Manually dosing kalk?

[Sharkey18]

Does anyone manually dose kalk? Can it be dosed just as a solution instead of with a kalk reactor? 

[wildcrazyjoker81]

Yes you can dose as a solution. BRS has a good how to video on it.

[Rob A]

I use it occasionally (maybe once a week) on my 220. I don't have much coral in it yet but as I add more I might switch to 2 part dosing, which is what I do on my frag tank, to keep the parameters more stable.

I put a tablespoon in a 1/2 gallon of RO and slowly add it to the sump with a drip thing I rigged up...a cool whip container with a piece of airline tubing. It clogs up a lot so I need a better way to add it.

[DCReefer1964]

I recommend using a reactor via ATO much easier. There a are a few listed cheap in the FS section. I see you have a 65 gallon DT. I have a TLF Kalk reactor. LMK via PM

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Or just mix your top off water with kalk and dump the sludge thats leftover every now and then.

[Origami]

It's easy to make a manual drip doser. I did this when I started the hobby. This design is one that I tried successfully. A larger bottle is preferable, I think, just because it doesn't tip over as easily. If you go with a smaller bottle, you can put the bottle in a cup to help stabilize it.

 

Later on, after hearing Anthony Calfo talk about dosing his system with measures kalk "slurry" once a day. I once tried that as a method to make quick, but small adjustments. With this method, you can expect a quick, transient pH spike but, if done in small enough doses, will not see much in the way of negative effects. A more stable way to do this is definitely preferred, but I'll say that this method is possible.

 

As Piper27 mentions, it's really very easy to just stir kalk powder (calcium hydroxide) into your top off water. Randy Holmes-Farley did it this way for years, and may still do it this way today. It's very easy and pretty stable. See the first link below for a summary of the technique.

 

Articles of interest:

 

How to Use Kalk in your Auto Top Off

 

What your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime

 

The Degradation of Limewater in Air

[Sharkey18]

I am concerned that if I put it in my top off water, then if my ATO gets stuck then too much kalk. 

[Origami]

If you put it in your ATO water and your ATO gets stuck, you'll probably have water on the floor, won't you? And a salinity crash. The way to mitigate all of this is to use a smaller ATO reservoir or to set up a two-stage reservoir with a small one topping off the tank and a second one upstream that replenishes the small one on a regular basis (say, once per day). Back in 2012, Chad wrote up an entry in the newsletter that featured the ATO setup that I was running in Ashburn. It's here. BTW, keep in mind that kalk is only slightly soluble in fresh water, 1.73 grams per liter at 20C.

[Sharkey18]

Well, my top off reservoir is 25 gallons on a 400g system, so even in the few (ahem... ) times something has gone wrong it doesn't really change the salinity too badly. 

[Origami]

25 gallons! You should try the 2-stage reservoir approach and limit the top off to no more than 10 gallons per day. After all, you're probably seeing about 4-5 gallons of evaporation per day.

 

Saturated kalkwasser contains 40.8 meq/liter of alkalinity. 25 gallons is about 95 liters, so in the worst case, you would deliver 3876 meq of alkalinity to your 400 gallon system. This equates to about 2.6 meq/liter or another 7 dKH. This is a substantial risk, but not crazy off-the-wall like for those people that put two cups of kalk in their kalk stirrers. Reduce the reservoir size to 10 gallons (using a two-stage delivery approach), and you can limit the worst-case alkalinity bump (in case of ATO failure) to 2.8 dKH.

 

Ways to reduce the risk:

 

a) Install a timer- / controller-driven peristaltic pump on your ATO system. Gate the power to the pump with an ATO level sensor. The sensor will stop the pump while the timer will limit the maximum dose from the reservoir.

 

b) For added protection, install a two-stage, timer-driven ATO system that physically limits the maximum amount of kalkwasser deliverable in a day.

[zygote2k]

 BITD, we used to make milky kalk and pour it directly into the tank in a strong area of current. Julian Sprung used to do it this way and that's where we got the idea. 

I personally like 2 part with a doser as it's more easily mixed to correct ratios.

[Origami]

 BITD, we used to make milky kalk and pour it directly into the tank in a strong area of current. Julian Sprung used to do it this way and that's where we got the idea. 

I personally like 2 part with a doser as it's more easily mixed to correct ratios.

I remember Anthony Calfo talking about it at a meeting as well.

 

A doser is far less trouble, leaving more time to enjoy the hobby.

[Sharkey18]

Great info! 

[s2nhle]

Great info! 

+1. Thank you for sharing.