Kalk slurry dosing? Any one try it?

[hey]

So, I am in the process of going to dosing kalk in my tank and I have read just about every article on it. One of which particularly interested me as I do run a smaller system with a sump. Here is what is stated in the article by Randy Holmes-Farley from this article: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/

 

5. Delivering a small amount of solid lime slurried (dispersed) in a small amount of water. Adding one level teaspoon of solid lime (Ca(OH)2) slurried in a cup of water to 40 gallons of aquarium water all at once raises the pH by 0.6 to 0.7 pH units. That is clearly too much. Adding a smaller portion all at once can, however, be acceptable. Adding, for example, 1/4 teaspoon to 40 gallons will raise the pH by only 0.1 to 0.2 pH units. Unless the pH is high (>8.4) before the addition, that amount is likely acceptable. The other concern with all at once dosing is that the local pH in the area of the addition will rise considerably higher than the values above. Moreover, dosing a slurry raises the added concern that the solids must dissolve before encountering organisms that may take them up and be harmed. So it is best to dose such materials to a sump, and watch that they completely dissolve before reaching the main aquarium or a refugium. In many aquaria, such restrictions make all–at-once dosing of a slurry prohibitively risky to living organisms.

 

Have any of you tried this method?... it seams very easy to do and my method would be this:

 

Put a small powerhead in sump and turn off flow to the main tank, add slurry, let the powerhead mix the solution until it isn't visible anymore, turn pump to main system back on. Honestly I prefer manually adding anything to the tank vs automating it and this seems like its right up my alley.

[farkwar]

Theres a link, i think Markalots aquarium thread, to a guy running a 135 who uses kalk slurry.

 

Very minimalist aquarist.

[hey]

Theres a link, i think Markalots aquarium thread, to a guy running a 135 who uses kalk slurry. Very minimalist aquarist.

 

Sounds like someone I would like to try to emulate then.

[Deleted User 8]

Interesting. Do you manually top off so that using kalkwasser for top off would not work?

 

I wonder if it would indeed mix clean in the sump. It would think it would gunk up your power head and anything else in the sump over time--and not that long of a time either.

 

I would rather take out a quantity of water that would allow complete mixing of the slurry and then pour that back into the sump. Using the sump to mix chemicals doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

 

Buzz

[hey]

Interesting. Do you manually top off so that using kalkwasser for top off would not work?

 

I wonder if it would indeed mix clean in the sump. It would think it would gunk up your power head and anything else in the sump over time--and not that long of a time either.

 

I would rather take out a quantity of water that would allow complete mixing of the slurry and then pour that back into the sump. Using the sump to mix chemicals doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

 

Buzz

 

The powder is used in such a minuscule amount that when added to a cup of water and mixed up then added to sump it shouldn't cause any precip issues.

 

As for my top up I use a tunze osmolator, which is pretty much the worst topoff to use when dosing kalk straight from the ato container from a pump life standpoint. They have the accessory which I considered but it seems silly if I can measure out 1/8th a teaspoon or whatever small amount of kalk mix it with some RODI (that I grab every night and add to my topoff container anyways to prevent too large of reservoir) and toss it in the sump. Also beats the hell out of replacing an auto drip container every day with water needing to be "aged" to settle out precipitates to prevent clogging the drip.

 

I need to address what my levels do at this point as I am noticing more and more coralline growing every day last I checked a week ago they were at 430/9/1270 so as per Anthony Calfo's recommendation for dosing it I need to find a 3 day droppage and dose from there. With what I keep in my system my needs will likely be crazy low and this would just be a step toward more stabilization.

[Deleted User 8]

The best ATO for using kalk is a pressure system with air pump. Back in the day I made one from a plastic gasoline can as they are pretty good at holding pressure without bursting. Never had a clog issue with that system.

 

I'd be interested to see what your pH is before and after dosing.

 

Buzz

[hey]

The best ATO for using kalk is a pressure system with air pump. Back in the day I made one from a plastic gasoline can as they are pretty good at holding pressure without bursting. Never had a clog issue with that system.

 

I'd be interested to see what your pH is before and after dosing.

 

Buzz

 

the dose recommended should not raise it over .1 or .2 some people use the method for ph raising to combat dinos from what I am reading on it doing it multiple times per day. I really am not opposed to dripping if I have to, but for how I operate things the slurry would make things a hell of a lot easier heh. Here after xmas (since everything is closed lol) I will be picking up a digital ph meter and having at it with dosing a single dose once the lights go out every evening.

[Deleted User 8]

Get the calibration solutions for the meter as well as the storage solution. Don't let the bulb dry out.

 

Buzz

[ABC]

I just started dosing Kalk a week ago. My PH was7.6, calcium and alkalinity was just barely low. I put one teaspoon in a gallon and been dosing about a 1/4 cup per day. My PH is 8.0 now and some of my corals are acting better. I may reduce my dosage to keep it steady.

Let me know how it works for you.