Dosing Kalkwasser via ATO- how do you maintain your water levels/reservoir?

[paintman]

Ok quick question for those of us who do not have a controller. Seems to me this is impossible as there is no way of knowing when the ATO sensor is going to kick on the ATO pump. How would one use a kalk stirrer in line with the ATO?

It is my understanding that you do not want the stirrer mixing at the same time the ATO is pumping water to it. Idealy the ATO only runs when the stirrer is inactive this way your not pumping slury into the tank.

 

[Alchameth]

@paintman Depends on what kind you use. Ones that use a pump to really agitate the water you probably wouldn't want to use. The one like the Avast that has a low slow mixer you'd probably be fine with as most ATO's have a run time limit so the agitated slurry won't make it to the top to spillover.

Or you could buy one of those inexpensive timers for each device and alternate on times for the ATO and stirrer.

 

[dwest]

@paintman Depends on what kind you use. Ones that use a pump to really agitate the water you probably wouldn't want to use. The one like the Avast that has a low slow mixer you'd probably be fine with as most ATO's have a run time limit so the agitated slurry won't make it to the top to spillover.

Or you could buy one of those inexpensive timers for each device and alternate on times for the ATO and stirrer.

Agree. I dose my avast stirrer small amounts day and night. The stirrers do not allow the solids to be introduced to the tank. The stirrer moves very slowly and moves just enough to keep the kalk saturated or nearly there.

 

[Trever]

Just got my BRS kalk beginner kit. It comes with jugs and plunger dispensers, presumably to avoid stirring and bringing precipitate out when squirting out supernate, but I haven't read the directions yet.

It sounds to me like those who have big tanks with a ton of stony corals and/or are trying to maximize alk/calc with Kalkwasser before having to go to additional methods like calcium reactors or two part, the reactors make sense.

For my little tank (38 gallons total system volume), that could perhaps use a pH and alk nudge upwards (still have to measure calc before I start this), and a few nubbins of SPS, I (again) imagine I can simply dose the lowest possible concentration solution out of these BRS jugs using the included squirters into RODI water and then pour that water into my ATO reservoir and call it a day. Maybe put the pump in a glass in the reservoir, just in case. I imagine this will keep my tank for a long time to come, though perhaps not indefinitely, given that I've seen a number of online video tours of stony coral stuffed 40ish gallon jewels where dosing was required (apparently) to get to that amazing state of these tanks. For now, I'll dream...