Using auto doser for kalkwasser

[drillbitfocker]

My doser can only do minimum of 1ml per dose. No slow drip option available.

Can I do 1ml per hour everyday or manual slow drip is much better?

My goal is to maintain my pH. I'm also using afr.

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

I’m dosing 80 ml of fully saturated kalkwasser 12 times a day (960 ml / day) in addition to 2 part into my nano system to maintain alkalinity in the range of 8.0 to 9.0 and pH in the range of 8.0 to 8.2.

1 ml per hour everyday, you’re talking 24 ml / day of kalkwasser which isn’t going to do much for your alkalinity and pH. You’re going to need a doser which can do much more than that. I tried manual slow drip when I first started kalkwasser but found a doser to be much more accurate.

Curious, what doser do you have that can only do 1 ml per dose?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My doser can only do minimum of 1ml per dose. No slow drip option available.

Can I do 1ml per hour everyday or manual slow drip is much better?

My goal is to maintain my pH. I'm also using afr.

That will not do anything useful. You need to dose something greater than about a half percent of the tank volume daily (0.5 gallons in 100 gallon tank) to be useful.

 

[drillbitfocker]

That will not do anything useful. You need to dose something greater than about a half percent of the tank volume daily (0.5 gallons in 100 gallon tank) to be useful.

My tank is only 50 gallons. I did slow drip from the past and now I want to use auto doser. Now my doser can do 1ml minimum, 10ml maximum. Is it ok to dose 1ml per hour everyday instead of slow drip?

 

[drillbitfocker]

I’m dosing 80 ml of fully saturated kalkwasser 12 times a day (960 ml / day) in addition to 2 part into my nano system to maintain alkalinity in the range of 8.0 to 9.0 and pH in the range of 8.0 to 8.2.

1 ml per hour everyday, you’re talking 24 ml / day of kalkwasser which isn’t going to do much for your alkalinity and pH. You’re going to need a doser which can do much more than that. I tried manual slow drip when I first started kalkwasser but found a doser to be much more accurate.

Curious, what doser do you have that can only do 1 ml per dose?

1ml minimum.

 

[KStatefan]

My tank is only 50 gallons. I did slow drip from the past and now I want to use auto doser. Now my doser can do 1ml minimum, 10ml maximum. Is it ok to dose 1ml per hour everyday instead of slow drip?

Why only one ml per hour? 24 ml of kalk in 50 gallons is not going to be noticeable.

if 10 ml is the max dose can you do that every 15 minutes?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My tank is only 50 gallons. I did slow drip from the past and now I want to use auto doser. Now my doser can do 1ml minimum, 10ml maximum. Is it ok to dose 1ml per hour everyday instead of slow drip?

As I said, that is a wasted effort. You will detect zero pH or alkalinity or calcium effect. Way too little.

 

[drillbitfocker]

As I said, that is a wasted effort. You will detect zero pH or alkalinity or calcium effect. Way too little.

No, sorry. What I mean is if its ok to dose any amount of kalkwasser every minute or every hour and it'll be the same effect as a slow drip.

1-10ml every hour or every minute = slow drip?

Regardless of the amount, I just used minimum 1ml as reference because my autodoser doesnt have the slow drip option and mine can only do minimum of 1ml any time.

 

[Mebbid]

No, sorry. What I mean is if its ok to dose any amount of kalkwasser every minute or every hour and it'll be the same effect as a slow drip.

1-10ml every hour or every minute = slow drip?

Regardless of the amount, I just used minimum 1ml as reference because my autodoser doesnt have the slow drip option and mine can only do minimum of 1ml any time.

Sure, more frequent smaller doses would be better than less frequent larger doses.

 

[hardcorn77]

Is your ph low? Is dosing all for reef not keeping your alkalinity and calcium levels good?

 

[drillbitfocker]

Is your ph low? Is dosing all for reef not keeping your alkalinity and calcium levels good?

My alkalnity and calcium levels are good. I just want to use kalkwasser for maintaning pH.

 

[hardcorn77]

My alkalnity and calcium levels are good. I just want to use kalkwasser for maintaning pH.

I believe that Kalkwasser is going to raise your alkalinity and calcium too so watch out with dosing all for reef with it. I stopped testing ph 6 months ago when my Hanna took a poop on me and life has been good lol. I too dose all for reef plus some bio magnesium because my system loves eating magnesium.

 

[rishma]

No, sorry. What I mean is if its ok to dose any amount of kalkwasser every minute or every hour and it'll be the same effect as a slow drip.

1-10ml every hour or every minute = slow drip?

Regardless of the amount, I just used minimum 1ml as reference because my autodoser doesnt have the slow drip option and mine can only do minimum of 1ml any time.

I’m not completely sure I understand your question but I’ll make a few points. Hope this helps.

Kalk raise your alkalinity and calcium.

When used in sufficient amounts it will raise pH.

If you slowly dose 1000ml to a 50 gallon tank you’ll notice small increase in average pH a 24 hour period. It will raise your alkalinity by about 0.6 dKH and calcium by about 4ppm. Less than that will not have a noticeable pH impact in most tanks.

1ml per minute is a very slow drip. There are about 20 drops in 1 ml (estimate). So imagine a drip every 3 seconds. 1 ml in 10 minutes is an order of magnitude slower.

If the same total volume is dosed at a rate of 1ml in 1 minute and 1 mil in 10 minutes the difference in pH impact won’t be significant. From my own experiments dosing kalk at night, slightly faster dosing toward the end of the dark period results in a negligibly higher average tank pH over a 24 hour period, all other things being equal. It’s not enough of a difference to bother with.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No, sorry. What I mean is if its ok to dose any amount of kalkwasser every minute or every hour and it'll be the same effect as a slow drip.

1-10ml every hour or every minute = slow drip?

Regardless of the amount, I just used minimum 1ml as reference because my autodoser doesnt have the slow drip option and mine can only do minimum of 1ml any time.

The answer is yes, one can add kalk once per hour.