Introducing kalk

[BuddyVanDoodle]

I am getting close to the point where I need to start dosing my tank. I bought a kalk stirrer and decided to go with kalk for many reasons. What I am curious about is how should I go about introducing it to the tank. How much do I add to stirrer, how often do I replace, etc. I have it inline with my ATO instead of a doser because my evaporation varies day to day. Any information would be helpful!

 

[Doh Boy]

Here is the product I have. If you have something similar with no instructions, I would wager the ratio and directions would be ok to use.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I am getting close to the point where I need to start dosing my tank. I bought a kalk stirrer and decided to go with kalk for many reasons. What I am curious about is how should I go about introducing it to the tank. How much do I add to stirrer, how often do I replace, etc. I have it inline with my ATO instead of a doser because my evaporation varies day to day. Any information would be helpful!

Kalk is great stuff. You should get good results. Which stirrer are you using? Usually you just load the stirrer with a certain amount and feed it with the ATO.

 

[Doh Boy]

I always used 2 tablespoons to 1 gallon and dripped into the tank. I used a container I made with a little valve and about a drop every 15 minutes or so. Of course this is gonna depend on your tank inhabitants and what parameters you want to maintain.

 

[BuddyVanDoodle]

Kalk is great stuff. You should get good results. Which stirrer are you using? Usually you just load the stirrer with a certain amount and feed it with the ATO.

I’m trying to figure out how much to add though. The stirrer itself holds one gallon . But everything I’ve read online says add “x” amount and replenish after two weeks. And it’s definitely more than half a table spoon

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Did the stirrer give you any directions on how much you could add. I had an Avast and it let me add up to 1/2 a cup. I would refill at 2 weeks and clean and refill each month.

I would think you could start with a 1/4 cup. The amount of Kalk you put into the stirrer is not the important part as much as the amount the ATO will dispense into your tank. Fresh RO will only absorb so much Kalk before it becomes saturated. The rest stays at the bottom being stirred. As kalk water is dispensed into the sump and fresh RO is added to the stirrer more powder will dissolve until the solution is saturated again. This keeps happening until the kalk is gone in the stirrer or what is left on the bottom does not dissolve. Then refill, or clean and refill.

The import part is monitoring you dosing in the beginning I and be sure to have it added to a high flow area.

 

[BuddyVanDoodle]

Did the stirrer give you any directions on how much you could add. I had an Avast and it let me add up to 1/2 a cup. I would refill at 2 weeks and clean and refill each month.

I would think you could start with a 1/4 cup. The amount of Kalk you put into the stirrer is not the important part as much as the amount the ATO will dispense into your tank. Fresh RO will only absorb so much Kalk before it becomes saturated. The rest stays at the bottom being stirred. As kalk water is dispensed into the sump and fresh RO is added to the stirrer more powder will dissolve until the solution is saturated again. This keeps happening until the kalk is gone in the stirrer or what is left on the bottom does not dissolve. Then refill, or clean and refill.

The import part is monitoring you dosing in the beginning I and be sure to have it added to a high flow area.

I have a small power head in the return section of sump where it will be dosed to

 

[Mastiffsrule]

if your stirrer holds a gallon, I would start off with 6 teaspoons to 1/4 cup. If I remember correct ( big if ) 2 teaspoons will saturate a gallon. So the rest should settle. That is the easy part. It can be easy to nuke the tank if you don’t monitor the dosing initially. Watch alk, it can creep up fast

 

[rmurken]

I wouldn’t worry too much. Agree with @Mastiffsrule on quantity. Be liberal with how much you add—the point of the stirrer is to have a pretty good excess of undissolved kalk that goes into solution when freshwater is added or to make up losses due to precipitation of CaCO3.

You’ll get a feel for it. But I wouldn’t worry about loading in too much powder as long as all you’re dosing is the clear, saturated liquid.

On the other hand, dosing too much of the solution into your tank, or dosing while it’s still cloudy...that could cause problems.

 

[Crustaceon]

Run the stirrer off of the doser and run the ato separately.

 

[blasterman]

The cloudiness is mostly calcium carbonate. It does not hurt your tank.

Kalk does the job of minimal two part dosing in one step, but if your ATO isn't consistent in terms of daily evap then neither is dosing kalk and it kind of defeats the purpose. As long as the dosing level doesn't send alk too high it's fine, kalk away and enjoy the pH boost. If your kalk dosing starts sending alk levels too high then just cut the amount of kalk powder you are mixing per gallon until you hit a comfort zone. Easy as that.

If its still not keeping up with alk depletion then you can increase the amount of kalk powder per gallon, but the wiggle room here is far less than reducing kalk. That's the brick wall most of us run into with kalk dosing.

I've experimented with using very heavy saturation levels of kalk powder per gallon and you do hit a wall, but it depends on the size of the tank. A 150 gal is going to handle a gallon kalk per day mixed at 3 tablespoons per gallon without preciptation more than a 25gal biocube.

 

[rmurken]

The cloudiness is mostly calcium carbonate. It does not hurt your tank.

Maybe won’t hurt with a 150, but in a smaller tank, cloudy kalk—especially freshly mixed—is going to be quite the alkaline kick. Older kalk that has been topped off a few times may be fine while still cloudy. Also settles faster.