Kalkwasser

[TinyTinCans]

No worries and glad i can help. I know your system will be different but having a general idea is always helpful. Obviously the largest 2 factors r goiing to be how much your average evaporation is and how much kalk u need to maintain pararmeters. When u get tank set up and going, id say turn off your auto top off for 24 hours and then measure how much water it takes to get back to right level. Then set to dose just under that level per day. Essentially u r now using your dosing pump almost as a top off. Then figure out how strong the kalk needs to be to maintain alk and calcium and then mix to that level. That way as coral grow and tank uses more then u can just increase strength of kalk until u hit full saturation and wont need to mess with changing actual dosing pump.

I live in New Mexico, it is very dry here. So I really like that idea of testing my evaporation prior to setting up my kalkwasser and setting it just under that as long as it says inside the levels I want to maintain. Absolutely testing and adjusting as needed. As soon as as I can settle “The Great Light debate” in my mind I will get this thing going. Again thanks for letting me pick your brain as for as how much you dose it is really going to help when I source my a reservoir for my kalkwasser.

I like to make the kalk fully saturated ( I do use a reactor) and dose to my needs and let the ato take care of the rest. As my needs increase all I have to do is increase the dose on the doser. Essentially the same thing as fiesty but the opposite lol

This is exactly what I’m trying to accomplish. I want to use the doser to inject as much kalkwasser as I can an let the ATO take up the slack in any water that needs to be added after that. I think it is a great idea.

What do you guys think of using a small power head inside the reservoir to keep the solution saturated. My old 75 use to evaporate a little over two gallons a day. I don’t want to be mixing batch more than a few two times a week because I would like to set it in schedule with other bi weekly maintenance so I’m thinking I will probably need at least 20 gal or so but from what I have read the kalkwasser settles out and can form a muck in the bottom of the container and can be a pain to clean. I’m just thinking a power head might prevent that. IDK what do you think?

 

[CNDReef]

Essentially that’s what a reactor does with the power heads/stirrers. If your going to be using a container I probably wouldn’t stir it and set the power head a inch or so above the bottom so it doesn’t suck any settled kalk. Also if you keep stirring it like this you’ll actually increase the surface agitation and introduce more co2 to the kalk and dropping the potency of it. Forget if it’s just ph that’s effected or/and alk/calcium.

 

[TinyTinCans]

That’s right I remember reading that now. How Introducing more surface agitation and affecting CO2 I guess I’m just stuck having to do a smaller reactor and mixing it more often . Thanks for your help. I appreciate it.