Kalk dosing question

[Brew12]

It seems like this should be easy but I'm finding that it isn't as straight forward as I would hope. I've found Kalk dosing via my ATO system very inconsistent and want to improve in this area. My plan...

Get a 5 gallon bucket and use a doser to add metered amounts multiple times a day.

My questions.

My understanding is that I can add more Kalk than would be needed for full saturation and the rest will settle out. By doing this, as some interacted with CO2 more would be dissolved giving me more consistent kalk content. Is this correct?

Since I want (almost) fully saturated kalk and not risk particulate, there would be no advantage to running a stirrer. Correct?

Is there a calculator that would roughly tell me how much fully saturated kalk water would be needed to raise dkh for a given tank volume?

 

[Brew12]

Just found this amazing resource, so that answers my calculator question!
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My understanding is that I can add more Kalk than would be needed for full saturation and the rest will settle out. By doing this, as some interacted with CO2 more would be dissolved giving me more consistent kalk content. Is this correct?

Since I want (almost) fully saturated kalk and not risk particulate, there would be no advantage to running a stirrer. Correct?

IMO, a stirrer is not optimal, but certainly can work. You can add all the excess calcium hydroxide you want and it just settles out (might take overnight), but if not stirring, the solids do not necessarily dissolve to saturate the water. Even when a kalk stirrer is stirring that doesn't necessarily happen unless the whole solution gets cloudy with solids.

You can measure the potency by conductivity (10.2 mS/cm or so is saturated).

 

[Brew12]

IMO, a stirrer is not optimal, but certainly can work. You can add all the excess calcium hydroxide you want and it just settles out (might take overnight), but if not stirring, the solids do not necessarily dissolve to saturate the water. Even when a kalk stirrer is stirring that doesn't necessarily happen unless the whole solution gets cloudy with solids.

You can measure the potency by conductivity (10.2 mS/cm or so is saturated).

Great, thanks!

I'll just mix it to 2tsp per gallon with no stirrer and call it good. I can always adjust my dosing rate or supplement with 2 part as long as I get a fair amount of consistency.