Several kalk questions please

[Reefpharmer]

Last night I got lucky.
Came home and realized my avast k1 / aqualifter set up got stuck on via apex and blew through 3 gallons of ATO (ato Container is 5g) into my 120g display. At first I freaked out but after testing my Alk/ph, I realized not a big bump in either. I started looking at what happened and apparently because the Avast stirs so slowly, after a bit of saturated solution, I was dumping what amounted to fresh autotop off water into the tank.

So it got me thinking about how effective are these avast units really are? They seem to have good reviews but here I am, dumping my ato in, and the alk change was not significant. I’d say the tank went from 8.5 to 9.0.

I am sure there is a way to figure it out but how much should my tank go up in alkalinity with 3 gallons of saturated kalk?
How often should I be adding kalk to the reactor ? I run the aqualifter for 2 minutes every hour). The instructions say biweekly. My ph inside the reactor is 11.5.

As a side note, I learned that apex only handles the aqualifter on outlet 4 and 8. I had it on 2 and apparently it doesn’t turn off, even if I manually turn the outlet off.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

After overdosing limewater, the induced precipitation often drops the alk back to normal levels. The rise is thus an underestimate.

The best way to monitor limewater saturation is by conductivity. Saturation is about 10 mS/cm.

The pH may not be accurate, but suggests very poor limewater saturation. it should be above 12, and a drop of 1 pH unit is a factor of 10 in potency.

Saturated limewater at 25 deg C is about 40.8 meq/L or 114 dKH.

Add 3 gallons to 120 gallons and the alk should rise from 8.5 to about 11 dKH.

 

[Reefpharmer]

You answered all my questions. Thank you! So what you are saying is my laziness finally paid off....!? I didn’t reload the reactor on time with new kalk

How often should I realistically expect to reload the reactor? Thank is 120 but sps are all tiny frags.

After overdosing limewater, the induced precipitation often drops the alk back to normal levels. The rise is thus an underestimate.

The best way to monitor limewater saturation is by conductivity. Saturation is about 10 mS/cm.

The pH may not be accurate, but suggests very poor limewater saturation. it should be above 12, and a drop of 1 pH unit is a factor of 10 in potency.

Saturated limewater at 25 deg C is about 40.8 meq/L or 114 dKH.

Add 3 gallons to 120 gallons and the alk should rise from 8.5 to about 11 dKH.