Help adding kalk reactor

[Jasontkd]

I am about to add a kalk reactor to my system but I need some help.

I have a 90 gallon SPS dominant mixed reef. I am currently running a Neptune doser with sodium bicarbonate and calcium
Chloride (both from BRS). I currently dose 48 ml of sodium bicarbonate and 38ml of calcium chloride daily. This keeps my ALK at 8.0-8.5 and calcium at 450+.

my pH is only at 7.9-8.0 so I want to add a kalk reactor to help with my pH and alk.

I am going to run a reactor using a dosing pump so I can be specific about how much I dose. But, I am having problems figuring out how much to dose and how much to back off my other dosing to get things balanced.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

If you are mixing up the BRS 2 part at the same strength as Randy's recipes, you can use an online calculator to compare how much of Randy's 2 part or saturated kalk is required to add a given amount of supplementation. That should give you the ratio between 2 part and kalkwasser.

See: Reef Chemistry Calculator

Dennis

 

[Jasontkd]

I am mixing the 2 part per the instructions on the package

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The limewater (kalkwasser) may not be saturated, so the calculation may overestimate its potency.

 

[BiggestE222]

I am about to add a kalk reactor to my system but I need some help.

I have a 90 gallon SPS dominant mixed reef. I am currently running a Neptune doser with sodium bicarbonate and calcium
Chloride (both from BRS). I currently dose 48 ml of sodium bicarbonate and 38ml of calcium chloride daily. This keeps my ALK at 8.0-8.5 and calcium at 450+.

my pH is only at 7.9-8.0 so I want to add a kalk reactor to help with my pH and alk.

I am going to run a reactor using a dosing pump so I can be specific about how much I dose. But, I am having problems figuring out how much to dose and the how much to back off my other dosing to get things balanced.

You could just dose the kalk without the reactor.

 

[dwest]

My experience is that 50 ml kalk from my stirrer provides the same alkalinity as 1 ml of BRS 2 part. If your evaporation is high enough, you should be able to add 2-2.5 liters of kalk per day to provide your tanks’ alkalinity and calcium needs.

However, if it were my tank, I would start at 0.5 L of kalk per day, and cut the 2 part by 10 ml per day. Then test every day and increase kalk (while decreasing 2 part) until you approach your evaporation limit or desired alkalinity.

 

[Jasontkd]

Thank you. That is very helpful.

 

[reefinnewb]

I'm going through the same thing right now. I have ~60 gallons of water volume. My evaporation is 2400mL a day which is 2.4L. It keeps my water level perfect and my ATO has not turned on at all in that time. I dose 100mL an hour over 24 hours. However, I've met the evaporation limit so I've been adding just 12mL of alk and calcium to keep it somewhat stable and in the 9dkH range. I'm using an Avast K1 Stirrer that I basically put together myself. Same Idea, my parts. I have that stirring for 5 minutes every hour. I have to get an EC probe so I can check saturation. Hope that info helps out.