I have seen A TON of posts related to this, and for everyone's benefit, i am going to add my two cents because i had the same questions....okay...there are many ways to deliver Kalk to your system....the big thing here is you don't want to deliver too much too fast...that is when bad things can happen...so i decided to take the slow road when i started....for me this meant not running out and purchasing a reactor right away....but something that can deliver it even slower, like a gravity fed doser....kent marine has several...and depending on your set up you can build your own.....but a doser with a IV type connection or even a micro valve that is used in air line tubing can do the trick...you just want something to control the drip rate.
Also, very important in my mind, was a pinpoint PH monitor....I figured spend the money on a monitor instead of a reactor at first...my thinking is let me "see" exactly what i am doing, while i am doing it...
the mixing of the kalk: most kalk says 2 tsp per gallon. You can adjust downward to decrease potency, and anything over that really won't help because the water cannot absorb it....
what i do is mix my kalk in a five gallon water cooler type container.....I let the mixture settle overnight. Next day, I decant and pour the solution into my doser. I decant so that the kalk that settles stays in the water cooler and too much does not end up in the doser....some of it will, you can't help that, but by decanting and pouring it from the first mixing container into the doser, you minimize the transfer of the kalk. after eight or so hours of settling, the water has absorbed as much of the kalk as possible, and you have residue at the bottom. you can use the residue again when mix your next batch, only now you may not need to add as much when you remix.....your just gonna have to play around to figure it out...hence the ph monitor....this will tell you if batch is too strong or too weak...also it well tell you if your drip rate is too fast or too slow...when actually dosing the calc, it most certainly will increase the ph. and this is a very desirable effect...you just don't want it racing up in like 30 seconds....now keep in mind, if you drip right next to the probe, of course this will give you a high reading, so if you can, drip into a high flow rate in your sump away from the probe and you literally watch and see how the calc affect your ph....i got it to the point where my ph settled at night time to around 7.95 and then by the end of my light cycle during the day, i was up to 8.25. I dripped at night only, and now i drip 24/7.
hope this helps...feel free to pm me or post if you have more q's...
