Unstable Paramaters

[Mortaliton]

I’ll let my Kalk reactor run for a week with new mixing settings. If I exhaust in less than a week I’ll switch over to baking soda in a 5 gal res and test that then.

I appreciate all the info everyone. Got some more research and testing to do now. But that’s a couple more paths forward I didn’t know about previously.

Thanks all!

 

[jabberkaycee]

FWIW, I am also not a fan of kalkwasser reactors. They often do not produce saturated kalk, and if one actually wants less than saturated kalk, the exact amount dissolved is hard to control.

I think kalk delivered from a settled reservoir is a great way to go, and used that for 20 years, but one needs substantial space for them.

To clarify, are you adding kalk through your ato? Do you keep it mixed? I’ve never used kalk in my 20+ yrs but am considering it now. I just want to make sure I’m understanding you correctly. My tank is SPS dominant and I was considering it as a compliment to my 2 part dosing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

To clarify, are you adding kalk through your ato? Do you keep it mixed? I’ve never used kalk in my 20+ yrs but am considering it now. I just want to make sure I’m understanding you correctly. My tank is SPS dominant and I was considering it as a compliment to my 2 part dosing.

When I used kalk (20 years that my previous tank was running), I always delivered it by ATO from a settled reservour (Brute cans; most of that time was from 3 x 44 gallon Brute cans plumbed together to make a large kalk reservoir that was stirred to mix, then left unstirred for 1-2 months). it is BEST unstirred, as stirring just drives CO2 into it faster, depleting it.

I used a Reef Filler pump (no longer sold).

Using a dosing pump set just below the evaporation rate would give more control over the daily dose, and is likely a better practice, but I did not do that.

 

[Mortaliton]

I use a 20 gallon RV water res. It’s square and fits better under the stand. I make my own RODI water which this is attached to both my ATO and my Kalk reactor. The Kalk reactor is attached to a echotech versa that feeds it from the res.

I keep the ATO seperate from all dosing so if evaporation is to much. I can top off without force dosing other things.

 

[Mortaliton]

Quick update

After switching my Kalkwasser reactor from running. 5 minutes every 2 hours.

To… 15 minutes every 6 hours.

My dkh coming out of the reactor is still concentrated after a week at 14.6.

This was a significant improvement as before it was only 7.056

I just changed it again to 17 minutes every 8 hours. Definitely mixing it as reef octopus recommended was burning my Kalk out significantly faster by disturbing it every 2 hours.

Also for the heck of it . I got rid of the bio pellets for the moment. And turned it into a Chaeto reactor 4 days ago. Got some led grow lights and zip tied them around it and set it to 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Got very noticeable growth on day 4 after Chaeto got use to parameters

I had Chaeto previously in refugium section in sump. It would flourish, melt, flourish. But would always clog my protein skimmer. Since I have this reactor sponged and also feeding into filter sock I won’t have to worry about it.

If this goes very well I’ll get a bigger reactor for more Chaeto space.

For now I keep ceramic biofilter media in that section of sump for copepods and bacteria to live. Even without Chaeto copepods are crawling in sump everywhere.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, your kalk is very weak if that test is accurate. Saturated kalkwasser has a potency over 100 dKH.

Constant stirring only depletes the kalk if CO2 is entering somehow. Most kalk stirrers prevent that. Stirring alone does not hurt it.