Kalk Reactor Vs Dosing Pump
- Thread starter zemuss
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nhbsab
Community Member
Where in FL? I am using the ghl stand alone doser (first one). I had used Calcium reactors for years but I have not used kalk reactors. I have dosed kalk on all my reefs until the demand (amount dosed) was higher than my ATO evaporation. The only advice I can give is that not all dosers are the same. Don't compare a bubble magnus doser with a deltec kalk reactor. I have not had to touch my ghl in two months but I check my KH every 4 (min) days. My dosers allow me to dose seperate products and still use my ato for less precise additives. I am going back to a Ca reactor but I am keeping with the doser for the coloration additives
mcarroll
10K Club member
If you can use a test kit and reef calculator, I don't see why one should be more accurate than the other. The same pump could run either system.
Simplicity is the reason to pick limewater...and maybe also cost for some.
Flexibility in dosing Ca and alk seperately is what sets apart two-part.
Not only that, but why pick? They go well together when your colonies get bigger!
I stack my alk maintainance procedures in this order, as needed:
Water changes - up to 20%/week.
Two-part - easier to get familiar with this and testing when doses are very small.
Limewater - will cut back your need for two-part chemicals a bit, and you'll just run the reactor at max. I even run a little vinegar through my Tunze kalk reactor to boot output.
-Matt
Simplicity is the reason to pick limewater...and maybe also cost for some.
Flexibility in dosing Ca and alk seperately is what sets apart two-part.
Not only that, but why pick? They go well together when your colonies get bigger!
I stack my alk maintainance procedures in this order, as needed:
Water changes - up to 20%/week.
Two-part - easier to get familiar with this and testing when doses are very small.
Limewater - will cut back your need for two-part chemicals a bit, and you'll just run the reactor at max. I even run a little vinegar through my Tunze kalk reactor to boot output.
-Matt
jt17
Valuable Member
I used a kalk stirrer for a while but switched to dosing for several reasons. Evaporation from my tank is variable if we have windows open or ac on so the top off varied. My tank used up more alk than ca so I still had to dose ca. Also when I would top off my kalk I would sometimes see a ph spike. My tank is only a year old and as it matures and the demand for ca and alk increase I may return to the kalk again. One advantage kalk has is the boost in ph you just have keep it consistent.
OP
OP
Kalk reactor vs Dosing Pumps.
The reason I ask is my evaporation is pretty high with the fans blowing over the top of the water. Using a dosing pump would allow me not to worry so much about over dosing through the Kalk Reactor. I usually dump a table spoon of kalk powder into the reactor each week. However, lately I noticed some corals are turning white and wondering if me Alk is spiking during the day to burn the corals.
So I thought maybe its time to get a dosing pump but which one?
The reason I ask is my evaporation is pretty high with the fans blowing over the top of the water. Using a dosing pump would allow me not to worry so much about over dosing through the Kalk Reactor. I usually dump a table spoon of kalk powder into the reactor each week. However, lately I noticed some corals are turning white and wondering if me Alk is spiking during the day to burn the corals.
So I thought maybe its time to get a dosing pump but which one?
CoryC
Valuable Member
I use the BRS Drew's Dosing pumps. Extremely reliable, if you have a controller this is the way to go. No need for two microprocessors. If not you can just use them with a sprinkler timer or similar.
mcarroll
10K Club member
Technicality, but it would not be an alkalinity spike unless you are overloading the lime compared with demand indicated in testing. Correcting your dose of lime using a reef calculator will fix this.
Giving you the benefit of the doubt on your dosing level, what's really going on is that as the limewater dissolves into tank water it sucks all the CO2 out, raising pH. It would be more correct to think of your tank as having insufficient CO2 (or carbon) to react fully with the lime, causing the pH to spike.
I would still set up a reactor (eg Tunze 5074) inline with your current ATO rather than a special dosing pump. It will give you a better, more consistent dose and make it a lot easier to control the dose.
Having plenty of ATO throughput is a blessing not a curse!
Also, mixing just a little vinegar with your lime (I do 30mL/5 gal RODI) would also take the edge off of any pH spikes being generated (probably eliminate them completely)...as well as also giving you a better quality dose of limewater.
Hope this helps!
-Matt
Giving you the benefit of the doubt on your dosing level, what's really going on is that as the limewater dissolves into tank water it sucks all the CO2 out, raising pH. It would be more correct to think of your tank as having insufficient CO2 (or carbon) to react fully with the lime, causing the pH to spike.
I would still set up a reactor (eg Tunze 5074) inline with your current ATO rather than a special dosing pump. It will give you a better, more consistent dose and make it a lot easier to control the dose.
Having plenty of ATO throughput is a blessing not a curse!
Also, mixing just a little vinegar with your lime (I do 30mL/5 gal RODI) would also take the edge off of any pH spikes being generated (probably eliminate them completely)...as well as also giving you a better quality dose of limewater.
Hope this helps!
-Matt
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OP
OP
mcarroll,
Do you mix the Kalk Powder up then add it to the RODI holding tank? I usually add it directly to the reactor turn the mixer on and disable the ATO for a few hours while the mixer does its job. What i am really trying to avoid is the spikes which I can only assume because of coral turning white.
Do you mix the Kalk Powder up then add it to the RODI holding tank? I usually add it directly to the reactor turn the mixer on and disable the ATO for a few hours while the mixer does its job. What i am really trying to avoid is the spikes which I can only assume because of coral turning white.
Pappy
Valuable Member
Ok cool! I am running both. I mainly am using the kalk for ph purposes. It can't keep up with demand so added dosing pumps a few months back. I got the marine color triple dosing pump through a recommendation from a friend who's had his for 2 years with no problems. And I agree with mccarroll on ph prob being the issue not overdosing kalk which is nearly impossible to do ime.
mcarroll
10K Club member
Well, check out that link on adding vinegar as it's all explained pretty nicely - it even details the why's and wherefor's of mixing plain limewater!
In a nutshell, (and only if you don't have an inline kalk reactor), yes you'd mix the kalk and vinegar together completely before adding to the water. If you were very careful about the Ca and alk levels being dosed, I believe you could dose this stuff (calcium acetate IIRC) directly to either your RODI or even to the display tank with no fear of spikes at all.
I also don't think it takes nearly as much mixing as that (few hours) to make saturated limewater. If you aren't using vinegar and you're stirring your limewater that much, you're probably precipitating out at least some Ca and alk as chalk in your mixing container. (Is it a sealed container, or open to the air?) OTOH, if you're premixing with vinegar you can stir all day long (though I'm not sure you'd need to) with no issue as the kalk is already fully reacted.
Just enough gentle stirring to make the water cloudy should be more than adequate. Consider how little stirring happens in the inline reactors like the TLF and Tunze kalk reactors - even that's completely adequate. The piddly little Aqua Lifter that ran my ATO for <1 minute at a time is all that was doing the stirring in my Tunze reactor. There is actually no perceptible stirring if I stand there and watch it run....but I've tested the effluent. It's working!
-Matt
P.S. pH of 7.8 and 8.0 are both on the low side, if that's as high as you ever measure them. And I remember you having some threads on nutrient issues (algae scrubber) as well as red bugs...still going on, or what happened with those issues? You could have multiple reasons for corals getting whiter. Also, can you post a pic or two for examples?
In a nutshell, (and only if you don't have an inline kalk reactor), yes you'd mix the kalk and vinegar together completely before adding to the water. If you were very careful about the Ca and alk levels being dosed, I believe you could dose this stuff (calcium acetate IIRC) directly to either your RODI or even to the display tank with no fear of spikes at all.
I also don't think it takes nearly as much mixing as that (few hours) to make saturated limewater. If you aren't using vinegar and you're stirring your limewater that much, you're probably precipitating out at least some Ca and alk as chalk in your mixing container. (Is it a sealed container, or open to the air?) OTOH, if you're premixing with vinegar you can stir all day long (though I'm not sure you'd need to) with no issue as the kalk is already fully reacted.
Just enough gentle stirring to make the water cloudy should be more than adequate. Consider how little stirring happens in the inline reactors like the TLF and Tunze kalk reactors - even that's completely adequate. The piddly little Aqua Lifter that ran my ATO for <1 minute at a time is all that was doing the stirring in my Tunze reactor. There is actually no perceptible stirring if I stand there and watch it run....but I've tested the effluent. It's working!
-Matt
P.S. pH of 7.8 and 8.0 are both on the low side, if that's as high as you ever measure them. And I remember you having some threads on nutrient issues (algae scrubber) as well as red bugs...still going on, or what happened with those issues? You could have multiple reasons for corals getting whiter. Also, can you post a pic or two for examples?
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Reef Pets
Bioprospector
If you have a high demand for Alk I would recommend both. The kalk reactor does wonders for Ph and of course the dosing pumps keep things stable. If you decide on a kalk Stirrer I have a used Avast Marine K2 available. It was used for about a week. I wanted to put 2 on one of my systems and ended up only needing one.
OP
OP
Well, check out that link on adding vinegar as it's all explained pretty nicely - it even details the why's and wherefor's of mixing plain limewater!
In a nutshell, (and only if you don't have an inline kalk reactor), yes you'd mix the kalk and vinegar together completely before adding to the water. If you were very careful about the Ca and alk levels being dosed, I believe you could dose this stuff (calcium acetate IIRC) directly to either your RODI or even to the display tank with no fear of spikes at all.
I also don't think it takes nearly as much mixing as that (few hours) to make saturated limewater. If you aren't using vinegar and you're stirring your limewater that much, you're probably precipitating out at least some Ca and alk as chalk in your mixing container. (Is it a sealed container, or open to the air?) OTOH, if you're premixing with vinegar you can stir all day long (though I'm not sure you'd need to) with no issue as the kalk is already fully reacted.
Just enough gentle stirring to make the water cloudy should be more than adequate. Consider how little stirring happens in the inline reactors like the TLF and Tunze kalk reactors - even that's completely adequate. The piddly little Aqua Lifter that ran my ATO for <1 minute at a time is all that was doing the stirring in my Tunze reactor. There is actually no perceptible stirring if I stand there and watch it run....but I've tested the effluent. It's working!
-Matt
P.S. pH of 7.8 and 8.0 are both on the low side, if that's as high as you ever measure them. And I remember you having some threads on nutrient issues (algae scrubber) as well as red bugs...still going on, or what happened with those issues? You could have multiple reasons for corals getting whiter. Also, can you post a pic or two for examples?
Algae scrubber is finally working and keeps the nitrates in check. I can't get the PH over 8.1 and have tried a lot of things. CO2 scrubber, opening windows etc, so I am thinking 7.8 to 8.0 is the best I can do.
Yes, I will read the article and start adding the right portions of vinegar to kalk powder. With the inline reactor, I do get chalk build up at the bottom of the reactor, and is why I pre-mix the Kalk Powder with RODI water then add it to the reactor.
Let me try your suggestions this weekend and get back to you.
Thanks.
Can a kalk reactor be gravity fed? And the aqua medic 1000 for example? I want to start trying kalk, but I'm not familiar with the reactors. Couldn't I jus add the saturated water to my normal gravity fed ATO without a reactor? Any significant benefits of the reactor? Please and thank you, I jus know so little.
Also, my system is in the basement, so I know air quality is driving down my pH most likely.
Also, my system is in the basement, so I know air quality is driving down my pH most likely.
Coraloliseffect
Active Member
The reactor simplifies maintenance while providing a high saturation kalk water. You can just add to your top off and stir the water every time you add water solution. Will be lower kalk levels and overtime you will likely get a reactor. But beware kalk will build residue especially a concern for small top of lines.
I did exactly as mentioned with gravity fed for a while. But my ca load needs more than the gravity now.
Vinegar can be added for a higher (acidic water to dissolve more calk) concentration solution. But the vinegar does provide a carbon food source in your top off bucket. So may need more frequent cleaning.
Coraloliseffect
Active Member
Zemuss you should not be to bothered by 7.9 readings. As long as your ca and dkh levels are in check.
