Anyone dosing KALK w/ or w/o a Auto Top Off

[Raise]

I just got my californiareefs.com auto top off hooked up yesterday or the day before. I must say that I do like it and its quite handy, I was tired of lugging jugs around 2-3 times a day...

 

I decided that I would try dosing kalkwasser in my 5.5, Ive had great success with it in my 55.. So I added 3 scoops to my 3g (i think) top off jug.. But the thing is, is that the float switch I think needs like 1/4" of water evaporation to turn on. With a 1/4" evap, could that be adding the kalk to rapidly?? The reason im asking is that everytime the pump turns on and tops off it makes the tank a bit cloudy for a few seconds....do you think im doing tiny little kalk OD's everytime it tops off? My xenias look a little ####ed, as does my GSP and my rics look a lil frazzled..

 

SG- 1.025

Temp- 79

ph-- 8.6 + (hmmmmmm)

alk- 2.86- 2.97

dkh- 8.0

Calc- 400

 

Am I causing pH spikes everytime it does its thing? What would you recommend: Just stopping the kalk and adding the B-Ionic daily as I was before, lighten the kalk dosage (@ 1tsp per gal now) or anything else? I really love kalkwasser in my bigger tank but its making me nervous now.... Thanks for reading.

 

Ray

[Toooloud]

yes you are cauing a PH spike,

 

DEpending on what you have in your tank that is using up your Cal.. that would depend on how much you are going to drip..

 

I drip using the "Kent Marine AquaDoser 2.5G" and i mix 1 teaspoon with the 2.5 Gallons of water and i drip about 1 drip per 3 seconds.. and it keeps up with the Evap..

[Raise]

Alright, so you're doing nearly 1/3 the dose that I am at 1 teaspoon per gallon..

 

That coupled with the 1/4" necessary for the floatswitch to turn on must be the prob. B-ionic was much less nerve racking, might just go back to that

[Toooloud]

Well yea.. I mean you put in too much at once,. it goes cloudy.. Causes a PH spike and can Burn Your corals..

 

SO thats why you should Drip it.. i use to drip on my 72 gallon, 3 gallons per day, at 6 teaspoons of Kalk per 3 gallons!

 

But that tank had clams and lots of acros.. so they comsumed the Calcium like mad..

[apophis924]

I use the Spectre pure liter meter on my 20h to dose Kalk. It divides the total amount you set it for over a 15 seperate doses every 24 hours. No spike and i keep a constant ph, not to mention you can adjust the total amount to .01 liters which makes it easy to adjust to changing evap rates. That cloudiness you see when you add Kalk is as precipitation of Ca in the form of Calicium Carbonate. very fine crystals of chalk like "dust" in the water. Some of them will fall back into solution others will just become part of your sand bed. The intial high Ph at the out put of your Kalk tube is what causes the preciptation event. I would stay with the Kalk, remove the float switch and try estimating your evap rate and match your drip to that over 24 hours. Or some prefer to drip onlky at night with the lights off when PH tends to drop.

[nanoman]

I mix the kalk in a container with a PH for about 1 hour. I then let it settle over night and pour out the top portion of the water in my topoff container. Make sure your pump is not sucking directly from the bottom of your container. The water going into your tank should be pretty clear. I have been doing this with my californiareefs float for several months with no probs. I couldn't imagine having to mess with a drip system.

[Raise]

Hmm, my problem may have been that I was directly adding the kalk to my top off resevoir instead of just the dissolved solution.. And my pump was taking the non-dissolved ######e off teh bottom aswell..

[Nishant3789]

add a table spoon or more of vinegar to one gallon of water and add 2 teaspoons of kalk, thats what works for me