2 Part and Kalk?

[Kdoor]

I'm pretty new to dosing, I've been dosing Kalk in my ATO, my ALK keeps dropping pretty fast so I'm wanting to start using my DOS system for 2 part as well. I also wanted to see about getting my PH a bit higher as the ALK gets used up it fluctuates from 7.8 -> 7.6. Alk was swinging and from 7.4 dkH -> 6.7 over a couple of days.

So I was wondering can I run 2 part and Kalk or does 2 part do a pretty solid job of handling PH as well?

Some of the things I have that help PH a bit:
CO2 Scrubber
Large Reverse Cycle Refugium
Air Pump ( but it's close to the tank )

Oh also does anyone know if CO2 scrubber + outside air would help out more with PH? If so does anyone know of an air pump with an inlet? ( CO2 scrubber is hooked up to protein skimmer )

Thanks!

 

[sawdonkey]

I'm pretty new to dosing, I've been dosing Kalk in my ATO, my ALK keeps dropping pretty fast so I'm wanting to start using my DOS system for 2 part as well. I also wanted to see about getting my PH a bit higher as the ALK gets used up it fluctuates from 7.8 -> 7.6. Alk was swinging and from 7.4 dkH -> 6.7 over a couple of days.

So I was wondering can I run 2 part and Kalk or does 2 part do a pretty solid job of handling PH as well?

Some of the things I have that help PH a bit:
CO2 Scrubber
Large Reverse Cycle Refugium
Air Pump ( but it's close to the tank )

Oh also does anyone know if CO2 scrubber + outside air would help out more with PH? If so does anyone know of an air pump with an inlet? ( CO2 scrubber is hooked up to protein skimmer )

Thanks!

What do you mean by “as my alk gets used up?” Aren’t you replacing it with the Kalk through your ATO? Are you fully saturating your Kalk solution? If not, just make it stronger. Plus, it will help your PH.

For the PH, I’d try just running the line outside off of your skimmer and omit the scrubber. You might/probably don’t need both.

Just curious, what kind of and how much coral do you have eating up your alk?

 

[lafayettereefer]

Theres nothing wrong with using kalk and 2 part and I'm sure most of us dosing here are doing it that way. Just keep in mind as evaporation fluctuates throughout the year to make sure and adjust 2 part accordingly.

 

[Kdoor]

Hey so I tested my Alk dropped from 7.4 -> 6.7 over the course of two days.

I keep a good amount of LPS, Softies, and a few SPS frags ( trying to expand ). I thought my corals would not be consuming ( "Alk getting used up" ) so much Alk but after I added a few new LPS / SPS frags it seems to be quite a bit more. Awesome I just didn't know if there were any adverse effects of doing both.

I'll do a bit more research and bring the doser online. I also have a few empty spots on another dosing unit bought more dosers than I needed... so any suggestions for beneficial additives? Seems like most people don't dose Magnesium via dosers?

Thanks!

 

[novadan67]

I never had good luck putting kalk into my ATO - it was very hard to keep stable Alk. I ditched it and purely dosed 2 part and had really good results for quite a while (pH was usually around 7.9). When I set up my big tank I decided to try kalk again, but this time with a reactor so I could dose a fixed amount. So far it's been great. I dose about 1/2 of my evap rate through my kalk reactor and have an ato to make up the rest. I'm still dosing 2 part as a supplement to the kalk - just using it to dial in the kH that I want and my pH runs about 8.2 now (thanks to the kalk).

In my opinion a kalk reactor is the best way to dose kalk... and the ONLY way I'd do it personally.