Dosing kalkwasser

[Thomas Wieczorek]

I have a seemingly easy question to answer. How much fully saturated kalk liquid should I dose (using a doseing pump) for a 140g total volume mixed reef whose daily alk consumption is 0.03???? @Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

I have a seemingly easy question to answer. How much fully saturated kalk liquid should I dose (using a doseing pump) for a 140g total volume mixed reef whose daily alk consumption is 0.03???? (This is my second post like this in the first I tagged @Randy Holmes-Farley only, I'm making a second post asking for anyone to chime in who has an idea on how much I should be dosing kalk. Thank you so much in advance

 

[AZMSGT]

My tanks system is about 30g bigger than yours. I also have low Alk consumption but it’s increasing all the time due to growth. I use a Icecap Kalk stirrer and dose RODI through it. My system is set so I can adjust everything from a tablet or smart phone in an app. I make changes on the fly.

Take a look at any of the Kalk stirrers on the market and consider the option to dose through them esspecially with your low alk usage at the moment.

 

[SMSREEF]

You can use this calculator to figurout dosing.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[dwest]

Scaling it down from my tank, I would estimate about 1/3 liter per day. You could safely add that amount the first day and adjust from there. I would check alkalinity the same time every day until I get it dialed in. You could even start with less if you are nervous. I dose mine very slowly throughout the day.

 

[Retro Reefer]

this may help.. just select Kalk on the drop down menu under alkalinity.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

I've used the calculator but isn't that to get from param A to param B? I would like a hourly ml # to dose. I was hoping someone with a standard 120g display and 40 breeder sump that doses kalk via a doser could help with a starting point #

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I presume the 0.03 is in units of dKH and that is per day. That seems extraordinarily low. You sure?

It is too low to worry about, if true. Water changes will offset it easily.

But, answering the question using the calculator above, it is 130 mL a day of saturated limewater to 140 gallons to boost alk by 0.03 dKH per day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'll merge these two duplicate threads.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've used the calculator but isn't that to get from param A to param B? I would like a hourly ml # to dose. I was hoping someone with a standard 120g display and 40 breeder sump that doses kalk via a doser could help with a starting point #

If you want to go up 0.03 (seems crazy low, but so be it), you pick a random starting point, like 7.00 to 7.03 dKH. I did it in your other thread.

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

After some of my own math I came up with 17.5 ml an hr......does that sound about right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

After some of my own math I came up with 17.5 ml an hr......does that sound about right?

I'm going to lock this thread so we don't keep having two identical threads. The number is not exactly right. See the other one.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

OK, they are merged now.

How did you get 0.03 dKH?

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

If you want to go up 0.03 (seems crazy low, but so be it), you pick a random starting point, like 7.00 to 7.03 dKH. I did it in your other thread.

OK, they are merged now.

How did you get 0.03 dKH?

By testing with a hanna checker at exactly 6p.m every night and my numbers kept dropping by .3 ex. 8.0 day1 7.7 day 2 7.4 day 3 and so on

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

Here's my recorded numbers for 5 days. ...not sure why one day it was the same (maybe the checkers tolerance) ??

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

OK, 0.3 dKH is on the low end and close to the limit of accuracy of detection, but a lot higher than the 0.03 you originally reported.

It will take about 1400 mL per day total, or 58 mL per hour, of saturated kalkwasser to meet that demand.

note that the demand may rise a bit as the limewater will boost pH, which boosts demand for alk and calciu.

Demand is also higher when alk is higher. So is higher each day at 8 dKH than at 7 dKH.

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

Omg, I'm so sorry I was saying 0.03?!?!? Yea I meant 0.3 ughhh. I appreciate you so much. I'll start my hrly dose at 50 and keep a close eye on the alk. That much kalk in a single dose is not too much? Like raising my p.h to much to fast?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Omg, I'm so sorry I was saying 0.03?!?!? Yea I meant 0.3 ughhh. I appreciate you so much. I'll start my hrly dose at 50 and keep a close eye on the alk. That much kalk in a single dose is not too much? Like raising my p.h to much to fast?

No, that much (50 or even 150 mL) is fine at once. Just add it to a high flow area away from corals.

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

Also a quick back story. I originally started this aquarium by using kalk in my ato. All was well. Corals looked great. I eventually got my apex and hanna checker and started keeping track of my numbers and realized that the ato method was giving me unstable dkh#s sooooo I got myself a doser and esv bionic 2part I was dosing 2ml of each every other hour (12noon part 1,.... 1p.m part 2....2p.m part 1.....and so on.... all of the sudden my emrald crabs ALL died. Then some corals died. The tank was not the same ....I sent out an icp test and potassium seems to be really high......my theory is my demand is so low that the other elements in this 2 part added up??? I dunno. So now I'm going back to kalk on a more stable doseing scedual then ato

 

[Thomas Wieczorek]

One other last question....with a .3 daily consumption of alk is there a way to figure out my calcium daily ##? I'm asking because I would like to dose the right amount of redsea colors program. Bottel A,B,C and D.