dosing Kalk

[Marinne13]

question is, should I dose Kalk on my 30G system with only LPS coral?? I noticed that my calcium will drop about 20ppm in a little over a week and I don't want to be raising the calcium that much in one day and in turn dropping my KH

right now my calcium is 420ppm and DKH is 8.0

I have researched kalk and know how it works, I do have an Tunze ATO but it is not on a timer and just goes off whenever the water evaporates

my only question is, do I need to have it on a timer or can I just let it do it's thing and start with a low Kalk does, like 1 tsp per my 5Gal ATO

 

[rrbigdog]

Would like to see others input. I just started dosing Kalk this week. I did a low dose in my ATO to try it out. So far keeping the pH at 8.2. I have my ATO on an Apex and my ATO runs about 3 mins every 4hrs using a TomTom lifter using some defer statements on both open/closed conditions. I did add a pH command if it got to high to stop ATO.

 

[Marinne13]

my tank only loses about a quarter gallon every day...my ATO turns on maybe once but not sure

 

[salt_for_brains]

I have used Kalk for years. My ATO is set up to pump when the sump level drops 1/8". Start off with the low dosage and gradually raise it until you hit your tanks sweet spot. I use 4 heaping teaspoons per 5gals and it has worked well for a really long time.

 

[Marinne13]

I guess my main question is, if I just let my Tunze ATO pump whenever the water level gets low will it be a problem

does the kalk need to be turned on at a specific time or only dosed once a day?

 

[RockStacker]

With kalk you do not want large doses at any single time because of the pH spike.
So it depends on how much your ATO is pumping into the system during a single run. 1/4 gallon of limewater would be too much as a single dose.

If your ATO intervals are sporadic, or if evaporation is not fast enough that your kalk dosing is not keeping up with the demand, then it might be better to set up a separate kalk doser on a timer that pumps smaller doses at regular intervals.
This way, your kalk dosing is not dictated by evaporation rate.

With a 30 gallon LPS tank though, I would think that a 5 gallon weekly change would be enough to replenish Ca/Alk/Mg and not worry about dosing. This is assuming the salt has at least 400 Ca and 8dKH Alk.

 

[Marinne13]

I use reef crystals

 

[salt_for_brains]

I guess my main question is, if I just let my Tunze ATO pump whenever the water level gets low will it be a problem

does the kalk need to be turned on at a specific time or only dosed once a day?

It hasn't been a problem for me but every system is different.

 

[Dowtish]

question is, should I dose Kalk on my 30G system with only LPS coral?? I noticed that my calcium will drop about 20ppm in a little over a week and I don't want to be raising the calcium that much in one day and in turn dropping my KH

right now my calcium is 420ppm and DKH is 8.0

I have researched kalk and know how it works, I do have an Tunze ATO but it is not on a timer and just goes off whenever the water evaporates

my only question is, do I need to have it on a timer or can I just let it do it's thing and start with a low Kalk does, like 1 tsp per my 5Gal ATO

Did you ever try this? I would start just as you were thinking. Go conservative and test and see how your parameters hold.