Kalkwasser Questions

Lorna

Lorna

Reef Crazy
Mar 1, 2005
340
0
0
Indiana
I am in the process of constructing an auto top off that I will run with an auto dosing system. Here is the plan I think, please tell me if there are any problems that you can think of. I want to run a 5g with kalk mixed into it to a auto doser that will drip approx 1g into my 75g over a period of 8 hours. I plan to set this on a timer to drip through the night when ph is lower. Can I mix 5g of kalk today and then add to this every 5 days? I don't have a sump and will be dripping it into my main tank. The 5g jug will have the out line positioned about 2 inches from the bottom to ensure that no sediment enters the doser or tank. My tank used approx 10 mg of calcium daily and about .25 mq/l of alkalinity. My ph is stable at 8.3 and calcium is at 380 alk is 3.5 meq/l

Will this work do you think?
 
I have also been looking at a kalk slurry????
 
The only concern I would have is the sentence "Can I mix 5g of kalk today and then add to this every 5 days?" My answer would be no on this. In a 5 gallon jug with the line 2" from the bottom you may have roughly a half of a gallon of old kalk mix that I would recommend dumping out before refilling more RO water.

Im not sure if Mogurnda does this with no ill effects and maybe he can comment on whether or not he dumps out the sludge first.

Mike
 
Depends on my mood. I dump the sludge out from time to time, but generally just let it settle back down. According to Randy H-F, the bad stuff should be insoluble.
 
Well from what I am reading I think it would be okay......I tried the slurry but I am not sure how much to add, I tried 1/16th of a teaspoon to a cup of ro water and it didn't budge my ph and maintained the ca level. I think I would like to try mixing the 5g but wonder how much should I mix. I think 5 teaspoons for 5g? sounds right.....any advice? thanks!
 
Two teaspoons per US gallon, more if you are adding vinegar to get higher calcium dosing. (that vinegar affects the status of Kalk as a "balanced" additive though)
Bring levels up to where you want using Randy's two part formula or a commercial formula and then use Kalk to maintain the levels. If you don't have enough evaporation to top up enought lime water to maintain the levels, you can put a fan over the water to increase the evaporation allowing for more kalk water to be added.
 
I don't have a lot of calcium demand right now and I mixed up 1 tsp per gallon. I will monitor the ca levels and magnesium and alk and make sure all stays where it should. If ca falls I will increase to 2 tsp/per.
 
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