How to dose kalkwasser with dosing pump?

[Cantusaurus]

Hey, I’m done with my pH being low, and I’m turning to kalk.
I won a Kamoer X1 Pro Stepper Pump in a raffle, and i feel it’s perfect for kalk. You can adjust the rotation speed, and dose up to 24 times a day or do it continuously (not sure if it can be changed not to be continuous 24 hours a day).
My tank is only 30 gallons so I won’t have a dose a crazy amount.
does anyone have similar experience?
I also have a regular kamoer doser with all for reef. I’m going to turn the dosage of all for reef down to only .7 ml a day when using kalk.
Any advice is appreciated on using kalk and a dosing pump.

 

[Crustaceon]

You could just put a little bit of kalk in your auto top off water and see it that would be enough on it's own to help with PH. That way you could save the X1 as either a backup for your current Kamoer doser or as an unused upgrade if you plan to set up a larger tank with a calcium reactor. The simple solution tends to be the better one.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you know how much alk you were adding in dKH per day?

 

[Cantusaurus]

You could just put a little bit of kalk in your auto top off water and see it that would be enough on it's own to help with PH. That way you could save the X1 as either a backup for your current Kamoer doser or as an unused upgrade if you plan to set up a larger tank with a calcium reactor. The simple solution tends to be the better one.

Respectfully I’m not doing that. I am not chancing my ATO pump messing up earlier due to the kalk. I also never plan on using a calcium reactor, lol

 

[ReefSlice]

I just started doing the exact thing on my 40g, as I don't have a huge consumption and I can easily stabilize my parameters using kalk. I used a BRS 50 ml/minute doser on a timer and a saturated limewater reservoir (5g bucket for now). I dose 12x a day and my alk and calcium has been rock steady. I used this calculator with my daily consumption and just broke my daily dose into 12 doses https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html
I'll add more doses as my consumption increases. I'm only up to .3 dKh right now. A 5 gallon bucket lasts me well over a month.

 

[Cantusaurus]

Do you know how much alk you were adding in dKH per day?

I don’t know the exact number, but I was dosing 5 ml of all for reef each day.
I think my alk consumption was about .3 each day. Something around there, my pH never got super high so my consumption changed a bit.
I’m most likely going to start slow with the kalk and check a lot with my Hanna checker.

 

[Montiman]

I would first ask what you are doing for calcium and alkalinity at the moment. If you are using a 2 part supplement you may be able to convert the dose to Kalk and that will give you a starting dose.

If you are dosing from a container just make sure that you use saturated kalk and do not draw the sediment from the bottom. Your inlet should be slightly elevated from the bottom of the dosing container.

 

[Biologic]

You could just put a little bit of kalk in your auto top off water

Do not put kalkwasser in an ATO. Too many failure points.

Preface -- Figure out your evaporation rate, for example mine is 2000 mL per day. Make a saturated kalkwasser solution. This will partially handle your daily top off water.

1) Safety first -- Get a pH controller like a Milwaukee. Plug in the dosing pump into the controller. Set the controller to turn OFF the dosing pump off at 8.3. Place your probe in a high flow area in the sump or display. If there is a failure, from the dosing pump, the system will turn off at 8.3.

2) Set your Kamoer to dose 500 mL (my example) between 30 minutes after your lights turn OFF to 2 hour after your lights turn ON. Have the Kamoer split it up into equal doses.

3) Increase the dose by 20% daily. Monitor your alkalinity. It will begin to rise but you can cut back on kalkwasser until you feel comfortable.

I use my Neptune DOS to dose in kalkwasser very similar to this and produces rock steady alkalinity and pH. This is known as the "ACI Kalkwasser Method", though not necessarily new, it's popularized by Chris Meckley at ACI Aquaculture.

 

[Cantusaurus]

I just started doing the exact thing on my 40g, as I don't have a huge consumption and I can easily stabilize my parameters using kalk. I used a BRS 50 ml/minute doser on a timer and a saturated limewater reservoir (5g bucket for now). I dose 12x a day and my alk and calcium has been rock steady. I used this calculator with my daily consumption and just broke my daily dose into 12 doses https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html
I'll add more doses as my consumption increases. I'm only up to .3 dKh right now. A 5 gallon bucket lasts me well over a month.

I see. What’s your maintenance for the kalk solution in the bucket? I only have a 1 gallon container I’m using. But I’m fine with changing it to a bucket soon if it’s needed.

 

[Cantusaurus]

I would first ask what you are doing for calcium and alkalinity at the moment. If you are using a 2 part supplement you may be able to convert the dose to Kalk and that will give you a starting dose.

If you are dosing from a container just make sure that you use saturated kalk and do not draw the sediment from the bottom. Your inlet should be slightly elevated from the bottom of the dosing container.

Thanks! Yeah, I have the inlet elevated. I used all for reef previously (which unfortunately does not increase pH at all)

 

[ShoreReefer]

I see. What’s your maintenance for the kalk solution in the bucket? I only have a 1 gallon container I’m using. But I’m fine with changing it to a bucket soon if it’s needed.

Just make sure the lid has a good seal so there’s as little C02 that can enter the solution to lower the PH. I drilled a hole the size of the tubing without sealing it so there’s just enough air leakage fo displacement as the solution volume gets pumped and lessens

 

[doubleshot00]

You could just put a little bit of kalk in your auto top off water and see it that would be enough on it's own to help with PH. That way you could save the X1 as either a backup for your current Kamoer doser or as an unused upgrade if you plan to set up a larger tank with a calcium reactor. The simple solution tends to be the better one.

What i do. it’s probably the easiest way to dose.

Don't buy a crappy ATO. Tunze or nothing.

 

[Biologic]

What i do. it’s probably the easiest way to dose.

Don't buy a crappy ATO. Tunze or nothing.

My Tunze ATO pump died after a few months in saturated kalkwasser. Also my Tunze ATO float switch has also gotten stuck off, and suddenly turned on. You shouldn't do this. If you do use a Tunze ATO, you should use their ATO plus their Tunze 5074 Calcium Dispenser. I'd still use a pH controller for fall back safety.


A controlled doser with a set point limit per day with a pH controller is the only way to go.

 

[ReefSlice]

I see. What’s your maintenance for the kalk solution in the bucket? I only have a 1 gallon container I’m using. But I’m fine with changing it to a bucket soon if it’s needed.

Nothing at all besides refilling when necessary, that's why I love this method. As stated, you want to put a loose fitting lid on the container to minimize air exchange, and once mixed, allow to settle and then just dose the saturated limewater without mixing and keep the intake a few inches off the bottom of your reservoir to prevent dosing a kalk slurry.

 

[doubleshot00]

My Tunze ATO pump died after a few months in saturated kalkwasser. Also my Tunze ATO float switch has also gotten stuck off, and suddenly turned on. You shouldn't do this. If you do use a Tunze ATO, you should use their ATO plus their Tunze 5074 Calcium Dispenser. I'd still use a pH controller for fall back safety.


A controlled doser with a set point limit per day with a pH controller is the only way to go.

Yeah i may do that one day but i only dose 1.5 tablespoons per 5 gallons or RO

 

[Rmckoy]

I’d personally test daily and calculate the Alk consumption.
Add those numbers into a dining calculator ,
Choose the product you want to
Use and see how that works .
When first starting you don’t need a dosing pump .
fwiw I prefer dosing manually compared to relying on a dosing pump

here is a handy dosing calculator , choose the product , enter the desired and current amount as well as the product you wa t yo use and it will give you the exact volume of that product http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[Cantusaurus]

Nothing at all besides refilling when necessary, that's why I love this method. As stated, you want to put a loose fitting lid on the container to minimize air exchange, and once mixed, allow to settle and then just dose the saturated limewater without mixing and keep the intake a few inches off the bottom of your reservoir to prevent dosing a kalk slurry.

Nothing at all besides refilling when necessary, that's why I love this method. As stated, you want to put a loose fitting lid on the container to minimize air exchange, and once mixed, allow to settle and then just dose the saturated limewater without mixing and keep the intake a few inches off the bottom of your reservoir to prevent dosing a kalk slurry.

Thanks! Do you wait to refill it when it’s almost done? Or like half way? Also do you ever clean it out and start again? I hear over time the saturation will lower.

 

[Ef4life]

I don’t have a ph controller, and I use a kamoer x1 on my 10g tank to dose kalk.I mix up like 100oz rodi to a little more than a 1/4 teaspoon of kalk, so it’s far from saturated. But plenty for my tank currently as I only have a few small frags.

Method - for 2 weeks I daily topped off the water manually and recorded the amount, took the average. And pulled it back about 10-15%. That gave me my evaporation rate which is fairly consistent year round. Small manual top off or waterchange as needed. I use the kamoer to dose all of my daily evaporation water with the low kalk dose. 12 Evenly spaced doses all day long. While I still get a ph swing, the day time rides 8.3-4, night 8.2ish. So I’m happy. Eventually I’d like to get a ph controller and then do something similar to the aci style dose only at night, but I’d rather try to do something with the kamoer x1 pro or hydros than an apex. I would try the dose now only at night, but I feel the increased dose rate would spike the ph at night and I’m not going to do that without monitoring the ph.

 

[ReefSlice]

Thanks! Do you wait to refill it when it’s almost done? Or like half way? Also do you ever clean it out and start again? I hear over time the saturation will lower.

Not ever mixing or adding water after you dissolve in all your kalk is what keeps the solution at a stable kh, I just dose it until I'm almost at the intake of my doser, dump out the last 1/2 gallon or so, clean the bucket out and restart! Nice and easy, I've been loving it for a small tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don’t know the exact number, but I was dosing 5 ml of all for reef each day.
I think my alk consumption was about .3 each day. Something around there, my pH never got super high so my consumption changed a bit.
I’m most likely going to start slow with the kalk and check a lot with my Hanna checker.

All for Reef is about 25x more potent than saturated kakwasser, so you'd be looking to start at about 122 mL of kalk per day, and adjust from there as needed.