Confused in how start dosing Kalk

[Kamila89]

Hi everyone!!! I have a 135g tank,I’m dosing 2 parts Cal around 2.5ml/3ml per day and Kh around 4ml per day with a dosing pump.
My tank is a year old LPS dominant and I haven’t seen a mayor coral grow. I knew that ph is very important so I tried other methods to rise it from 7.8 to at least 8 which It’s right now but I’ll like to bump it just a bit higher to 8.3 so maybe that will help to coral grown. I wanted to tried Kalk since I started adding corals but I was scare to mess it up but I’m ready, I had order Avast Kalk stirred and ph controller.
My questions are I have a GHL 4 head doser can I use it with my Ato so can dose fresh water to the stirred? Or I need an independent dosing pump that pump slower that the one I have? The evaporation rate is around 3000ml per day,I’ll have to divide 3000 and 24?or how can calculate the exact dose?

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to Reef2Reef! I'm sure that others will jump in soon, but I wanted to specifically welcome you to this amazing forum!

 

[dwair]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[JL15219]

I'm sure someone with more knowledge about that will come along soon but just wanted to say Welcome to R2R glad to have you hear

 

[Isaac Alves]

Welcome!

I have the Avast kalk stirrer as well. I feed freshwater to it via a Versa dosing pump. Others use a continuous doser to drip all the time.

I personally would never tie my ato to kalk dosing -- but I'm in southern California so evaporation is very uneven due to air conditioning as well as just not giving me the control I want.

My experience was that I had to fiddle at the beginning to make sure I found the right balance of alk levels and pH and salinity.

Nowadays I don't even think about the ATO or even calcium levels. I do test once a week though and buff up calcium or mag as needed. I refresh the kalk stirrer once a week.

 

[PeterC99]

Welcome to R2R!

Whatever you do, start the Kalk dosing or ATO addition very, very slowly (1/8 recommendations). Strong stuff that can crash a tank. Easy to ramp up slowly.

 

[RedReefer]

Welcome to R2R! I have the same kalk stirrer and love it. I just started with the avast recommended amount of kalk in the stirrer. I run my stirrer with a avast ATO. Simply and works great for me.

 

[Fred2482]

Welcome!

 

[Not an IT guy]

Dosing in an ato is what I am using but you will go through impeller quick. I’ve gone through 4 in about 8 months span. Also dosing in the summer months evap can happen mush faster which would lead to more then you want to dose, depending on the environment I don’t have central air so my living rooms gets hot until I get my roller ac out. Then you have the opposite in the winter with little to no evap. Depends on your environment really.

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Hello and welcome to R2R. You'll find loads of great information here.

 

[Kamila89]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Thanks!!!

 

[Kamila89]

Hello and welcome to R2R. You'll find loads of great information here.

Thank u!!

 

[Kamila89]

Welcome to R2R!!!

Thanks!

 

[Kamila89]

Dosing in an ato is what I am using but you will go through impeller quick. I’ve gone through 4 in about 8 months span. Also dosing in the summer months evap can happen mush faster which would lead to more then you want to dose, depending on the environment I don’t have central air so my living rooms gets hot until I get my roller ac out. Then you have the opposite in the winter with little to no evap. Depends on your environment really.

I know a lot of people dose Kalk in their Ato but I heard is easy to overdose so I want to do it with a stirred but ’m confused in how figure out the dosage.

 

[Kamila89]

Welcome to R2R!

Whatever you do, start the Kalk dosing or ATO addition very, very slowly (1/8 recommendations). Strong stuff that can crash a tank. Easy to ramp up slowly.

Thank you!!! I know it’s a spoon of Kalk per 1G of fresh water. But I’m still confused is how much is a good start point it’s by dividing my water evaporation with the amount of hours that I want to dose? Or based on my Kh consumption ‍

 

[dwest]

Based off your 2 part addition, I would start to dose 150 ml of kalkwasser per day spaced out throughout the day and night if possible. Measure alkalinity every day initially and adjust kalk amount until you acheive your desired alkalinity. I would run the ATO independent of kalk.

Welcome!

 

[Kamila89]

Welcome to R2R! I have the same kalk stirrer and love it. I just started with the avast recommended amount of kalk in the stirrer. I run my stirrer with a avast ATO. Simply and works great for me.

Do u use a doser to pump the Ato water to the stirrer? How do you know how much did You have to dose trough of the day?

 

[dwest]

Do u use a doser to pump the Ato water to the stirrer? How do you know how much did You have to dose trough of the day?

Yes, I use a doser. I use a Spectrapure liter meter 3 but others work as well.

Mix up the kalkwasser according to the instructions from avast. Then, dose enough kalkwasser to achieve your desired alkalinity. Dose slowly 24/7.

Since you use 3-4ml of 2 part, you will likely need about 150 ml of kalk per day to start. Test alkalinity often at the start to get kalk dialed in.

 

[dwest]

I’m sorry, but I need to say I do not use my ATO for kalk. My ATO is separate.