently about the system.
tilly