Quick Kalk question

[Gsepanik]

I have been wanting to dose kalk in a manner similar to ACI aquaculture wherein I essentially dose enough kalk to maintain an average ph of 8.3 irregardless of my alk. I was wondering if using a dosing pump attached to a ph controller that would trigger the dosing pump to dose kalk until my ph reaches 8.3. Would this be an effective method to keep a ph of 8.3 24/7? What potential hazards or misunderstanding does this plan/system have that you can think of? 

[mcarroll]

On 1/11/2023 at 8:29 PM, Gsepanik said:

I have been wanting to dose kalk in a manner similar to ACI aquaculture wherein I essentially dose enough kalk to maintain an average ph of 8.3 irregardless of my alk.

Is this a reef tank?   If so I wouldn't recommend that as the best route.  pH isn't really important EXCEPT for the worry of spiking it from kalk dosing.

 

A better approach if you're set on using kalk would be to use kalk+vinegar.   Combining them eliminates ALL of the potential downsides from using kalk, including the pH spike.  That way you can dose normally and base your doses on alkalinity like normal.

 

On 1/11/2023 at 8:29 PM, Gsepanik said:

I was wondering if using a dosing pump attached to a ph controller that would trigger the dosing pump to dose kalk until my ph reaches 8.3. Would this be an effective method to keep a ph of 8.3 24/7?

Yes.   But I wouldn't do it.

 

On 1/11/2023 at 8:29 PM, Gsepanik said:

What potential hazards or misunderstanding does this plan/system have that you can think of? 

The main thing is that it doesn't do anything helpful....just a way to dose plain kalk.  There's no advantage to keeping pH at a certain number.  But there are other ways to do the job of dosing a tank without the potential side effects of plain kalk.   Kalk+vinegar, 2-part dosing, 1-part dosing (which is kinda what kalk+vinegar is), etc.  All are better options.

 

 

[TheKleinReef]

I recommend reading these:

Low pH:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/

 

High pH:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/

 

I wouldn't chase a number blindly as you are ignoring other factors that can be detrimental to the health of the system.

 

There are a lot of threads, articles, and videos saying that high pH is the end all be all for increased coral calcification, but if you look at the history of amazing reef tanks not all run at the "gold standard 8.3-8.5". I remember seeing beautiful tanks that never hit 8.0 ever. Just keep the end goal in mind.