How to size ato/limewater?

[Cory]

Im curious what is a safe size for fully saturated limewater if it dumped into the tank? Container size / tank size

Same with fresh water top off. How much fresh water all at once would only reduce thr salinity by 1ppt?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Im curious what is a safe size for fully saturated limewater if it dumped into the tank? Container size / tank size

Same with fresh water top off. How much fresh water all at once would only reduce thr salinity by 1ppt?

I'm not sure I can answer that. I do use calcium hydroxide in my ATO top off.

For lowering SG, A cup of saltwater and add fresh till it lowered it 1ppt. Multiply the cup to total volume of saltwater and multiply the amount that it took to lower it 1ppt. That should give you the total amount of freshwater needed to lower it.

Of course, depending on if it was your DT, you wouldn't dump it all in at one time. This depends on what's in the DT.

 

[theMeat]

Why not put kalk in with your fresh water top off?

How big is tank?
How much water do you use for top off a week?

 

[Cory]

My concern is if it went in all at once. What would be annacceptable amount? 10% of the tank volume? The purpose is to size the ato/limewater containers to prevent any disasters.

 

[Flippers4pups]

My concern is if it went in all at once. What would be annacceptable amount? 10% of the tank volume? The purpose is to size the ato/limewater containers to prevent any disasters.

I would look at it from this perspective, an ATO Reservoir no larger than your system can hold. More from a flood issue.

Excessive amount of calcium hydroxide dumped into a system, via a ATO malfunction, even at Max saturation, would only cause a precipitation event. (Cloudy, milky water, "snow" in the system) a temporary rise in PH would occur till saturation, then it would stabilize as the calcium percipitated out. If the ATO Reservoir isn't too large, the event would be manageable and shouldnt result in many losses, if any.

 

[Cory]

Flooding isnt an issue its more about killing the livestock.

If ph were to raise higher than 8.6 then id get worried. Ao id like to limit the ph to 8.6

Id also like to limit the salinity drop to 1ppt

 

[Cory]

Why not put kalk in with your fresh water top off?

How big is tank?
How much water do you use for top off a week?

I have a brute for limewater and a brute trashcan for pure water. System volume is 350 gallons.

 

[theMeat]

Get a container for your auto top off with a pretty tight fitting lid, that will hold about a weeks worth of water. Any longer than a week and the limewater looses its effect. Without a decent lid that happens faster.

Get an auto top off that doesn’t rely on mechanical float switches. I have been using hydro smart level for years with no issue. It takes a lil dialing in, but then it’s fill ato and forget. Until you hear the alarm, then you know it’s empty and time to refill

 

[theMeat]

I have a brute for limewater and a brute trashcan for pure water. System volume is 350 gallons.

How are you currently adding limewater?

 

[Cory]

How are you currently adding limewater?

Via ghl profilux. I dose 24 times a day 20 ml iirc.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Flooding isnt an issue its more about killing the livestock.

If ph were to raise higher than 8.6 then id get worried. Ao id like to limit the ph to 8.6

Id also like to limit the salinity drop to 1ppt

I think @Randy Holmes-Farley, could answer that better than me, but I believe it would start to drop before it went too high. I've had this exact event happen to me in a smaller system before in the past. Turned my whole tank into a milky, non see through mess. Nothing died. No fish, no corals. Once it settled and cleared, everything was covered in a layer of white precipitation. Snow. Sucked up all I could during a water change.

The SG drop was small and I adjusted it over the course of a couple of days. That ATO Reservoir was only five gallons on a 70 gallon total water volume system.

 

[theMeat]

I keep it simple. I add kalk to ato water. With hydro smart level or the likes. It has alarm and auto shut down for too much water, too little water, and if it takes too long to fill

Have been doing it for years

 

[Flippers4pups]

I have a 16 gallon ATO Reservoir on my 180 gallon total water system. If it was full and dumped all of it contents in to my system, my sump would have the room to handle it all. A precipitation event would occur and the SG would drop a little, but it would be manageable and easily cleaned up with no losses.

If my ATO Reservoir was larger, say a 32 gallon, it would flood my basement and cause the SG to drop considerably. Could kill everything in my system.

Smaller reservior means filling more often, but gives piece of mind.

I use a electronic redundant float switch for top off.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A safe upper limit is about 1% of the tank volume at once, and that’s not a good idea to plan on. pH will instantly jump about 0.5 pH units.

 

[Cory]

A safe upper limit is about 1% of the tank volume at once, and that’s not a good idea to plan on. pH will instantly jump about 0.5 pH units.

Thanks. Thats only 3.5 gallons in my system . What if that was delivered slowly? Like 1ml per minute.