New KW 300 Kalkwasser setup issue

[MISTERSTEMEN]

Hello friends,

I decided to start my Kalk dosing today. Of course I am now super stressed and writing about it here...

I dosed the KW 300 two little fishes container with 1/2 cup of Brightwell Kalk. I installed the reactor in my sump in the pump chamber and let it rip. The mix appeared to be rather rich at the top of the container and that solution did pour into the chamber. I assume that is not good and I am at risk of an overdose. About .25 gallons of RO water flowed through the device and the pump chamber was cloudy for about 20 min. I got scared and siphoned out a good amount of the cloudy water from the pump chamber and now the tank is slightly cloudy app over. Total system volume is 115 gallons. It has now been about 30 min and the main display is slightly cloudy and the sump looks pretty normal now. How long should I wait to do Alk and Ph water test? I am hoping that this is not that big of a deal but just want to have a plan to react since it looked to me like a far to rich solution was dosed. everything has settled in the reactor now so going forward this shouldn't happen again. None of the corals have reacted so that's good.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

pH can be measured now, but is likely ok because the precipitation (the cloudiness) lowers it.

You cannot reliably measure alk or calcium until the water clears, but it too is likely ok since precipitation lowers both.

So as to the tank, just wait it out.

I cannot comment on this specific device or how you are implementing it, but the outflow from a kalk reactor should generally be clear liquid with the solids lower in the reactor. Just guessing, maybe it is stirring too fast?

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I use a kalk stirrer, but I have an icecap version. It does look like they are similar. So I have my stirrer on a timer so it stirs a few times a day. I than have a doser that pulls water from my r/o to the stirrer. This allows me to
Dose the kalk as needed or you can set a schedule. Now as for your situation I don’t think you caused too much damage. You’re going to want to wait until everything settles, but pumping the saturated kalk from the chamber most likely saved things from getting too bad. I’ve had 1dkh swings with kalk overdoses before and had no issues.

 

[MISTERSTEMEN]

Thanks all, couple hours later water is clear and Ph and Alk are still fine. I am going to use a dose intead of my ATO pump. Im using the trade and true 3155 Tunze but it's definitely pumping too much for the KW300. I will just run the doser and see what happens for a week. It can't run too much and worst case the flow is too low which cant really harm anything just won't dose the amount I would like.

 

[RedneckAquaman]

You may want to double check your mix rate on the Brightwell Kalk. If you are using their Kalk+2 the directions are 1 tsp (6 grams) per gallon RO water. If your Kalk reactor uses 0.25 gallon saltwater (32 oz) that would be 1/4 tsp/32 oz.

If you added half a cup (4 oz) that is enough to make 24 gallons of RO water based upon the Brightwell Kalk+2 directions.

Brightwell Aquatics - Kalk+2

Generally speaking, there is a maximum amount of kalk that can saturate 1 gallon of water and any excess kalk precipitates out and often is wasted. Others can chime in but I believe it is generally a max of 2 tsp/gallon.
Just some things to consider regarding your mix rates.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If it is kalk plus 2, bear in mind that it supplies virtually zero magnesium. It has very little to begin with (less, by their own numbers than my standard bulk
Kalk) and what is there won’t dissolve into the kalkwasser since magnesium hydroxide is very insoluble.

 

[MISTERSTEMEN]

If it is kalk plus 2, bear in mind that it supplies virtually zero magnesium. It has very little to begin with (less, by their own numbers than my standard bulk
Kalk) and what is there won’t dissolve into the kalkwasser since magnesium hydroxide is very insoluble.

Yes you are correct. I followed the guidance on the two little fishes instructions and it called for 1/2 cup of Kalk powered for 7 gallons a week of dosing. which is what I estimated my evaporation rate at. I was hoping to run it for a couple of days and then just check Alk and Ph each morning in the dark to see what was happening.