Using a doser to directly dose Kalk or lime water

[Salkio]

hi all, i got a single head doser and wanted to dose either cal, mag or alk with it.
When i bought it i saw Kalk on the shelf and did some quick reading and saw it does cal and alk and PH. So i got that as well.
when i got home did more research and noticed it was a bit more complicated than i thought.

my question is can i just mix a 5 or less gallon bucket with some RO water and add the kalk to it mix it up and add a dosing line directly into this mix and dose a very small amount (not enough to keep up with evaporation) on a daily basis.

I heard that kalk will break the tubing eventually and or glog up the dosing pump.

 

[trout]

I would suggest that you decouple auto-top up and limewater dosing. What you heard is correct.I

n my opinion, the safest way is to use a kalkreactor and drip limewater into your tank slowly (approx. 4ml per minute) by feeding the reactor with RODI using a peristaltic pump. You can meet 90% your tank's daily evaporation rate in this way and the rest can be met by auto-top up and two-part dosing if limewater does not meet the daily alkalinity and calcium demand.

The main problem with your approach is that evaporation rates vary depending on ambient temperatures. This will mean that alkalinity and calcium levels will not be stable. Furthermore, if you use a normal pump (instead of a peristaltic pump), you will dose limewater fairly fast. This means that pH will fluctuate rapidly. Finally, if there were ever to be a problem with your auto-top up, you may dose far too much limewater, thereby killing all your live stock.

 

[RocketEngineer]

using a dosing pump to gradually add kalk is ideal because it can have a big impact on the chemistry of the tank. If you do mix the kalk ahead of time, you want to keep the tubing off the bottom of the container and use a lid. Kalk will react with CO2 to precipitate out calcium carbonate which forms a crust inside the container. You do not want this going through your dosing pump or into your tank. Also, any kalk powder that doesn’t dissolve will settle out so keeping the tube off the bottom prevents this slurry from being dosed.

Do your research on kalk. It’s to be handled with care. But it’s a very tried and true method so there’s lots of info out there. Good luck.

 

[Salkio]

I would suggest that you decouple auto-top up and limewater dosing. What you heard is correct.I

n my opinion, the safest way is to use a kalkreactor and drip limewater into your tank slowly (approx. 4ml per minute) by feeding the reactor with RODI using a peristaltic pump. You can meet 90% your tank's daily evaporation rate in this way and the rest can be met by auto-top up and two-part dosing if limewater does not meet the daily alkalinity and calcium demand.

The main problem with your approach is that evaporation rates vary depending on ambient temperatures. This will mean that alkalinity and calcium levels will not be stable. Furthermore, if you use a normal pump (instead of a peristaltic pump), you will dose limewater fairly fast. This means that pH will fluctuate rapidly. Finally, if there were ever to be a problem with your auto-top up, you may dose far too much limewater, thereby killing all your live stock.

Thank you for your message. I think ill go the drip method!
ill use my dose for something else

 

[nereefpat]

my question is can i just mix a 5 or less gallon bucket with some RO water and add the kalk to it mix it up and add a dosing line directly into this mix and dose a very small amount (not enough to keep up with evaporation) on a daily basis.

Yes, you can absolutely use a doser to add kalk. As mentioned, it's actually better to do it that way than with an ATO. It's the simplest way to dose alk and calcium to your tank, and it has pH benefits. Use your doser and bucket of kalk.

I heard that kalk will break the tubing eventually and or glog up the dosing pump.

Nothing to worry about with your setup. With a peristaltic pump type doser, only the tubing touches the kalk.

 

[fish farmer]

I use a BRS dosing pump and a 5 gallon container with kalk. I hooked this up to a light timer that turns on the pump every 15 minutes and doses for 5 minutes. I started with a light amount of kalk per gallon then bumped it up to 1 tsp per gallon.

I occasionally have to manually add Mg but it is not much lower than 1250, same with alk currently it is running low 7's, but Ca is usually over 420.

I have a separate ATO.

 

[Salkio]

Yes, you can absolutely use a doser to add kalk. As mentioned, it's actually better to do it that way than with an ATO. It's the simplest way to dose alk and calcium to your tank, and it has pH benefits. Use your doser and bucket of kalk.



Nothing to worry about with your setup. With a peristaltic pump type doser, only the tubing touches the kalk.

I dont know if i have that pump Im using the single head john len pump. It does not have a clear front so i cannot see. But something does spin not sure if that helps at all

 

[dragon99]

I'm using a GHL doser for kalk on my tank. I have it configured to dose every 30min, currently 90ml per dose.

I mix the kalk powder and rodi in a bucket then let it settle before pouring the clear limewater into my dosing container (10g acrylic).

I used to dose kalk via ATO, and it worked for several years, but I do like those method better as I have more control over dosing (and thus alkalinity).

 

[Garf]

I dont know if i have that pump Im using the single head john len pump. It does not have a clear front so i cannot see. But something does spin not sure if that helps at all

I dose 2 Ltrs a day of Kalk in a 60g cube using 2 peristaltics (very close to daily evaporation). Not a clue how long the pumps will last however as they aren’t really designed to dose large volumes, it’s a newish tank. I used an industrial dosing diaphragm pump in my last tank, and that lasted 9 years.

 

[Salkio]

I dose 2 Ltrs a day of Kalk in a 60g cube using 2 peristaltics (very close to daily evaporation). Not a clue how long the pumps will last however as they aren’t really designed to dose large volumes, it’s a newish tank. I used an industrial dosing diaphragm pump in my last tank, and that lasted 9 years.

Thank you. I set mine up in a 5 liter tub and mixed 2.5 grams of kalk in it. And I’m dosing 1ml per hour. So very little very slowly. Just for now. First night I’m putting the tube in a test tube and see how many ml after 8 hours it uses. In theory it should read 8ml on the test tube. Just in case.

 

[Salkio]

I'm using a GHL doser for kalk on my tank. I have it configured to dose every 30min, currently 90ml per dose.

I mix the kalk powder and rodi in a bucket then let it settle before pouring the clear limewater into my dosing container (10g acrylic).

I used to dose kalk via ATO, and it worked for several years, but I do like those method better as I have more control over dosing (and thus alkalinity).

I’m going to dose 1ml per 1hr just to test things. Mainly want to check if the doser does intact dose 1 ml per hour. I just added the pipe into a test tube and will see the readings tomorrow. After that going to do a big water change and see what my readings are and then calculate after a week how much alk and cal my tank uses and dose from there.

 

[Garf]

Thank you. I set mine up in a 5 liter tub and mixed 2.5 grams of kalk in it. And I’m dosing 1ml per hour. So very little very slowly. Just for now. First night I’m putting the tube in a test tube and see how many ml after 8 hours it uses. In theory it should read 8ml on the test tube. Just in case.

Monitor pH, mine runs at 8.25 to 8.45.

 

[Salkio]

Monitor pH, mine runs at 8.25 to 8.45.

I have been having ph issues. Often it’s around 7.8 to 8.1 barley. I’ll keep an eye out tho !