Kalkwassers dosing with top off system.

[Maco]

Hello i was wondering how to dose kalkwassers i herd you can dose it with a top off system. i will have a 20g and a 20g resivore for the top off system.One thing how much do i put in the slump fo corect dosing. And is it even posible?Thank you.

 

-Mac

[Maco]

any one

[crazinezz978]

No spelling mistakes so far!

Lol..

Bump.

[reefman23]

Kalk is covered pretty well in this arcticle. You may want to check out the section about 2/3 the way down titled "Cost Comparison".

 

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

 

 

HTH,

 

Jesse

[Maco]

Thanks you reefman23 and crazinezz978 LOL hay your right.

 

-Mac

[tinyreef]

are you looking to use a kalk reactor or just a drip system or manually top-off with kalk? the reactor is the easiest way but can be the most dangerous (to your system) way as well.

 

i switched over to kalk ato for all my systems a few years back and love the balanced ca/alk aspect but i've also run into a couple of accidents that could've easily wiped out my setups as well.

 

my suggestion is to start with a manual format so that you can understand it and also start up an ato but only with freshwater at this time. once you're comfortable with both, you can look into a combined reactor setup (essentially, you'd just be buying a new reactor and hooking up to your existing ato). hth

[mvite]

Hey guys---great info---for newbs and not so newbs alike.

 

I am using 2 teaspoons of kalk per gallon of water and having it drip through my ATO--is this ok? Can I use more lime per gallon than 2 tsp?

[mattie]

yes but it it gets a little saturated someone here taught me a trick of adding 5 ml per gallon of white distilled vinger to bump the calcium to get the desired result with attempting to mix the kalk stronger

[SaVeThEeELs]

all this dosey dosey and not one metion of a test anywhere!!!!!!

 

i use an ozarka bottle w/ a line running out the bottom of it.....

 

i try to get it to drip about one drop every 10-20 seconds.....

 

then theres the equation on my seachem bottle M=vc/160....

 

ack!! theres an equation on all the bottles!!!

 

gotta find that rate that the tank looses Ca and other minerals ect

 

so since im not good at math, i dose probably 100-500cc of stuff in 1/5 gal of water when ever i use ma bottle....every other day or so....following a test

[Toshas79]

which is better to use? Kent Turbo-Calcium or Kent Kalkwaser

 

How you set up your top off sistem including dosing Kalkwaser and what you dose and how to keep alkalinity

[ChuckLawson]

which is better to use? Kent Turbo-Calcium or Kent Kalkwaser

 

Check the "canning supplies" aisle of a few grocery stores and try to find "pickling lime" -- it's the same thing as the Kalkwasser mix. Around here (Dallas) we can find "Mrs. Wage's Pickling Lime" which is $4 or so. A jar of Kalkwasser mix at the LFS is half the size and runs $18.

 

How you set up your top off sistem including dosing Kalkwaser and what you dose and how to keep alkalinity

 

I mix up 2 tsp per gallon of RO/DI, and place it in my top-off reservoir. I use an Aquacontroller and a pair of float valves (one in the tank to detect low water, and one in the reservoir to make sure it has water) to turn on a powerhead in the reservoir to pump the top-off/kalkwasser back to the tank. I also have it set so that if my pH is greater than 8.4, the top-off is disabled.

 

You could do the same thing with most any top-off system (I was using a JBJ ATO before), but I'm worried about putting it on autopilot without the pH check -- this way if my skimmer goes nuts or something leaks I don't end up pumping the tank full of pH 12 top-off water -- I'd rather have a low water level than a dead tank.

 

Everybody's evaporation rate and calcium / alkalinity consumption rate is different, so be sure to test your alkalinity and calcium regularly. I'm trying to hit around 4 mEq of alk and calcium of around 450, and for me, this still falls a little short; I'm making up the difference with occasional doses of b-Ionic, so I may try the vinegar trick to get a little more kalkwasser in my top-off...

 

Hope that helps...

 

PS -- if you try this, and your reservoir is below where you return the water to your tank / sump, be sure to put an airhole or something in the return line to break the siphon when the powerhead shuts off, or you can empty part of the tank back into your reservoir (been there, done that )