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.
Nice! Sounds like you got a good rhythm. The pH controller for you mostly serves as a safety back up. I mean technically many people dose 2-part without a controller for years, I figure to just offer this as a PSA. Kalkwasser has had a bad reputation because people use it in a ATO with a float switch, of course it fails. The pH controller helps me sleep at night. I use an Apex so I get monitoring along with that.