All for reef and kalk

[Nor'easter Reefer]

I'm currently dosing all for reef. 81ml a day, in my 120g tank. I recently upgraded lights, and my tanks was already moving in a downward trend (its gone slowly down from 9.5 to 9 in a few weeks) so I was thinking once I get into the 8's I would slowly start adding kalk at night via a doser. My night time ph swings get down into the 7.85-7.9 range, and my highs never get above 8.15. I have already vented my skimmer outside but my basement sump setup seems to be an unavoidable culprit. So kalk. Anyone got any advice as I start this to avoid anything traumatic lol. I was either thinking cut back 20ml of all for reef and go a little heavier wjth the kalk, or just wait till I get a level I like and add kalk till it stabilizes. I worry the latter approach would be very passive and not improve ph much though. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The kalk (if saturated) is about 50x less potent than the AFR. It's a fine plan to drop the AFR by 1/50th of the kalk you add, then adjust one or both up or down to stabilize at the alkalinity you want.

 

[X-37B]

On my 150 running a carx I put kalk in place on a Kamoer doser at 2mlm which is about 3 liters a day.
At the same time I cut my carx effluent 50%, from 22mlm to 11mlm.
Tank did not skip a beat and night time ph increased from a low of 7.6 to 7.9. High ph went from 8.1- 8.2-3.
Growth picked up once ph was elevated to 7.9.

I will be running A4R and kalk on my new 112.

For your system reduce A4R and add the kalk 24/7. It will take a few days to come together just test often to keep in range.

Simple to adjust if alk falls increase kalk or A4R. Today alk is 7.6 and I'm running
3mlm kalk
12mlm carx

This works well on my current 150.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

The kalk (if saturated) is about 50x less potent than the AFR. It's a fine plan to drop the AFR by 1/50th of the kalk you add, then adjust one or both up or down to stabilize at the alkalinity you want.

So if I started with 500ml of kalk, i'd want to cut back my all for reef only 10ml? Jeesh, i'm gonna need a bigger storage container haha

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So if I started with 500ml of kalk, i'd want to cut back my all for reef only 10ml? Jeesh, i'm gonna need a bigger storage container haha

Yes. Kalk is quite weak in potency. That's a big drawback in many systems where there is not evaporation to use as much as some folks need.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

On my 150 running a carx I put kalk in place on a Kamoer doser at 2mlm which is about 3 liters a day.
At the same time I cut my carx effluent 50%, from 22mlm to 11mlm.
Tank did not skip a beat and night time ph increased from a low of 7.6 to 7.9. High ph went from 8.1- 8.2-3.
Growth picked up once ph was elevated to 7.9.

I will be running A4R and kalk on my new 112.

For your system reduce A4R and add the kalk 24/7. It will take a few days to come together just test often to keep in range.

Simple to adjust if alk falls increase kalk or A4R. Today alk is 7.6 and I'm running
3mlm kalk
12mlm carx

This works well on my current 150.

2mlm? Does it run all day long?

 

[X-37B]

2mlm? Does it run all day long?

Yes 24/7

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Yes. Kalk is quite weak in potency. That's a big drawback in many systems where there is not evaporation to use as much as some folks need.

I wont have that problem lol not for a while at least!

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Yes 24/7

Well then! I would have thought that'd be rough on the rigging, and you'd wear through tubing and heads pretty quickly. How long you been running it this way? I never thought of turning the doser on 24/7

 

[X-37B]

Well then! I would have thought that'd be rough on the rigging, and you'd wear through tubing and heads pretty quickly. How long you been running it this way? I never thought of turning the doser on 24/7

Same as my carx. The Kamoer runs 24/7. About 16 months since startup.
Tubes are easy to replace every 6 months. Have never replaced a head in 5+ years.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Same as my carx. The Kamoer runs 24/7. About 16 months since startup.
Tubes are easy to replace every 6 months.

Oh that makes more sense. I'm not super familiar with carx but those need a continuous duty doser anyway. I was just going to use a doser i had sitting on the shelf that isn't continuous duty or adjustable speed, so i'd have to do multiple doses throughout the day. I havent had a need for a fancy doser up until now!

 

[NanoSteam]

Same as my carx. The Kamoer runs 24/7. About 16 months since startup.
Tubes are easy to replace every 6 months. Have never replaced a head in 5+ years.

Are the tubes deteriorating? I ask because I have a Kamoer Persitaltic pump on the way to do just this and trying to gauge what to expect with wear. Thanks!

 

[exnisstech]

Well then! I would have thought that'd be rough on the rigging, and you'd wear through tubing and heads pretty quickly. How long you been running it this way? I never thought of turning the doser on 24/7

I dosed kalk with a brs 50ml minute pump on a digital timer 24/7 for several years with no issues but the tubing is larger than what's used on many of the programmable dosers. I dosed to maintain alk but didn't track pH.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

I dosed kalk with a brs 50ml minute pump on a digital timer 24/7 for several years with no issues but the tubing is larger than what's used on many of the programmable dosers. I dosed to maintain alk but didn't track pH.

Huh! I would've never guessed. I just realized if I wanted to offset half my all for reef i'll have to dose 2L a day so I may be forced to run 24/7 I have a jebao 4 head doser that I was going to try and play with. I just replaced it(was using it for my all for reef) with the hydros one(rebadged kamoer wifi one without wifi) so its not being used but worked well for about a year with my all for reef. Held things very stable

 

[exnisstech]

My old 180 ran for the last few years on just kalk. Not a lot of stoney coral so I was able to keep alk mid 8 dkH with just the kalk. I was dosing a bit over 7 liters a day which was just under my evap rate.

 

[X-37B]

Are the tubes deteriorating? I ask because I have a Kamoer Persitaltic pump on the way to do just this and trying to gauge what to expect with wear. Thanks!

They flatten out over time.
Get a few spares and change every 6 months.
I run 6 Kamoer X1's on 3 other systems for dosing 2 part.
Have not replaced a tube in over a year as they only run 2× a day at very low amounts.

 

[X-37B]

Another note:
All my Kamoers except 1 xtp were purchased used.

 

[NanoSteam]

Another note:
All my Kamoers except 1 xtp were purchased used.

I purchased this guy, a bit different but I'm assuming the internal tube are fairly universal at least I hope.

 

[X-37B]

I purchased this guy, a bit different but I'm assuming the internal tube are fairly universal at least I hope.

Not familiar with that one.
Is it continuous movement or programmable on/off?

 

[NanoSteam]

Not familiar with that one.
Is it continuous movement or programmable on/off?

Has option for both, rated for continuous but you can calibrate it and run at intervals by ML or time. It was well priced at $110 new so we'll see how it goes, I've had good results with Kamoer dosers over the years so hopefully it won't be a bad product.