From 2- Part to Kalk

[dburt520]

Hello,

I apologize in advance if this gets a little lengthy....

I was looking to make the switch to Kalk from 2 part dosing and had a few questions that I hope someone can assist with.

My system is about 220 gallons total (actual water volume) and I am using a Spectrapure UPLC-II as an ATO. I have my RODI water storage located in the garage (mixing station set up, ATO pulls from RODI side through attic and directly into tank) and because of that I don't really have the option of mixing the Kalk with in my top off tank.

I wanted to verify that my top off setup will work with a Kalk Stirrer. I don't have the ability to adjust the flow rate of my top off pump, only the sensitivity of the sensors as well as the ATO pump ON time. Will this setup be OK going through a Kalk Reactor?

I have 20 gallons of RODI storage for top off water, it lasts me about 10-12 days on average. Can I get the appropriate ratio of Kalk/top off in that type of water volume/evaporation without driving my levels up? The main reason for the switch is a constant battle of low PH, so I am looking for a solution to assist with that. (7.6-7.7 daily... the second I open a window it goes to 8.1 - unfortunately I can only open a window about 4 months a year living in Phoenix Arizona).

Thank you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I used limewater on ATO for 20 years and it worked fine as the only source of calcium and alkalinity aside from water changes.

How much dKH per day were you dosing with the two part?

 

[dburt520]

Not very much... 41ml of Alk solution.

 

[dragon99]

You might be better off putting Kalk on a doser. If you are running only 41ml of Alk now, it would only take ~0.5g/day of saturated limewater to match the Alk contribution. Based on above you are evaporating almost 2g per day.

 

[dragon99]

I used this calculator.
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

You might want to check my math. I tend to make mistakes.