How to dose kalk?

[Jaybeastin]

Depends on your coral load.. I dose well top off with fully saturated kalk and still dose 200ml daily of all for reef

Yeah I have a small load. I’m only dosing 14ml of AFR but 200 ml of AFR? How big is your tank lol

 

[Troylee]

Yeah I have a small load. I’m only dosing 14ml of AFR but 200 ml of AFR? How big is your tank lol

300 gallons packed with sps

 

[PPBlimpy]

I am just getting back into Kalk finally after my tank move. I was doing 2800ml daily into a 125 using a dosing head spread out 24hrs. mixed a gallon jug daily for it, used it the next day. mixed at half stregth.

This did 3/4 of my daily evap and my ATO took up the rest.

I don't like dosing Via ATO because my evap rates is greatly different between summer and winter months.

This time around I am setting up a 50G barrel, tired of mixing daily and dosing from it using apex DOS, new tank is 260G and have it programmed to dose more at night then during the day at a 1.5X ratio to try to level out PH. Haven't got it online yet but at least in my head it will work. Once I get it going I will test to see what my usage is and adjust accordingly. This 50G barrel will be mixed at saturation

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Nice ! Will it make a difference if I dose for example 20ml all at once every hour? Or it has to be a slow drip

nope- that will work just fine. I do 80ml every 2 hours. Coraline algae sure loves Kalkwasser and I feel like my acropora have sped up in growth. Cheap way to add Alk and Ca. I am not convinced you need a kalk stirrer. I dont use one and get great results.

 

[exnisstech]

I think I’m just going to get a versa single doser for kalk.

If you decide to dose kalk a brs 50ml a minute doser on a cheap digital timer worked perfect for the 6 years I used mine and is about 1/2 the cost of the versa. I was dosing 7200ml a day over 24hrs when I changed tanks.

 

[Sargeeq]

Hello everyone!

Now that I have more SPS in my tank, I want to try dosing Kalk again. The reason I stop dosing was because my tube line keeps getting clogged. I was using a drip system and it was and the drip was inconsistent. I do have a redsea doser

Kalk Stirrer. That way you're only running RODI water through your dosing pumps.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I’m not sure how everyone else does it, but I use a kalk stirrer and than I only auto dose at night. In the morning I try to dose slightly larger amounts to get a good ph boost when lights come on

 

[Pi-314]

I am confused how people are using timers on auto dosers and i must not be clear about how they operate. If an auto doser spreads a amount (entered by the user) across 24 hrs, what is the purpose of the timer? Unless, for example, you double the amount entered and use the timer across 12 hrs instead of 24.
I go low-tech to dose kalk and use a container with a float valve.

 

[KStatefan]

I am confused how people are using timers on auto dosers and i must not be clear about how they operate. If an auto doser spreads a amount (entered by the user) across 24 hrs, what is the purpose of the timer? Unless, for example, you double the amount entered and use the timer across 12 hrs instead of 24.
I go low-tech to dose kalk and use a container with a float valve.

Timer tells the doser when to run like your example of dosing kalk at night. My doser can be set automatically or manually enter each dosing period.

 

[PPBlimpy]

I am confused how people are using timers on auto dosers and i must not be clear about how they operate. If an auto doser spreads a amount (entered by the user) across 24 hrs, what is the purpose of the timer? Unless, for example, you double the amount entered and use the timer across 12 hrs instead of 24.
I go low-tech to dose kalk and use a container with a float valve.

Some dosers don't have timers built in, they run at a single speed when power is applied. Setting it on a timer of some sort for "X" amount of minutes at a flow rate of "Y" gets you the desired amount per doser and then set the timier when you want it to dose and how many times in 24hrs

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I use BRS dosers on timers for all sorts of things, such as automatic water change, AFR dosing, phyto dosing, and ammonium bicarbonate dosing.

I'm not a super fan of kalk stirrers. They often do not provide saturated kalkwasser. It's a tricky thing to get the clear water about the solids saturated without getting solids into the effluent. I prefer dosing from a settled kalk reservoir. I used that method for 20 years.