Randy Holmes-Farley
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Do you know anything about the demand daily for alk?
Has anyone used kalkwasser on a dosing pump?
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Do you know anything about the demand daily for alk?
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We would really need an idea of consumption and coral load. I still use my kalk in an ATO but it’s at maximum concentration and I still have to supplement with 2 part.
ReefGeezer
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I dose kalk with a Litremeter III. The 24 hour dose is slightly less than my minimum evaporation rate. The ATO makes up the rest. That way, I get a stable dose regardless of the seasonal evaporation rate changes.
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If you do nothing, what is the alkalinity and is it dropping day to day or week to week?
If not, you do not need any.
Ross Petersen
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Following along this thread... trying to get a sense for the feasibility of SOLEY dosing (via a doser) kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide) and supplemented with water changes twice/month to replenish nutrients.
IM Nuvo 40 gallon setup with about 10 LPS and 6 small but growing SPS frags.
IM Nuvo 40 gallon setup with about 10 LPS and 6 small but growing SPS frags.
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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IMO, it can satisify the needs for calcium and alk in many mixed tanks (it did in mine), but you may benefit from dosed trace elements (e.g., iron).
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Beauty. Kalk dosed via an ATO I would presume? 2 tsp/gallon or so?
Ross Petersen
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Thanks. My only concern with kalk is killing my Tunze 3155 ATO pump and or interfering with its optical sensor. The latter happened to me when dosing kalk via the ATO.
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2 teaspoons per gallon is about saturated. Adding more will not dissolve.
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As Randy said, only about 10 teaspoons would dissolve in a 5 gallon jug, although a little extra doesn't hurt.
I add the dry powder first (not the textbook adding acid or base to water), then pour in the water and stir well, then don't touch again.
You might consider letting the alk drift down to 7 or so. The consumption may drop a bit. There will be less precipitation, although possibly a little slower growth. You can also use kalk *only, and then bolus dose alk every once in a while, so you don't have to set up another doser for alk.
That's what I figured but when I checked with an EC pen, it only measured above 8.3. No matter how much more kalk I add, I can't get it to 10.3. I'm thinking of going back to dosing it through my ato and then supplementing through the doser to keep my alk where I want it to be. Since switching to the doser method, my ph has been tanking.
