Adding DIY 2-Part Alkalinity to ATO?

[reef_ninja]

I dose about 10-15 mls of the alkalinity part of Randy's DIY 2-part every few days or so, wondering if I can keep things a little more steady if I add this to to ATO reservoir instead? My only concern would be hardened build-up, if that's even a concern, but wondering what other folks think?

I dont want to add kalk to the ATO because my calcium consumption is nowhere near what the bicarb consumption is, calcium stays pretty stable. Thoughts?

 

[HuduVudu]

I dose about 10-15 mls of the alkalinity part of Randy's DIY 2-part every few days or so, wondering if I can keep things a little more steady if I add this to to ATO reservoir instead? My only concern would be hardened build-up, if that's even a concern, but wondering what other folks think?

I dont want to add kalk to the ATO because my calcium consumption is nowhere near what the bicarb consumption is, calcium stays pretty stable. Thoughts?

Evaporation is not consistent. This is an issue as your coral consumption is fairly consistent. Better to just get dosers.

Adding Kalk to ATO's requires consistent maintenance so that you don't burn pumps.

Some things for you to think about. First I am not sure of your load but my guess is it is very light because you aren't needing to dose calcium. If you use Kalk you won't need to worry as much about water changes because it is going in balancedish. The amount of Kalk you are dosing will not raise your calcium to ridiculous levels. Kalk would be a good choice for your load IMO. Using just the Alk part of two part will change your Na (Sodium) levels. Depending on how much you use this will necessitate regular water changes, but has the benefit of allow you to chase numbers. Also if you does the Calcium part of the two part you will get the Cl (Chloride) and this will slow down possibly how many water changes you do. To note though depending on how much you use your specific gravity will raise. So no matter how you look at two part you are going to be water changing.

Either way will work it just depends on which one works best for your situation.

 

[reef_ninja]

Evaporation is not consistent. This is an issue as your coral consumption is fairly consistent. Better to just get dosers.

Adding Kalk to ATO's requires consistent maintenance so that you don't burn pumps.

Some things for you to think about. First I am not sure of your load but my guess is it is very light because you aren't needing to dose calcium. If you use Kalk you won't need to worry as much about water changes because it is going in balancedish. The amount of Kalk you are dosing will not raise your calcium to ridiculous levels. Kalk would be a good choice for your load IMO. Using just the Alk part of two part will change your Na (Sodium) levels. Depending on how much you use this will necessitate regular water changes, but has the benefit of allow you to chase numbers. Also if you does the Calcium part of the two part you will get the Cl (Chloride) and this will slow down possibly how many water changes you do. To note though depending on how much you use your specific gravity will raise. So no matter how you look at two part you are going to be water changing.

Either way will work it just depends on which one works best for your situation.

Nice deduction: my load is pretty light right now, but that will be changing soon.

Maybe I dont understand the chemistry as much as I thought. Given that evaporation is inconsistent, why is adding Kalk to the ATO a seemingly good idea, but not 2-Part Alk? What makes them different that one is appropriate for ATO and the other not? (Not questioning your advice, just cursious about rational)

 

[BlennyTime]

When I first started out, I added alkalinity to my top off water. Worked pretty well, but evaporation wasn’t consistent so the parameter would swing. That went away when I started dosing kalk, and my corals appreciated it too. A dosing pump is nice because you can spread it out throughout the day.

 

[reef_ninja]

That would be two votes for dosing pumps from you guys. Ill put that on the Christmas list my wife asks for every year! lol

Appreciate the feedback, think Ill just leave the ATO out of it for now.