ATO used as Kalk Doser?

[ryecoon]

This is one of those times where doing more could just induce more stress. Also 9 scoops is quite a bit, have you determined that your corals are absorbing enough calcium that you need to resupply that much?

Excessive calcium will induce a "snow storm" effect and can be stressful.

I would take your time to do a normal water change when you can, but not with Kalk mix. Maybe even hold off on the lime water and run some additional tests.

okay thank you..Thats what i will do. All my corals are sucked up right now and secreting ooze.

 

[watdachuck]

Good deal, let us know how things come along...

 

[xthunderx]

I did kalk in my ato for nearly 3 years with great success, but it's not without it's challenges. First, kalk can crash your tank if it's overdosed, so I knew I needed the most reliable ATO I could find. For me that was the Tunze Osmolator. Second, I found that corals did their best with tiny little additions many times a day. The osmolator delivers this due to it's high sensitivity. Lastly, I did play with the saturation, but eventually I did full saturation as my corals grew.

Quick overview of my process:
1. Fill my ATO reservoir.
2. Mix at 2 tablespoons / gallon with a pump by slowly adding kalk powder to the container with the pump mixing at the same time.
3. Let the mixture settle for a couple of hours (usually I would run an errand or two).
4. Start ATO and let the dosing begin.

After this process I wouldn't disturb or mix anymore. I would just leave it alone until the reservoir was emptied.

Good luck.

 

[mfinn]

I did kalk in my ato for nearly 3 years with great success, but it's not without it's challenges. First, kalk can crash your tank if it's overdosed, so I knew I needed the most reliable ATO I could find. For me that was the Tunze Osmolator. Second, I found that corals did their best with tiny little additions many times a day. The osmolator delivers this due to it's high sensitivity. Lastly, I did play with the saturation, but eventually I did full saturation as my corals grew.

Quick overview of my process:
1. Fill my ATO reservoir.
2. Mix at 2 tablespoons / gallon with a pump by slowly adding kalk powder to the container with the pump mixing at the same time.
3. Let the mixture settle for a couple of hours (usually I would run an errand or two).
4. Start ATO and let the dosing begin.

After this process I wouldn't disturb or mix anymore. I would just leave it alone until the reservoir was emptied.

Good luck.

You say that you use 2 table spoons per gallon of water?

I've read that 2 teaspoons per gallon of water will reach a full saturation.

Maybe a typo?

 

[xthunderx]

You say that you use 2 table spoons per gallon of water?

I've read that 2 teaspoons per gallon of water will reach a full saturation.

Maybe a typo?

For sure a typo! Teaspoons!!! Thanks for the correction.

 

[ryecoon]

I did kalk in my ato for nearly 3 years with great success, but it's not without it's challenges. First, kalk can crash your tank if it's overdosed, so I knew I needed the most reliable ATO I could find. For me that was the Tunze Osmolator. Second, I found that corals did their best with tiny little additions many times a day. The osmolator delivers this due to it's high sensitivity. Lastly, I did play with the saturation, but eventually I did full saturation as my corals grew.

Quick overview of my process:
1. Fill my ATO reservoir.
2. Mix at 2 tablespoons / gallon with a pump by slowly adding kalk powder to the container with the pump mixing at the same time.
3. Let the mixture settle for a couple of hours (usually I would run an errand or two).
4. Start ATO and let the dosing begin.

After this process I wouldn't disturb or mix anymore. I would just leave it alone until the reservoir was emptied.

Good luck.

If my tank did crash due to Kalk overdose. What steps should i do next after waterchanges? I did about 3 water changes of 5 gallons in one week. Should i still dose kalk to the new water? or dilute what i have remaining in my reservoir? I think i might have did too much of a waterchange and removed some good bacteria. Should i add some bio-spira marine?

 

[ryecoon]

Sorry for too many questions. I want to salvage what corals are left and prevent this from happening again. Btw i recently installed a sump that added 10 more gallons of volume. thats when i started seeing more of the effect of the crash. Cant pinpoint what was the problem. The Added sump or the overdose. Maybe both ?

 

[xcountryx]

If it were me I would just lay off on the kalk at the moment and just do water changes. I was running kalk myself in an ato an d think I may have over dosed some how. I checked my parameters last nite they were
Ph 8.4
Alk 12-13
Cal 520
So as of today I stopped dosing kalk and will just be adding ro/di water to my top off till my parameters level back out

 

[xcountryx]

Oh and I wouldn't put the biospira in just wait it out the corals might be fine. If they are dieing for sure the skin will start receding from the base IME

 

[ryecoon]

I checked my parameters.

Cal- 380
Alk- 7 dkh
Ph- 7.8
Nitrate- 0
Ammonia- 0
Phosphate- 0
Salinity- 1.023
Temp- 81

Everything started going downhill for my corals and fish once i added the sump with PVC Piping. I wonder if it was the pvc cement and primer used to bond the pipes. The water is foggy also.

 

[xcountryx]

I'm assuming the foggyness is from either to much kalk or kalk that wasn't settled when used. I had the same problem. Just do water changed. Stop with the kalk it will clear up and everything should be fine

 

[xthunderx]

Fogginess sounds like precipitation, which indicates too much kalk too quickly. Best thing to do is to prevent these types of events, but since that's in the past, here what I would do:

1. Stop adding Kalk in your ATO completely.
2. Wait until fogginess clears up completely.
3. Once fogginess is gone, you can resume Kalk additions, but only at half potency. 1 teaspoon per gallon is a good start.

Good luck.

 

[ryecoon]

Fogginess sounds like precipitation, which indicates too much kalk too quickly. Best thing to do is to prevent these types of events, but since that's in the past, here what I would do:

1. Stop adding Kalk in your ATO completely.
2. Wait until fogginess clears up completely.
3. Once fogginess is gone, you can resume Kalk additions, but only at half potency. 1 teaspoon per gallon is a good start.

Good luck.

I was actually using less then 1 teaspoon per gallon originally. 9 teaspoons for my 13 gallon reservoir